Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema

The documentary follows, in chronological order, films made by, for and about gay and queer life in the United States from 1947 to 2005, from Kenneth Anger’s Fireworks to Brokeback Mountain. The critic and scholar B. Ruby Rich carries the spine of the narration, with an advancing timeline and clips from more than twenty films between. The sections are organised by period and by wave: experimental film, independent film, the visibility of sex on screen, outlaw characters, love between women, films about AIDS and dying, the arrival of romantic comedy, films with trans characters, work from different communities, documentary, and finally mainstream Hollywood drama. Lesli Klainberg and Lisa Ades directed. John Waters, Jane Lynch, Alan Cumming and Todd Haynes are among those on camera. It was broadcast on IFC on 16 July 2006.