LGBTQ Historic Places in L.A., complete short film

Run time: 18 minutes

The LGBTQ Historic Places in L.A. short films project spotlights three significant LGBTQ places and civil rights stories within Greater Los Angeles: The Black Cat (Silver Lake), The Woman’s Building (Chinatown), and Plummer Park, Great Hall/Long Hall (West Hollywood).

Our goal with this project is to recognize full stories about real people and the places that matter to them. The first three films represent snapshots of a much larger story about LGBTQ communities in Los Angeles. 

We are committed to expanding the series in the future to include new places and stories that are less well-known, particularly places associated with transgender communities, people of color, and the recent past.  

Do you know of a place that should be highlighted in this project? Tell us about it!

Segments:

The Black Cat (Silver Lake)

Run time: 8 minutes

The Woman's Building (Chinatown)

Run time: 7 minutes

Plummer Park, Great Hall/Long Hall (West Hollywood)

Run time: 6 minutes

About the Films

These films bring together a diversity of stories, perspectives, and experiences that reveal the layered historic and cultural importance of LGBTQ places throughout L.A. County. The films are the Conservancy’s latest addition to our Curating the City: LGBTQ Historic Places in L.A. microsite, launched in 2015.

Released in partnership with KCET, each of the three short films showcases a different location—The Black Cat in Silver Lake, The Woman’s Building in Chinatown, and Plummer Park, Great Hall/Long Hall in West Hollywood—and features on-site interviews with community members, as well as archival footage and ephemera. Each film tells part of a broad story about LGBTQ places, as well as their enduring value and increasing relevance today. 

The films were made possible through funding provided by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and produced by local media studio FORM follows FUNCTION.