Heard of the Lesbian Herstory Archives? Here’s your chance to step inside. Housed in a Brooklyn brownstone inhabited by founder Joan Nestle, the Archives / the LHA is the planet’s only lesbian-centred archive. Set aside by its focus on all lesbian lives, as opposed to solely extraordinary or famous lesbian lives. In Megan Rossman’s heartwarming documentary, the scale of the project demonstrates the continuous acts of care behind its collection. We see sapphic elders transfer the knowledge of preserving, collecting, researching and archiving to the next generation of volunteers. We see, through snippets of the archive, the importance of these informal histories -- the love letters and diaries of normal lesbians, photo albums, personal ephemera, and the importance of recording life as we experience it. As well as this notable donations include the pulp novels of Mabel Hampton, work papers belonging to Audre Lorde, and the archive of original lesbian publication The Daughters of Bilitis.
The result is a rallying cry, a tribute to so many lives, and a thing as precious as those things held at the Lesbian Herstory Archives.
dir. Megan Rossman | USA | 2018 | 61min
Shorts before the feature:
INTRODUCING RACHEL | dir. Mickey Few | UK | 2019 | 7min
This protest history brings to life the direct actions carried out by Rachel, a 74 year old lesbian feminist.
FRAMING AGNES | dirs. Chase Joint & Kristen Schilt | USA | 2018 | 20min
The buried story of Agnes, who in the 1950s requested sex reassignment surgery, comes to life in this innovative hybrid short starring familiar trans men Max Valerio and Silas Howard.
ON THE LINE | dir. Tina Takemoto | USA | 2018 | 17min
An experimental musing on the lives of Japanese American women wo found same sex intimacy amid fish guts and sake, while men went to sea.
Presented in partnership with Queer History at Goldsmith's.