This year’s International Women’s Day theme is being “Each for Equal”. It’s a chance to celebrate women’s achievements, raise awareness against bias and take action for equality. And the way we’ve chosen to do that tonight is through the lens of lesbian women’s history.

Joan Nestle is the co-founder of the Lesbian ‘Herstory’ Archives in the USA – the world’s largest collection of materials by, and about, lesbians and their communities. From humble beginnings in Joan’s Manhattan apartment, the collection has captured the stories and the characters that have shared their lives in the interests of retaining a history that would otherwise go unnoticed. And now that story has become a feature documentary at this year’s Melbourne Queer Film Festival, called The Archivettes.