Born at the very beginning of the sixties, I grew up in an era of peace, love, and mid-day movies from the 'golden years' of Hollywood. These films were overwhelmingly dominated by glamourous and feisty females, who taught me everything I know about camp! By the mid-seventies I was hitting my stride, and my teens, just in time to savour the fruits of gay glasnost and the sexual revolution. As always however, mainstream cinema was still lagging way behind cultural developements. Homosexuals continued to search the screen in vain for that rare glimpse into their lives: usually only to see themselves reflected as doomed and desperate, or hopelessly girly. Then, with the eighties came the dreaded plague, and it looked like the fundamentalist gods were gonna rain on our parade. However, it may have been because the entertainment industry was so decimated by A.I.D.S., that it finally began to see the worth of gay subject matter. Serious queer films began to attract serious finance, and during the nineties, it seemed that every movie or T.V. show had to have it's quota of homo content. Although stereotypes still reigned supreme, by the naughties gay culture was once again throwing off it's shackles. A new confidence is showing itself through a veritable blossoming of queer cinema. Historically, homosexuals always cornered the creative fields , such as writing, directing, costumes, sets, make-up and music, etc. Now, more and more artists also feel free to lend their skills to films with gay subject matter. Even some of the actors are coming out of the closet and putting their names to a diverse range of quality films. Dollar for dollar I think that queer films now deliver a better product than any other genre. Bring 'em on!!