Log into the MC Portal with your username and password to watch these streaming videos. Videos are provided by the library's Academic Video Online and Films on Demand databases.
Gay USA (1977; 1 hour 11 minutes)
Arthur Bressan created a gay-America panorama when he commissioned filmmakers throughout the country to record all June 1977 Lesbian and Gay Pride parades and marches. He then cut on-the-street interviews - gay women and men talking about their lovers and how they came out - with the resulting footage, including lesbians marching against housework and drag queens protesting fascism. A revolutionary document.
After Stonewall: America's LGBT Movement (1999; 1 hour 26 minutes)
Narrated by Melissa Etheridge. In 1969 the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village, leading to three nights of rioting by the city's gay community. With this outpouring of courage and unity the Gay Liberation Movement had begun. After Stonewall, the sequel to Before Stonewall, chronicles the history of lesbian and gay life from the riots at Stonewall to the end of the century. It captures the hard work, struggles, tragic defeats and exciting victories experienced since them. It explores how AIDS literally changed the direction of the movement. The two films, Before & After, tell the remarkable tale of how homosexuals, a heretofore hidden and despised group, became a vibrant and integral part of America's family, and, indeed, the world community. Featuring Dorothy Allison, Michael Bronski, Rita Mae Brown, Barney Frank, Barbara Gittings, Arnie Kantrowitz, Larry Kramer, Craig Lucas, Armistead Maupin, Leslea Newman, Barbara Smith, and many more!
Nighthawks (1978; 1 hour 49 minutes)
Jim, a teacher in a comprehensive school, lives the classic double life: nights in the gay bars and discos, days in school – and in the closet. However, his worlds collide when he’s confronted by his students.
Making the Boys (2011; 1 hour 32 minutes)
Before Prop 8, Will and Grace, AIDS, gay pride, or Stonewall, there was The Boys in the Band. Crayton Robey’s film explores the enduring legacy of the first ever gay play and subsequent Hollywood movie to reach a mainstream audience successfully. Beloved by some for breaking new ground and condemned by others for reinforcing gay stereotypes, The Boys in the Band sparked heated controversy that endures to this day. Featuring interviews with its author Mart Crowley, surviving cast members, and a who’s who from stage and screen, this enjoyable documentary captures the behind-the-scenes drama and lasting legacy of this cultural milestone. With Edward Albee, Mart Crowley, Dominick Dunne, William Friedkin, Carson Kressley, Tony Kushner, Terrence McNally, Robert Wagner and more.
No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon (2012; 57 minutes)
Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon were partners in love and political struggle for over fifty years. With incisive interviews, rare archival images and warmhearted humor, No Secret Anymore reveals their inspiring public work, as well as their charming private relationship. It is a delightful way to meet these legendary lesbians, known as the founders of the modern lesbian civil rights movement. When they courageously launched the Daughters of Bilitis in 1955, it became the first public organization for lesbians in America. This documentary follows Martin and Lyon's story through half a century, tracing the emergence of lesbians from the fear of discovery to an expectation of equality.
Pay It No Mind: Marsha P. Johnson (2012; 55 minutes)
Marsha P. Johnson was a revolutionary trans activist, Stonewall instigator, Andy Warhol model, drag queen, prostitute, and Saint, as well as a downtown New York City fixture. From the 1960s through her too-soon demise in 1992, Johnson persevered through a life embodied by her middle initial P, which stood for "Pay It No Mind."
The library's Academic Video Online (AVON) database has a LGBT Studies Channel with over 600 videos you can watch. Log into the MC Portal with your username and password to access the channel.
Use the following library databases to find more streaming videos.
ProQuest's Alexander Street products are curated, discipline-focused, primary-source collections, websites, and streaming media for learning and research.
Films Media Group is the leading source of high-quality video and multimedia for academic, vocational and life-skills content. Films Media Group serves the education community through its four brands: Films for the Humanities and Sciences, Cambridge Educational, Meridian Education, and Shopware.
Collection focuses on both current and hard-to-find titles for educational instructional purposes, including literary adaptations, blockbusters, classics, Academy Award winners, and more.
Educators count on Cambridge to provide outstanding media resources that support the development of the whole student, both in and out of the classroom. Cambridge programs provide a practical, accurate, and reliable foundation of knowledge that helps students think through opportunities and choices and reach their potential at school, in work, and in life.
If you are a resident of Merced County, the Merced County Library provides Kanopy, a streaming video database. All you need to access it is a Merced County Library account.