Vito, a documentary about his life and work, was released in 2011. Vito Russo was also an activist beyond just his book. It's a must-see if you have a serious interest in this subject. It features interviews and commentary by people including Lily Tomlin, Tony Curtis, Whoopi Goldberg, Quentin Crisp, Armistead Maupin, Gore Vidal, Shirley MacLaine, Tom Hanks, Harvey Fierstein and others. In 1995, The Celluloid Closet itself became a movie in documentary form. Which was not too good because gays were invariably sick, demented, evil and unhappy, and usually died by the final reel. These portrayals told the general public who gay people are and how to feel about them - and worse, they told us who we are and how we should feel about ourselves. First published in 1981, Russo's The Celluloid Closet is an encyclopedic review of how LGBT people had been portrayed in movies up till then. Vito Russo wrote the definitive work on gays in motion pictures.
