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View or download the Pioneers of Queer Cinema catalog (PDF).
Read an essay on the series by film critic, professor and author Ernest Hardy.
Historically, queer cinema and related moving images documenting the LGBTQ+ community have been tragically underseen and woefully under-cared for by mainstream society at large. In an effort to confront this existential threat head-on, the UCLA Film & Television Archive partnered with Outfest in 2005 to create the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project for LGBT Moving Image Preservation. Celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2020, the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project has made a priority of documenting, preserving and exhibiting LGBTQ+ moving images from an inspiring collection of over 40,000 holdings, now the largest publicly accessible collection of LGBTQ+ films in the world. Since 2010, these initiatives have been augmented by the dedication of the preservationists at IndieCollect and their development of a Queer Cinema Index, which has logged vital information on more than 12,000 LGBTQIA+ titles—creating an invaluable research compendium intended to drive preservation of these works.
Collectively, Outfest, IndieCollect and UCLA are committed to sharing LGBTQ+ moving images in order to bring diverse communities together to discuss differing, often radical explorations of sexual orientation and gender identity. From this shared vision, the Pioneers of Queer Cinema program was conceived. The organizers and supporters of this series hope to introduce and reacquaint audiences with landmark queer works and their makers, while inspiring new conversations and renewed action surrounding the complex obstacles LGBTQ+ communities continue to face.
The organizers are indebted to The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Andrew J. Kuehn Jr. Foundation for underwriting many aspects of this ambitious series.
This project would not be possible without Sandra Schulberg and her colleagues at IndieCollect, as well as key collaborators Christopher Racster and Damien S. Navarro of Outfest, Jan-Christopher Horak, and Jenni Olson.
Series notes composed collaboratively by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, Outfest, and IndieCollect staff and affiliates.
Special thanks to our community partner: UCLA LGBTQ Campus Resource Center
Funding has been provided by California Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
