Telling Pictures

What "That's Entertainment" did for movie musicals, "The Celluloid Closet" does for Hollywood homosexuality, as this exuberant, eye-opening movie serves up a dazzling hundred-year history of the role of gay men and lesbians have had on the silver screen. Lily Tomlin narrates as Oscar-winning moviemaker Rob Epstein ("The Times of Harvey Milk" and "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt") and Jeffrey Friedman assemble fabulous footage from 120 films showing the changing face of cinema sexuality, from cruel stereotypes to covert love to the activist triumphs of the 1990s. Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Curtis, Harvey Fierstein and Gore Vidal are just a few of the many actors, writers and commentators who provide funny and insightful anecdotes.

A short film mostly comprised of two sources: research footage from 1988 about the beginnings of the HIV epidemic from the perspective of medical professionals, and an interview with Cleve Jones in 2003 as he looks back upon his activism, and the state of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the early 2000s.

With one of the most memorably stunning voices that has ever hit the airwaves, Linda Ronstadt burst onto the 1960s folk rock music scene in her early twenties.

Documentary on the sexual revolution in America.

Accomplished documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeff Friedman take a trip across the American South and Southwest, asking people about their hopes and fears.

This riotous concert film documents New York theater legend Taylor Mac's joyous, challenging, and ostentatiously queer 24-hour musical performance. Featuring virtuoso musicians, innovative costumes, and the American myth as told by sailor's ditties, disco, and sugary pop alike, Mac's cathartic celebration is not to be missed.

On January 22, 1993 at the historic Castro Theater in San Francisco, Lily Tomlin, Robin Williams, Harvey Fierstein, Marga Gomez, and Lypsinka performed a one-night only benefit for the making of the film The Celluloid Closet, both directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman.

The Oscar-winning filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman have become treasured musicologists, first with their loving biography LINDA RONSTADT: THE SOUND OF MY VOICE (2019) and then with TAYLOR MAC’S 24-DECADE HISTORY OF POPULAR MUSIC (2022). Now, they turn their cameras towards Cuba, profiling four students at the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory. Though it has long been the nation’s most prestigious music school in a music-crazy nation, the conservatory struggles to maintain instruments for their students.