Filmmakers document history, stories of iconic bar

As the city’s only lesbian and queer bar prepares to go dark tonight after 18 years, a pair of San Francisco filmmakers is helping ensure that memories of the Lexington Club live on.

Friends Susie Smith and Lauren Tabak have spent the past four months collecting dozens of photographs, old flyers and other bar mementos, conducting 40-plus interviews and capturing scenes from the last days of the Lex for The Lexington Club Archival Project. A short from Smith and Tabak’s documentary, “Never a Cover,” will air tonight during the Boomtown: Remaking San Francisco event of the 58th Annual San Francisco International Film Festival.

Smith and Tabak have poured a lot of their own money into the project so far and have launched a Kickstarter campaign in hopes of raising $20,000 to defray some expenses. Smith told Capp Street Crap the funding will pay “costs we’ve already incurred, as well as help fund us going forward – more interviews, and post production costs like editing, color correction, sound mix [and] music.”

To learn more about the project or donate, visit The Lexington Club Archival Project’s Kickstarter page.

[Video courtesy of The Lexington Club Archival Project]