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Impact Stories: California's LGBT History


  • Glenne McElhinney, Director/Producer

About the Project

Telling the stories of LGBT people who helped change our history. Using powerful voice, video and interactive displays that uncover the impact of LGBT activism in California from 1966 to 1981. First video project of Impact Stories is a film documentary On These Shoulders We Stand. The film portrays 10 elders of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender community in Los Angeles. They chronicle gay life from the 1950's into the early 1980's. The film brings to light Los Angeles' hidden gay history by interweaving first person accounts with narration and unprecedented access to seldom-seen archival materials. The city they live in, Los Angeles, is a city of contrasts. This documentary speaks directly to a tale of two cities: one a city with a large vibrant gay community, the other a city obsessed with keeping that community invisible, in the closet or in its jails.