Around the Curve

Isn’t it interesting when they start making documentaries about things you can still, quite vividly, remember? Like, as a nonrandom example, good old Curve magazine. Granted when it first launched as Deneuve in 1990 I wasn’t even aware I was gay, let alone that there was a magazine for gay women. In fact it wasn’t until after 1996, when it was forced to change its name by none other than Catherine Deneuve herself (which, let’s be honest, was homophobia because how dare the star of “The Hunger” have a magazine for lesbians named after her…but I digress) that I think I clocked Curve on store shelves.

Because, indeed, you had to go to the bookstore to buy Curve back then. I think, in the 2000s, I even had a subscription for a while. And I vividly remember it coming wrapped because maybe you didn’t want the mail carrier to know you read a magazine about them queers. How things change, and how so many keep fighting to make it that way again. While I cannot vouch for Curve as an outlet for high-quality journalism, I do admire its tenacity and determination to shine light on queer women and their interests. Does this documentary maybe upsell its cultural importance within the LGBTQ+ movement? Uh, possibly. Is it glowingly reverential to the magazine’s founder, Franco? Uh, also possibly. But it’s still an important document of our history, our media and our stories. And Meshell Ndegeocello – yes, that Meshell Ndegeocello – did the music for the film. Look, we sat through all six seasons of the original “The L Word,” so we can certainly be seated for the only documentary about the first U.S. magazine for lesbians and queer women. Time to Netflix and lesbian.