Though the first big-budget film about the 1969 Stonewall riots has finally reached theaters, it's becoming increasingly clear that Stonewall does no justice to Stonewall. No one's claiming you can get all of LGBT history from one film, of course, but if you did want a crash course in queer history on film — whether through fictional narrative, documentary form or mixed-genre — then there are a few films that can jump start your education.
1.
The Celluloid Closet
(1995)
If you want a movie to teach you about LGBT history, where better to start than a movie that teaches you about the history of LGBT people in film? Based on the book by Vito Russo and narrated by Grace & Frankie star Lily Tomlin, Closet came out a few years after queer activists were sick of being scapegoated as killers in films like Silence of the Lambs or Kennedy.
Closet laid bare a long history of antigay coded language and images in film, leading back to the earliest films in the '20s, when the stereotype of the sissy pervaded silent cinema.
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