The oldest known “out” African-American lesbian remembers ten colorful decades in this hour-long documentary, which won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the San Francisco International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in 1999. Born July 23, 1899, in Springfield, IL, Ruth Ellis spent most of her life in Detroit. A pioneering independent black businesswoman, she operated her own print shop until the age of 65. In the home she shared with Cecilene “Babe” Franklin, her partner of more than 30 years, she played host to innumerable gatherings of the city’s African-American gays and lesbians in an age when segregation excluded them from white homosexual society. A participant in the civil rights movement and a witness of the riots that tore Detroit apart in the 1960s, Ellis later became an icon for, and active participant in, the city’s multicultural lesbian and feminist community.

Cassy is a hot new indie film director with an inflated ego and an aggressive libido. When she hires Lauren, a smart and experienced theater director, as her assistant director, sparks fly. Although Lauren may not have an ounce of film experience, she knows how to tell a story – a skill her director hasn’t quite perfected. As the director and her A.D. find a creative balance together, both the film and the budding romance begin to show great potential.