LGBT History

In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City. Such raids were not unusual in the late 1960s, an era when homosexual sex was illegal in every state but Illinois. That night, however, the street erupted into violent protests and demonstrations that lasted for the next six days. The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement in the United States and around the world.

Pries open the closet door--setting free the dramatic story of the sometimes horrifying public and private existences experienced by gay and lesbian Americans since the 1920s. Revealing and often humorous, this widely acclaimed film relives the emotionally-charged sparking of today's gay rights movement, from the events that led to the fevered 1969 riots to many other milestones in the brave fight for acceptance.

After Stonewall, the sequel to Before Stonewall, chronicles the history of lesbian and gay life from the riots at Stonewall to the end of the century. It captures the hard work, struggles, tragic defeats and exciting victories experienced since them. It explores how AIDS literally changed the direction of the movement.

Explores the life and tragic death of Matthew Shepard, the gay student brutally murdered in Laramie, Wyoming in one of the most notorious hate crimes in U.S. history. Framed through the personal lens of friends and family, it's a story of loss, love, and courage in the face of unspeakable tragedy. This film has earned 10 Best Documentary and Audience Choice Awards from film festivals worldwide.

EMMY Award-winning Screaming Queens tells the little-known story of the first known act of collective, violent resistance to the social oppression of queer people in the United States - a 1966 riot in San Francisco's impoverished Tenderloin neighborhood, three years before the famous gay riot at New York's Stonewall Inn.

Alan Turing was a brilliant mathematician, logician and cryptographer. A Cambridge graduate who was fundamental to cracking the Nazi's Enigma Code during WWII, Turing created what is hailed by some as the first modern computer and was a legendary innovator in his field. He was also gay, and fell victim to the intolerance and legal prosecution of his time, as homosexuality was considered an extreme mental illness and subject to criminal sanctions in the UK. Turing was pursued legally based on his sexual orientation, and eventually ruined professionally, exiled from his colleagues, and forced to undergo chemical castration in an attempt to "cure" him. Posthumously, Turing is lauded; universities around the world have programs and buildings in his name, and, since 1966, the Turing Award has been given each year by the Association for Computing Machinery, widely considered to be the computing world's equivalent to the Nobel Prize.

his film is an unusually revealing portrait of one of the historic figures behind Nelson Mandela's long struggle for freedom in South Africa. In the early 60s, Mandela traveled incognito across South Africa, orgainizing armed rebellion against the apartheid regime. Driving a gleaming Austin Westminster, Mandela was disguised as the chauffeur for an elegant, impeccably dressed white man. That man was Cecil Williams - a leading Johannesburg theater director, a committed freedom fighter and a gay man. Starring Corin Redgrave, "The Man who Drove with Mandela," blends dramatized accounts of key incidents in William's life with archival footage, home movies and contemporary interviews to tell the story of the personal and political bravery of a forgotten hero.

In 1990, seven young male dancers - 6 gay, 1 straight - joined Madonna on her most controversial tour. On stage and in the iconic film Truth or Dare, they showed the world how to express yourself. Now, 25 years later, they reveal the truth about life during and after the tour, when they were ambassadors to the world on behalf of the LGBT community during the height of the AIDS epidemic. STRIKE A POSE is a dramatic tale about overcoming shame and finding the courage to be who you are.