As Frameline approaches its 50th anniversary, we are working to ensure the films we love can be seen by audiences for years to come. Frameline has commissioned or partnered on several archival restorations of canonical queer films, revealing crisp details and deeply saturated colors as they were intended to be seen.

Film preservation is more than just physical restoration, it is also the process of cultural preservation, of valuing LGBTQ+ history and recognizing the artistic contributions of queer filmmakers to the history of cinema. Frameline’s restorations are available for theatrical bookings and exhibition and can be watched on streaming platforms everywhere.

Directed by Lisa Cholodenko | 1998 | USA | 101 Minutes

Announcing the latest queer cinema treasure lovingly remastered as part of Frameline Restorations! Starring Ally Sheedy, Radha Mitchell, and Patricia Clarkson, Lisa Cholodenko’s stunning directorial debut High Art (1998) will screen in a brand new 4K digital restoration, co-funded by Frameline, twenty-six years after opening Frameline22. 

Ranked #18 on Autostraddle’s 2024 list of Best Lesbian Movies of All Time and made with a predominantly all-female crew, High Art signaled the last hurrah of a particular era of queer women’s cinema in the heyday of American independent cinema in the 1990s. A leaky ceiling becomes the catalyst for a flood of powerful, unexpected (and complicated) emotions for neighbors Syd (Radha Mitchell), a twenty-something associate editor at a popular photo magazine, and Lucy (a sensational Ally Sheedy), a once-celebrated Nan Goldin-esque photographer who retired from the art world years prior. A searing look at art, complacency, and addiction of all sorts, High Art is just as potent and striking as it was in the ’90s.

Digitally restored by the Academy Film Archive and UCLA Film & Television Archive in conjunction with Sundance Institute from the 35mm original picture negative and DA-88 tapes. Funding provided by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Frameline, Sundance Institute, UCLA Film & Television Archive. Laboratory services by Roundabout Entertainment, Inc., Red Hook Post, Monkeyland Audio. For booking inquiries, contact Strand Releasing at bookings@strandreleasing.com .

Directed by Rose Troche | 1994 | USA | 83 Minutes

In celebration of the film’s 30th anniversary — it was one of the two opening night films at Frameline18 back in 1994 — we can’t think of a better way to honor Rose Troche’s seminal lesbian classic Go Fish than by playing it for the fourth time at the Festival in a brand-new 4K restoration (which was co-funded by Frameline).

It takes a village (or at least the entire Chicago dyke community) to bring hip Max (queer icon Guinevere Turner, who co-wrote the film with Troche) and crunchy Eli (V.S. Brody) together. This includes college professor Kia (T. Wendy McMillan), who is seeing the semi-closeted divorcee Evy (Migdalia Melendez), and the promiscuous Daria (Anastasia Sharp), who is sleeping with practically everyone else.

Touching on everything from coming out to bisexuality to the responsibilities of queer filmmakers, the film is a fascinating snapshot of dyke culture at the peak of both lesbian chic and New Queer Cinema. Made on a practically nonexistent budget over a span of several years before making a big splash at Sundance, Go Fish still feels like a miracle all these years later. Don’t forget: “the girl is out there.”

Go Fish was digitally restored by the Academy Film Archive and UCLA Film & Television Archive in conjunction with Sundance Institute in 4K from the original 16mm A/B camera negatives and 35mm magnetic soundtrack. The restoration was funded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Amazon MGM Studios, Frameline, Sundance Institute, and UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Directed by Stephen Winter | 1996 | USA | 83 Minutes

Through a campaign of fabulous surprise attacks, an underground band of radical queer HIV+ activists, addicts, and drag queens take to the streets of New York City to combat conservative politicians and government apathy towards the AIDS crisis. A frenetic debut feature from writer/director Stephen Winter, Chocolate Babies unleashes a world of anarchic camp and unapologetic Black queer power in one of the hidden gems of New Queer Cinema, ripe for rediscovery and ready to be introduced to new audiences.

Following its festival run in the mid-1990s (playing at SXSW, the Berlinale, and Frameline21), Chocolate Babies struggled to secure major distribution due to its radically independent Black queer vision, but eventually found a home at Frameline Distribution who championed the film and continued to bring it to new audiences. Frameline proudly presents the world premiere of this pristine restoration in rich color and vivid detail like never before.

25th Anniversary 4K archival preservation completed in partnership with the UCLA Film & Television Archive, the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project, and with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation.

Directed by Sebastian | 1971 | USA | 33 Minutes

In the early ’70s, the world-famous Cockettes—including disco superstar Sylvester— orchestrated a decidedly queer, hysterically funny send-up of the televised wedding of First Daughter Tricia Nixon, anticipating the present-day practice of up-to-the-minute political satire.

Television correspondent Hurtme O. Hurtme covers the wedding and interviews celebrities in attendance such as Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Jacqueline Onassis, Queen Elizabeth, Elizabeth Taylor, and Coretta King. During the reception, Eartha Kitt puts LSD in the punch bowl and all hell breaks loose.

Revel in psychedelic debauchery as you’ve never seen it before with a new pristine 4K remaster of Tricia’s Wedding. Restoration commissioned by Frameline and the OutFest UCLA Legacy Project and facilitated by the UCLA Film & Television Archive for the 50th anniversary of this queer cinema landmark.

Directed by Arthur J. Bressan Jr. | 1977 | USA | 72 Minutes

Beautifully restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive from a 16mm internegative and a 35mm print, Gay USA is the first American feature-length documentary by and about LGBTQ+ people. Director Arthur J. Bressan Jr. (best known for his 1985 gay drama Buddies) mobilized camera crews across the country to document the national Gay Freedom Day marches in June of 1977. 

Gay USA conveys the passion, anger, and defiant optimism of a community under attack. In the month of June 1977 alone California’s anti-gay Briggs Initiative had just been announced, Anita Bryant’s vicious homophobia had helped repeal Miami’s gay rights ordinance, and a gay man named Robert Hillsborough had only days earlier been the victim of a fatal gay-bashing in San Francisco. Bressan weaves in audio of some of those homophobic voices and gives an overview of historical homophobia, including an account of gays and the Holocaust – and then illustrates the triumphant power of love and pride with a magnificent cross-section of footage from marches in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego, and Philadelphia.

Gay USA‘s nationwide release, after its August 1977 San Francisco premiere, brought images of out and proud LGBTQ+ people to cities across the country. Gay USA offers a vibrant and beautiful snapshot of an incredible year in LGBTQ+ history and conveys a powerful message of hope to contemporary viewers.

Preservation funding provided by The Andrew J. Kuehn Jr. Foundation, Frameline, and Outfest.

Directed by Jenni Olson | 1998 | USA | 6 Minutes

Through voiceover and static San Francisco landscapes, Jenni Olson’s classic 1997 experimental narrative short tells the melancholy story of a dyke pining over a one night stand with a straight girl.

Blue Diary world premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 1998. The 20th anniversary HD scan from the original elements is a huge improvement on the former SD version that’s been available online previously. Blue Diary was shot by noted experimental filmmaker and artist William E. Jones, cut by acclaimed San Francisco editor Dawn Logsdon, and the voiceover is performed by talented indie director Silas Howard (then known as Lynn Flipper). As the initial foray into 16mm urban landscape filmmaking by writer-director Jenni Olson, Blue Diary establishes many of the themes that Olson would explore further in her subsequent 16mm features, The Joy of Life and The Royal Road, and both films are also available through Frameline Distribution.

Directed by Arthur J. Bressan Jr. | 1985 | USA | 81 Minutes

Arthur J. Bressan Jr. (Gay USA) created this gay indie masterpiece in 1985, after more than a decade of making gay adult films. When 25-year-old yuppie David (David Schachter) volunteers to be a “buddy” to an AIDS patient, the community center assigns him to Robert (Geoff Edholm), a 32-year-old gay activist from California who has been abandoned by his friends and lovers. This devastating two-hander (the rest of the cast is heard only off-screen) unfolds within Robert’s Manhattan hospital room; as David gazes out at the piers and rooftops of Manhattan, we hear his deftly scripted diary entries in voiceover. And as David is changed by knowing Robert, so, too, are we. In the simplicity of the story and the elegance of its unfolding, Bressan and Buddies achieve a rare perfection. It’s a timeless portrayal of an entire era in gay history.

The first feature-length drama about AIDS, Buddies has long been unavailable. Frameline is proud to present the world premiere of this new 2K digital restoration created by Vinegar Syndrome; Frameline Distribution will also be handling the distribution of this important film. Frameline and the Shanti Project co-presented the film’s original world premiere on September 12, 1985, at the Castro Theatre, with Bressan and his cast in attendance. Five days later, on September 17, President Ronald Reagan finally uttered the word “AIDS” in public for the first time. Sadly, Bressan and Edholm both died of AIDS, in 1987 and 1989, respectively. David Schachter is alive and well in New York City. Buddies is provided by Frameline Distribution.