THE CELLULOID CLOSET (1995) | Dir: Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman | This is my last 30 Days of Queer Film post. The main reasons I started this were to honor the work of queer artists and our stories during the month of June and to re-connect to an industry that can sometimes be punishing and impenetrable. I hoped that remembering the impact certain films had made on me before and as I was becoming a filmmaker would soften some of the professional blows I’ve had in recent weeks. It worked. Not only that, it was so heartening to hear from people near and far who shared their own memories or an anecdote or piece of trivia or who said they'd never heard of the film before my post. That’s gratifying. I close this series with an informative, entertaining documentary about how queer characters have been depicted and evolved in cinema. Based in the book by Vito Russo, it was written by @armisteadmaupin and narrated by Lily Tomlin. Like these posts, it covers films before 2000. It’s essential viewing, a reminder of how far we have come. Today, on the last day of Pride, the Supreme Court reminded us how far we still have to go. Whether or not the fundamentalist Christians choose to believe it… we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.
