Lesbian Cinema: Coming Out in the Seventies

Tonight we pay tribute to groundbreaking films of the seventies that helped bring lesbian issues out of the closet and into the movie theater. The humor, pride, and vulnerability evidenced in these films are a telling reminder of the ground gained and lost in the last two decades. Their spirit and energy is due in part to their historical moment-post-sexual revolution but pre-backlash. A vocabulary was just developing to bring varied gay experience into public discourse. Now public institutions are once again silencing these voices. Jan Oxenberg's parody A Comedy In Six Unnatural Acts (1975, 26 mins, B&W) is a romp through lesbian cliches from a girl scout child molester to a seduction over photos of a camping trip. Home Movies (1972, 12 mins, Color) is a poignant reflection on coming out in the seventies and I'm Not One of 'Em (1974, 3 mins, B&W) is a tragic-comic sketch. Jan Oxenberg has worked as a stand-up comic, a fortune-cookie writer, and writer of short films for Saturday Night Live.

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