Gay 90s.

Golden Threads * Written and directed by Lucy Winer * Produced by Lucy Winer and Karen Eaton * PBS's POV * Premiering June 8, 10 P.M. Eastern (check local listings)

There are late bloomers, and then there are late bloomers. Christine Burton said she didn't really begin life until she started Golden Threads, a social club and dating network for lesbians over 50. She was 80 at the time.

Burton at 90--ornery and articulate, with shiny blue eyes and dykey-cute short grey hair--is the subject of Lucy Winer's documentary Golden Threads, set to air on PBS in June. The film covers two of Burton's annual Provincetown, Mass., gatherings, where middle-aged and senior women can feel attractive away from the glare of callow youth. Burton started Golden Threads in anger after a lesbian friendship network turned down her application because she was over 50.

At the 1995 P-town retreat, Burton greets the oldest group member, 95-year-old Ruth Ellis, with a gleeful "You made me a baby dyke!" Interviewed a year later, Burton has been hobbled by a stroke, but although her speech is affected, she hasn't lost an ounce of chutzpah.

Too bad the film isn't as engaging as Burton was (she passed away last year). Winer inserts her own midlife crisis into the story, and although Emily Hubley's animation in these segments is charming, the filmmaker's struggle never touches an emotional chord. Winer also complains that Burton's stroke prevented her from fleshing out Burton's earlier life (which included a stay in a mental hospital), but that seems a lame excuse from a documentarian.