The episode includes many shots of audience members reacting to the performances before them.
The “ Pilot” episode of In the Life features a series of live performances by LGBTQ singers, dancers and actors, all presented in front of a studio audience.
Cvetkovich notes that documentary filmmaking can be a particularly effective form of archiving, given the ability of documentaries to find “an unexpected range of materials that archive emotion and feeling.” 4 As an organized collection of images, sounds and stories now available to the public through the UCLA Film & Television Archive, In the Life helps to archive feelings alongside evidence of political actions, organizations and historical events.
Ann Cvetkovich argues that understanding LGBTQ history requires us to collect what she calls an “archive of feelings.” Cvetkovich says, “Lesbian and gay history demands a radical archive of emotion in order to document intimacy, sexuality, love, and activism – all areas of experience that are difficult to chronicle through the materials of a traditional archive.” 3 As a film/video documentary series that chronicled LGBTQ issues and current events from 1992 to 2012, In the Life was able to able to go beyond the evidence that might be available in a printed document, capturing moving images and sounds that offer a more nuanced account of LGBTQ life. Traditional archives are often filled with documents that provide evidence of LGBTQ people’s existence along with traces of their words and their actions, but such materials are less effective when it comes to capturing emotional experiences, which are a significant part of what makes queer life experiences unique. Open access to archives enriches our knowledge of human society, promotes democracy, protects citizens’ rights and enhances the quality of life.” 2 Archives are a valuable way to preserve the history of all segments of society, but given the efforts to silence and deny the experiences and stories of LGBTQ individuals over the years, the work of archives to collect, preserve and share documentation of queer history is absolutely crucial.
The declaration says that archives “play an essential role in the development of societies by safeguarding and contributing to individual and community memory. The value of such materials is highlighted in the “Universal Declaration on Archives” issued by the International Council on Archives and endorsed by UNESCO in 2011. One of the more important ways we learn about our individual and collective histories is “through the examination of material records of the past.” 1 Archives are an important way of preserving evidence of collective histories. His work has also appeared in The Journal of Popular Film and Television, Feminist Media Studies, The Journal of Homosexuality, and The Journal of Film and Video.Ĭoverage of Montana's first gay pride parade in Episode 404: “ Big Cities, Small Towns: Pride Edition”Īn individual’s identity and their understanding of their place in society is heavily influenced by knowledge of their own history and the history of any groups with which they are associated. He is the author of Turning the Page: Storytelling as Activism in Queer Film and Media (2018) and Look Closer: Suburban Narratives and American Values in Film and Television (2014).
David Coon is an Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of Washington Tacoma.