March In April (1994)

Shot on video, this intimate view of 1993's gay-pride march on Washington, D.C., has a home-movie quality. March In April records big events through the eyes of Mark Montgomery — a rather ''straight'' gay man who's monogamous, professional, and afraid to come out to his dying mother. He also happens to be the lover of first-time film director-producer Stephen Kinsella, who alternately narrows and widens the focus: We meet Montgomery's family, his friends (including such semicelebrities as Addams Family Values screenwriter Paul Rudnick), and some national figures (among them Congressman Barney Frank and Tracy Thorne, the usually buttoned-up, controversial Navy lieutenant who, beer in hand, jokes that Colin Powell is about to come out). Along the way, March deftly treads on the larger issues of gays in the military, civil rights, life, death, and love. B+