THE ADVOCATE HITS BOTH BUTTONS AS IT TAKES A LOOK AT AFTER STONEWALL AND TEN MORE ESSENTIAL GAY VIDEOS

Stonewall 30

CAN IT BE THREE DECADES since that summer night in 11969 when gays and lesbians fought police in front of New York's Stonewall Inn? Yes, it can--and each year since, we've made history. It all comes home in After Stonewall, a new documentary that, with images like that of the first gay pride march, reminds us how far we've come, but this is no time to be complacent. The war the early gay liberationists fought goes on. In some cases the battles are, frustratingly, thhe same. And as the debate over next year's Millennium March proves, we're still waging as many battles within the community as outside it.

At the start of After Stonewall: From the Riots to the Millenium, a thoroughly '90s kid named Stan--actually, a character from cable TV's feisty cartoon South Park--enthuses, "It's OK to be gay. Being gay is just part of nature and a beautiful thing." It's a fairly safe bet that Stan isn't too familiar with the milestones and hard-fought battles during the past 30 years that have made his remarks permissible.

For members of the younger generation who are interested in a home-video course in gay liberation, After Stonewall provides a helpful--and fascinating--start. Narrated by Melissa Etheridge, the documentary, which premieres June 10 at the New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and airs June 23 on PBS (check local listings), chronicles the gay and lesbian experience since the 1969 riots, weaving a wide range of archival film, photographs, and music with reminiscences.

The long-awaited sequel to 1985's acclaimed Before Stonewall--which remains one of the most entertaining accounts of American gay and lesbian life during the first half of the 20th century--After Stonewall picks up our stories from the '70s to the present. After a brief recap of the bad old closet days, we see things begin to open up. We learn how the women's music festivals empowered the lives of...