Yvonne Welbon brings her film on Ruth Ellis to Cornell Cinema

Cornell Cinema and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Resource Center welcome filmmaker Yvonne Welbon at a screening of her documentary "Living With Pride: Ruth Ellis @ 100." Welbon will introduce and discuss the film Feb. 23 at 7:15 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre. Admission is $4.50/$4 students and seniors.

Ruth Ellis, who until her death last fall was the oldest known "out" African American lesbian, is the subject of the documentary "Living With Pride: Ruth Ellis @ 100," which will be presented by filmmaker Yvonne Welbon Feb. 23 at 7:15 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre.

Welbon's lovingly crafted documentary brings together a portrait of one of the LGBT movement's "grandparents" and someone who lived for an entire century -- Ruth Ellis, a centenarian who, until her death last year, was the oldest known "out" African American lesbian.

A businesswoman, self-taught photographer and painter, and community activist, Ellis was an important figure for Detroit's alternative culture, and her home became a meeting place for African American lesbians and gays who were discriminated against in bars before the civil rights movement and before Stonewall. Interviews with Ellis, as well as her friends, neighbors and admirers, are interwoven with vignettes from her life performed by members of Real Read, an African American LGBT performance group from Chicago.

Welbon was inspired to make this funny, moving documentary after spotting Ellis at a women's music festival, dancing with what seemed like an unlimited supply of energy. Intrigued and compelled by this older woman, she later learned that Ellis, like herself, had lived her life as an "out" black lesbian.

Welbon's films and videos work to create a stronger media presence for African American women. Her award-winning films have been screened on cable and public television, at universities and community centers and in film and video festivals around the world. Her other films include "The Cinematic Jazz of Julie Dash" and "Remembering Wei Yi-fang, Remembering Myself."