“There wasn’t a glossy magazine for lesbians anywhere,” says Melissa Etheridge in a trailer for “Ahead of the Curve.” Featuring interviews with celebs and activists including Etheridge, Jewelle Gomez, and Denice Frohman, the award-winning documentary pays tribute to Curve magazine and explores lesbian visibility, legacy, and intersectionality.

The spot for the film revisits Curve’s unlikely origin story. “I just applied for a bunch of credit cards all on the same day. I just cashed them all in,” the mag’s founder, Franco Stevens, recalls. She used the money to bet on horse racing. “At the end of the day I had enough money to start the magazine,” she says. Curve was launched in 1990.

“It was very hard to be out and open in the late ’80s. We did not see ourselves represented in any positive, mainstream way,” we’re told. Curve gave lesbian women a platform, and readers the chance to see themselves represented. “Every time we put out a magazine it felt groundbreaking,” Stevens says.

Jen Rainin directed “Ahead of the Curve” with co-director Rivkah Beth Medow. The collaborators wrote a guest post for us about how COVID-19 changed their distribution plans for the doc.

“Ahead of the Curve” will be released at the IFC Center in New York May 28. The film will be available on VOD and DVD on June 1.