The video tape, Agora, focuses on the market place (as a microcosm of the larger society) seen through the eyes of a young, gay man suffering from both the neurosis described above, and the oppressive circumstances of small town life in the American Midwest. The tape opens with an idyllic representation of the Midwest and shifts into an expressive exploration of experiences within the narrow confines of a Midwestern moral code. The melodrama follows five main characters who find themselves together in a small motel; Crab, an agoraphobe, is employed as a clerk in the motel and lives at home with his family; Swallow, a recently escaped con and his lover, Jack; Katch, a woman dishonorably discharged from the military and her lover, Joy. The market place is a central focus for all the main charaters; as a place of potential employment, a site of crisis in representation, the public arena where the status quo is policed and, ultimately, a closed barrier whereby the “norm” is protected.

The life and work of the woman described as “The Rosa Parks of Gay Rights”. During the repressive 1950’s, Dr. Evelyn Hooker undertook ground breaking research that led to a radical discovery: homosexuals were not, by definition, “sick.” Dr. Hooker’s finding sent shock waves through the psychiatric community and culminated in a major victory for gay rights: in 1974 the weight of her studies, along with gay activism, forced the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from its official manual of mental disorders. Startling archival footage of the medical procedure used to “cure” homosexuality, images from the underground gay world of the McCarthy era, and home movies of literary icon Christopher Isherwood bring to life history which we must never forget.

The story of the late J. Edgar Hoover, who was head of the FBI from 1924-1972. The film follows Hoover from his racket-busting days through his reign under eight U.S. presidents.