MAY: Born this way

Through thrilling interviews, saucy backstage anecdotes and eloquent movie clips, “The Celluloid Closet” looks back on how LGBT characters were portrayed in mainstream Hollywood cinema, from screaming queens and evil masterminds to the countless inspired ways writers and directors camouflaged sexual innuendo, even in the darkest years of censorship. Based on Vito Russo’s popular book, the classic documentary by Oscar winners Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein reveals how Hollywood came out of the closet.

In a small seaside town in California on October 12, 2008, 14-year-old Brandon shot his schoolmate Larry twice in the head. Larry was a small boy who liked to dress in women’s clothes and was partial to make-up. Going above and beyond a simple news story, Marta Cunningham refuses to treat her characters like tabloid fodder. Digging into the two main characters’ pasts, she uncovers a network of racist beliefs and criminal prejudices as she tells the story of two kids in search of an identity.