Since launching the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project in 1998, Arden Eversmeyer has traveled the United States collecting more than 800 stories from lesbian women over the age of 70, told in their own words. She sees the project as an effort to collect these stories before they are forgotten, and an attempt to destigmatize and reclaim the words “old” and “lesbian.” This short documentary by American filmmaker Meghan McDonough examines Eversmeyer’s decades of work documenting these women’s experiences, weaving together interwoven fragments of their stories with vibrant animation.

From women who hid their true selves during unhappy marriages to men, to women who secretly entered into long-term same-sex partnerships to avoid the consequences of their openness, to a woman who first fell in love with the Statue of Liberty, each story has its own distinctive contours. But they often overlap in notable ways, including the interviewees’ understanding that they were different early on, the difficult experience of coming of age before homosexuality was widely accepted in the United States, and the joy of finally becoming comfortable with their identities.