Vito looks at Russo's work in uniting gays and lesbians through several organizations that called for the reform of anti-gay laws and practices. But Russo was also on the frontlines of the gay rights movement, right from the early days of the Stonewall Inn riots and other community-based responses to police brutality towards homosexuals. Russo's traveling lecture and presentation was a life-changing event for many audience members, who found it liberating. Russo found extensive evidence that gays and lesbians cropped up in movies in all kinds of ways: as comic window dressing, as tragic and doomed figures, and as guilt-ridden and ashamed figures. Filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz's powerful and moving HBO-aired documentary tells the story of Vito Russo, a key leader in the gay rights movement of the 1970s and 80s, and the author of the seminal book The Celluloid Closet-a remarkable history of gay images and characters in film.
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