Pride Month kickoff event in Palm Springs to feature rare LGBTQ home movies
Free assessment service and screening will showcase never-before-seen footage from local archives and Hollywood stars.
Three Palm Springs area organizations will present a Pride Month celebration featuring rare LGBTQ home movies and Hollywood footage on Sunday at the Palm Springs Cultural Center.
The LGBTQ+ History & Archives of the Desert, Deserted Films and the Palm Springs Cultural Center will offer a free home movie assessment service from 3 p.m. until 5:30 p.m., followed by a ticketed screening and reception.
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During the afternoon session, the public can bring their home movies to preservation experts who will assess the films and provide recommendations for storage and digitization. The service will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis in the Cultural Center lobby.
The evening screening from 6:30 p.m. until 8 p.m. will feature family-friendly footage rated for ages 13 and up, including rarely and never-before-seen LGBTQ+ clips from the organizations’ collections. Some footage comes from the recently digitized Melinda Tremaglio Collection, donated by Peter Kelly to the Archives’ permanent collection.
Tremaglio was a filmmaker, TV producer, event planner and political and women’s activist who worked in Los Angeles and the Coachella Valley.
The event will also screen historic LGBTQ+ works from the UCLA Library Film & Television Archive collection, featuring pieces by Pat Rocco that showcase Palm Springs and Los Angeles, and video artist Norman Yonemoto.
Additional footage will include home movies of Hollywood stars including Frank Sinatra, Charlie Chaplin, Norma Shearer, Gloria Swanson, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., David Niven, Edmund Goulding, Loretta Young and Clark Gable.
A reception will follow the screening from 8 p.m. until 9 p.m. Tickets for both the screening and reception cost $50 and include one drink ticket.
“These films are a glimpse into the lives of LGBTQ people with their friends, and families, on vacation, and in their homes, it is important to show that their lives are part of the bigger story of society,” said David Gray, co-founder and co-director of the Archives.
“We celebrate Pride month by presenting this event with our partners to tell our stories and build good will and to nurture empathy and compassion with the end goal of a more inclusive world and a realization that our lives are not all that different from each other.”
All events will take place at the Palm Springs Cultural Center, located at 2300 E Baristo Road, with free parking available. Proceeds will benefit the three participating organizations equally.
More information: Tickets are available through Eventbrite, and donations are accepted for those unable to attend.
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