Movies: The Celluloid Closet

Gays have little reason to celebrate, as the 1995 version of Vito Russo’s book shows

In 1995, a documentary about gays in movies debuted. The result, based upon a gay activist’s book of the same name, is The Celluloid Closet. The 102-minute film begins and ends with grainy film footage by Thomas Edison—the world’s first moviemaker—of two men dancing. The adaptation of the book, also a college-level course by its author, the late film historian Vito Russo, was funded by a variety of sources, including state subsidies, HBO and Hugh Hefner.