Are movies your thing? Looking for a conversation about LGBTQ topics?

Join us for the LGBTQ monthly film discussion series! Each month we will discuss an LGBTQ film through the library's Kanopy collection. It's all about watching films, sharing stories, and having an honest conversation about the tough issues faced by the LGBTQ community.

This month we are watching:

The Last One: Unfolding the AIDS Memorial Quilt 

KANOPY LINK:  https://www.kanopy.com/en/phoenixpl/video/167021

THE LAST ONE presents an updated history of the AIDS epidemic in America through the story of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. The film traces how what at first was labeled a "gay disease" now disproportionately impacts the African American community, including women and youth. 

In the 1980s, as AIDS ravaged the gay community in the U.S., the AIDS Quilt was born as a tool to help promote understanding and treatment. Through the intensely personal stories of those involved with the Quilt, including founder Cleve Jones, The Last One examines how stigma, discrimination, and the lack of access to care exacerbated a disease that now infects over 1 million Americans, with nearly 50,000 new cases every year. The film follows the path of the Quilt on tour, visiting a variety of communities and people, including a high school where a young African American woman born with AIDS speaks out to fight stigma in her community. Through her story and others the film explores the issues fueling HIV infections among youth today. Now more than 50 miles long were it to be laid out end-to-end, the Quilt is displayed in communities and schools to promote AIDS awareness, with the hope that the last quilt panel will one day become a reality. 

This series allows us to explore complex topics. Due to adult content and mature themes, viewer and participant discretion is advised.

The program will be presented online using Webex. Registration is required. Registered participants will receive an email with instructions on how to join the meeting. Don't see the email? Check your spam folder.

Don’t have the Kanopy App? For instructions on how to set up a Kanopy account visit https://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/browse/elibrary/getting-started/kanopy

The Phoenix LGBTQ Employee Alliance has partnered with Burton Barr Central Library to produce a program featuring a series of award-winning films that showcases the experiences of the LGBTQ community. The series highlights the artistic contributions both nationally and internationally of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender films and filmmakers. Our goal is to create a diverse film series that educates, entertains, and offers the viewer an opportunity to experience the challenges and triumphs firsthand.