LGBTQIA+ Pride Collection at the NFSA

The National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) houses an abundant collection of LGBTQIA+ stories, celebrating its creatives, champions, crusaders and allies. 

Revisit news footage from the 1978 gay rights protests that ignited the annual Mardi Gras Parade. Tune into Gaywaves, Sydney's pioneering gay and lesbian radio show. Discover the groundbreaking short films of Stephen Cummins and see home movies offering a rare glimpse into gay and lesbian life in the 1960s.

Delve into the heyday of 1990s queer cinema and journey back to the taboo-shattering TV series of the '70s and '80s. Encounter documentary portraits of remarkable individuals and meet new online storytellers. Plus, there's more Mardi Gras to keep the celebration going.

Warning: this page contains names, images or voices of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The 1978 gay rights protests

The first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras was a bold demonstration that ended in police attacks and arrests. The winter 1978 protest campaign that followed helped change NSW legislation, laying the groundwork for the month-long, inclusive celebration that Mardi Gras is today.

Clip from NFSA Restores: Witches, Faggots, Dykes and Poofters (One in Seven Collective, produced by Digby Duncan, 1980). NFSA: 41124

The documentary Witches and Faggots, Dykes and Poofters (One in Seven Collective, produced by Digby Duncan, 1980) offers an account of the events surrounding the first Mardi Gras march in 1978 by 'the 78ers' (the original protesters), including their subsequent arrests. Restored by the NFSA in 2018, the documentary explores the transformation of derogatory terms into symbols of pride, providing crucial context through contemporary interviews with the 78ers and others fighting for equality.

See more of Witches and Faggots, Dykes and Poofters

News file footage of gay rights protests in Sydney. Eyewitness News, 15 July 1978. Courtesy: Ten Network. NFSA title: 616088

Watch edited file footage from Ten Network's Eyewitness News of a demonstration on 15 July 1978 – the largest gay rights march in Australia at the time. 

Diane Minnis, a co-chair of First Mardi Gras Inc., recalls the 1978 protest campaign as 'full-on, frenetic, with amazing camaraderie among a broad and committed group of people'. 

Read Diane Minnis' account of the unprecedented 1978 lesbian and gay rights protests

The folk-influenced women's group the Lavender Blues released the first Australian openly gay or lesbian album, Wake Up Sister, in 1978. Listen to the song 'Lavender Blues'

The album Lemons Alive (1983) by lesbian-feminist band Stray Dags reached No. 1 on the independent music chart. Listen to the single 'Self Attack'

1990s queer cinema

The 1990s saw a surge in local LGBTQIA+ stories on the big screen, with international successes offering a nuanced portrayal of contemporary Australia.

On the eve of his Hollywood breakthrough, Russell Crowe played a gay character on screen when it was still seen as potentially risky for an actor's career. See a clip of Russell Crowe in The Sum of Us (1994)

Before she made Head On (1998), Ana Kokkinos' first feature was about the complexities of teenage friendship and sexuality. See a clip from Only the Brave (1994)

New storytellers

Queer filmmakers and performers have thrived with short-form storytelling, reaching diverse audiences globally. 

Guest contributor Julie Kalceff reflects on creating the award-winning online series with a skeleton crew on a shoestring budget, focusing on lesbian protagonists who aren’t traumatised by their sexuality.

Read Julie Kalceff on creating Starting From Now

This short film features Tina Fielding as Sparkles, a woman with Down syndrome, who befriends an outback drag queen, Diamond.

Fielding also wrote the script, which was directed by Jacqueline Pelczar.

See an excerpt from Sparkles (2020) 

A web series combining queer sexual health education with a rom-com storyline.

When Saffie discovers she has herpes, she reaches out to Bek, the one-night stand who ghosted her and the only person she’s ever slept with.

See an excerpt from Me & Her(pes)

See a clip from the six-part dramedy web series created by Madeleine Dyer and Daniel Mulvihill and set in an under-resourced, regional sexual health clinic.

The short films of Stephen Cummins

Sydney filmmaker Stephen Cummins' haunting short films depict gay men in the 1980s and early 1990s. The NFSA digitised and restored nine of his shorts for Sydney WorldPride in 2023.

Excerpt from Resonance (Stephen Cummins, 1991). Courtesy: Estate of Stephen Cummins. NFSA: 558537

Resonance (1991) was made after Cummins experienced a homophobic attack, using dance and performance to show healing. It won Best Short Film at the Sydney Film Festival and screened at over 100 international festivals, including the Sundance, New York and Toronto Film Festivals. Resonance received a theatrical release in more than 10 countries and was one of the most successful Australian short films of the 1990s. 

See more clips from Resonance

Close up of two men standing side by side and looking intently into the camera.

Simon Hunt was a creative collaborator on Stephen Cummins' films – made between 1984 and 1995 – and worked with the NFSA on remastering them. 

According to Hunt, Cummins' films 'map the changing politics of representation of the human body during that decade'.

See clips from Cummins' films and read Simon Hunt's article about their impact on queer cinema

Portraits

Explore documentary excerpts highlighting the lives of remarkable individuals, including transgender teen Georgie Stone, photographer William Yang, Aussie cowboy Adam Sutton and former Catholic nun Monica Hingston.

Chrissy is the world’s first documentary to centre on the story of an HIV+ lesbian, breaking records as the most-watched SBS Independent documentary to date.

Filmmaker Jacqui North recalls making the film about her best friend, which also became a portrait of the last year of Chrissy’s life.

Read about the making of Chrissy and see clips from the film

In this powerful clip, acclaimed photographer William Yang recounts the life of his friend Allan and how AIDS eventually took his life.

The documentary Sadness is based on a theatrical performance developed by Yang and adapted into a film by Tony Ayres, with Yang as the central character.

See an excerpt from Sadness

This clip shows Monica Hingston, a former Catholic nun, describing her mother’s reaction to her coming out as a lesbian. 

Hingston wrote a letter to her second cousin, Cardinal George Pell, when he was Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, protesting the church's discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people.

See an excerpt from The Cardinal's Cousin

Adam Sutton, horse wrangler and rodeo rider, publicly came out to help counter negative gay stereotypes in rural communities. See an excerpt from Australian Story: Since Adam Was a Boy (1997)

Steven Oliver and Casey Donovan

Steven Oliver interviewed about the impact of COVID-19. NFSA Oral History Program. NFSA title: 1634410

Writer, actor and creator Steven Oliver, a descendant of the Kuku-Yalanji, Waanyi, Gangalidda, Woppaburra, Bundjalung and Biripi peoples, recorded an online interview with the NFSA in 2020, reflecting on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this clip, he talks about treating life as a song that we enjoy rather than trying to rush to the end.

Casey Donovan smiling to camera in black dress

Casey Donovan

Casey Donovan, a Gumbaynggir and Dungari actor, singer and presenter, was the youngest and first female winner of Australian Idol. Her stage credits include Women of Soul, The Sapphires, Flowerchildren, RENT, We Will Rock You, Chicago and 9 to 5.

Mama Alto – the jazz singer, cabaret artiste and gender transcendent diva – sings the Roberta Flack classic 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' on ABC Radio Hobart. Listen to a clip

TV taboos

Thanks to groundbreaking adult soaps like Number 96 and Prisoner – Australia led the way in representing queer characters on TV in the 1970s.

Maggie Kirkpatrick in her role as prison officer Joan Ferguson. She's standing in front of the prison bars, wearing her uniform and her trademark black leather gloves.

Prisoner

The addictive soap opera Prisoner debuted in 1979 and ran for nearly 700 episodes. Among the lesbian characters on the show was the notorious prison officer Joan 'The Freak' Ferguson (Maggie Kirkpatrick), who unofficially ruled Wentworth Detention Centre with an iron (leather-gloved) fist.

Explore our Prisoner collection

A man wearing a short with a wide collar looks down as a a woman's hands are undoing his shirt buttons

Number 96

Number 96 broke new ground in the 1970s by representing a gay couple and featuring a trans character played by a trans performer, a first on Australian TV. Lebanese-Australian actor Joe Hasham played arguably the world’s first regular, sympathetic gay TV character.

Read more about Number 96

The Box

Paul Karo won the Best Actor Logie in 1976 for playing gay producer Lee Whiteman on the popular adult TV soap The Box (1974–77). Set in a fictional Melbourne TV station, the show also featured Australian TV's first lesbian kiss. 

Read more about The Box

Heath Ledger as a young actor with another actor. They are both wearing cycling gear. Ledger's character has a bloody gash on his head.

Sweat

Nearly a decade before Brokeback Mountain (2005), Heath Ledger played a gay cyclist grappling with homophobia and coming out in Sweat (1996). Also starring Martin Henderson, Sweat was a drama series for young adults set in an Australian school for athletically-gifted teens.

See an excerpt from Sweat

More Mardi Gras

The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has evolved since the 1978 winter gay rights protests, continuing as a celebration of love, protest, diversity, activism, creativity and pride for LGBTQIA+ communities.

2018 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade. Joy 94.9. NFSA title: 1533182

This 2018 broadcast by Australia’s first and only LGBTQIA+ community radio station, JOY FM sets the tone for Mardi Gras and gives a shout out to community listening parties around the country in which those unable to attend the parade gather and listen in.

A brief Seven news clip about the 2019 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras shows Kylie Minogue walking along Oxford Street, surrounded by drag queens and parade-goers. In an interview snippet, Kylie says she’s excited to be back at Mardi Gras and to see how attitudes towards the event have changed. Watch a clip where Kylie talks to Molly Meldrum in 2006 about becoming a gay icon.