Pioneers of Queer Cinema

A rich and multi-faceted celebration of the groundbreaking contribution to American cinema made by visionary queer artists, Pioneers of Queer Cinema resurrects some now little-known and under-seen queer films and moving images documenting the LGBTQ+ community, and puts them in conversation with a number of landmark works—the latter group ranging from Kenneth Anger’s delirious homoerotic dreamscape Fireworks (1947) to some of the audacious ’90s fare that made up the movement film scholar and historian B. Ruby Rich dubbed “New Queer Cinema” in 1992. Films that offer often radical explorations of sexual orientation and gender identity, brimming with heartache, humor, and lust.

Presented in partnership with UCLA Film & Television Archive