Hollywood
director helps save gay and lesbian films

Roland Emmerich, the gay director of Hollywood blockbusters The Day After Tomorrow, The Patriot, and Independence Day, has pledged $150,000 to help support gay and lesbian film preservation through Outfest, the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

The largest gift in Outfest's 24-year history, this is the lead donation toward the Legacy Project, a three-year, $1.5 million campaign supporting the festival's new LGBT film preservation collaboration with the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

"These images have saved countless lives and shaped the LGBT communities we know today," said Emmerich in an official statement. "As a filmmaker, I know how important it is to protect my work. The independent gay and lesbian films of the last 30 years have had no one to save, restore, and protect them until now."

Outfest and the UCLA Film and Television Archive have already collected over 3,300 LGBT films, including archive-quality 35-millimeter prints of modern gay classics like Desert Hearts (1985), Edge of Seventeen (1998), Wild Reeds (1994), and many others. (Advocate.com)