Film Series
Projecting Homosexuality:
Queer and Trans Visions from Cinema's First Decades
Screening June 4-25, 2025
Ticketing
$15 /General Admission
Series Programmer
Laura Horak, Professor of Film Studies at Carleton University and director of the Transgender Media Lab and Transgender Media Portal.
Buckle up for a wild ride through the forgotten corners of early cinema! “Projecting Homosexuality” is a groundbreaking film series that will blow your mind with rarely seen gems from the dawn of moviemaking.
Imagine stumbling into a secret world where gender-bending performers, radical social uprisings, and forbidden desires dance across the silver screen. From a beefcake muscleman posing in the world’s earliest films to lesbian love stories that challenged every social norm, these movies aren’t just history – they’re a time machine to a more subversive, surprising past that feels irresistibly modern.
This isn’t your grandparents’ dusty film archive – this is a revolution captured on celluloid. Spanning from the United States to Sweden, France, Germany, and Japan, these films will make you laugh, gasp, and see early 20th-century culture in a radically new light. Whether you’re a film buff, a queer history enthusiast, or just someone who loves discovering incredible stories that have been hidden for a century, this series promises an unforgettable journey. Get ready to peek through the keyhole of cinema’s most daring and delicious secrets.
- Program Dates: Wednesday evenings June 4, 11, 18 and 25
- Times: June 4, Reception 7:30, program starts at 8:00. The following 3 programs June 11, 18, and 25 begin at 6:00pm.
- Ticket Link: https://tickets.wrightwood659.org/events
Series Films
Select individual screenings below to learn more and buy tickets.
The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869-1939
Presented by Wrightwood 659, The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869–1939 is a groundbreaking exhibition of over 300 works by 125 artists from 40 countries that explores how the invention of the term “homosexual” transformed same-sex desire from an act into an identity—tracing the intertwined emergence of modern gay and trans identities through global art rarely seen together before.
