In this return to the early days of a movement that became a cinematic milestone, author and cultural critic B. Ruby Rich, in conversation with Dennis Lim, surveys the field as it was then: a rebellious mix of short films and videos mixing male tragedy with lesbian comedy. Rarely seen films and videos will be screened, including Jean Carlomusto's hilarious L Is For The Way You Look, Isaac Julien's elegiac This Is Not An AIDS Advertisement, and Sadie Benning’s Jollies, along with a piece of history that's a surprise. Asked repeatedly for the key to what caused the New Queer Cinema to emerge in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Rich has an answer: AIDS, Reagan, Sony's invention of the camcorder, and cheap rent. Considering those times, Rich will sign and read from her new book New Queer Cinema: The Director's Cut (Duke University Press) and discuss the good old bad days of experimentation, creativity, and mortality.