SynopsisThe life and times of gay rights activist Vito Russo, author of the seminal The Celluloid Closet.

Alongside iconic 1980s gay rights activist Larry Kramer was a lesser-known, though no less effective force – Vito Russo, instinctive queer, nice guy and headliner for the Aids direct action group ACT-UP. But before the tragedy of Reagan’s Aids denialism and the subsequent activism, Russo was a film nut, born in small town USA where on-screen heroes (and heroines) were his only escape. Keen too on spotting gay characters in his weekly fare, he began to see the pattern of hidden and tragic queers in mainstream films. Intrigue turned to fascination, then research, and so was born The Celluloid Closet, still the benchmark tome for gay representation in cinema. Schwarz’s film, part personal biography, part historical remembrance, is by turns joyful, funny, forceful and keenly intuitive – nailing the ethos, pathos and negligence of an epoch that saw an orgy of sexual liberation, the panic of Aids, disharmony of a community and its eventual unity. Russo is key to the unity and his life is elegantly laid out, commentary on his role coming from family, activists and notables, including cinema’s go-to queer, writer Bruce Vilanch. Essential cinema for new queers keen to know their history, and a broader reminder of the perils of political and social apathy.