Pioneers of Queer Cinema

March 3–May 3, 2023

Pioneers of Queer Cinema celebrates the groundbreaking achievements born from visionary queer filmmakers, ranging from landmark to little-known works.

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  • Paris Is Burning

  • Confessions

  • Watermelon Woman

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Upcoming Films

  • The Watermelon Woman

    Cheryl Dunye
    United States, 1996

    New Restoration
    BAMPFA Student Committee Pick

    • Friday, March 3 7 PM
    Introduced by Allegra Madsen

    A Black lesbian video store clerk and would-be filmmaker becomes obsessed with an early “race film” star in Dunye’s pioneering “funky screwball comedy in the key of queer” (B. Ruby Rich).

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  • My Hustler

    Andy Warhol, Chuck Wein
    United States, 1965
    • Saturday, March 4 7 PM

    Warhol’s brilliantly bitchy masterpiece of voyeurism, desire, and boredom on Fire Island. With shorts by Curt McDowell (Confessions), James Broughton (Testament), and José Rodriguez-Soltero (Jerovi).

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  • Parting Glances

    Bill Sherwood
    United States, 1986

    New Restoration
    BAMPFA Student Committee Pick

    • Sunday, March 19 7 PM

    Several friends and lovers navigate friendship and romance in this joyful, independent look at gay life and love. A snapshot of a funky, proud, defiantly gay 1986 New York City. With shorts by Jim Hubbard (Memento Mori) and Peggy Rajski (Trevor).

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  • Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives

    Mariposa Film Group
    United States, 1977

    New Restoration

    • Sunday, April 2 4:30 PM
    Members of the Mariposa Film Group in Person

    Perhaps the first feature-length documentary on gay and lesbian identity, this film features interviews with a diverse group of individuals, including poet Elsa Gidlow, activist Sally Gearhart, inventor John Burnside, civil rights leader Harry Hay, and filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky.

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  • Blackstar: Autobiography of a Close Friend

    Tom Joslin
    United States, 1977

    New Restoration

    • Thursday, April 13 7 PM
    Mimi (Kim) Klausner In Person

    Tom Joslin’s prequel to Silverlake Life: The View from Here is an experimental, “self-ethnographic” documentary on gay love. With Choosing Children (1984), one of the first documentaries to challenge the assumption that being a lesbian means you can’t be a mom.

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  • Hide and Seek

    Su Friedrich
    United States, 1996
    • Wednesday, April 19 7 PM
    Jenni Olson in Person

    “Hide and Seek is one of the most piquant memory films I know, at once roiling with the tenderness and cruelty of adolescence and marbled by the wisdom of age” (Scott Foundas). With shorts by Jan Oxenberg (Home Movie), Sadie Benning (If Every Girl Had a Diary), and Jenni Olson (Blue Diary).

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  • Paris Is Burning

    Jennie Livingston
    United States, 1990
    • Thursday, April 27 7 PM
    Jenni Olson and Susan Stryker in Conversation

    An influential documentary on New York City’s proudly queer and trans Black and Latinx Ballroom scene of the late 1980s. With shorts by Nikolai Ursin (Behind Every Good Man) and Pat Rocco (Changes).

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  • The Times of Harvey Milk

    Rob Epstein
    United States, 1984

    New Restoration

    • Sunday, April 30 5 PM
    Introduced by Jenni Olson

    Rob Epstein’s powerful record of the beloved San Francisco activist/politician Harvey Milk’s inspirational life and work, from his improbable, heroic rise to his horrific murder. With shorts by Barbara Hammer (I Was/I Am) and Arthur J. Bressan Jr. (Coming Out).

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  • Tongues Untied

    Marlon Riggs
    United States, 1989
    • Wednesday, May 3 7 PM

    Marlon Riggs’s riveting combination of interviews, performance, stock footage, autobiography, poetry, and dance reveals the revolutionary potential of Black men loving Black men. With shorts by Todd Haynes (Dottie Gets Spanked), Michael Wallin (Decodings), Kenneth Anger (Fireworks), and Mike Kuchar (Seascape).

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