These films changed queer representation forever. We spoke with their earliest champion

The start of the 1990s saw an explosion of gay and lesbian films that defied convention. “It marked a moment when filmmakers — at whatever risk — were willing to make films that would galvanize people’s attention to injustice and death,” Rich, 75, tells the Times over Zoom from Paris. “And that’s why they still have power.” Famously, Rich called it New Queer Cinema, a term that’s stuck. Those movies are to be celebrated in an upcoming series at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, “Full of Pleasure: The Beginnings of New Queer Cinema.” Guinevere Turner, left, and Cheryl Dunye in the 1996 romantic comedy “The Watermelon Woman.” The showcase, which kicks off June 15, will be screening titles such as Derek Jarman’s melancholy regal drama “Edward II,” Todd Haynes’ controversial feature debut “Poison” and Cheryl Dunye’s groundbreaking “The Watermelon Woman,” films and filmmakers that ushered in a pivotal juncture in independent cinema by and for the LGBTQ community. “If the films hadn’t been so important, and if the filmmakers hadn’t kept making work, and if they hadn’t been joined by other wonderful filmmakers, I think this would have faded away,” Rich adds.