This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots. ", Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And he went to each man and said it by name. Dick Leitsch:So it was mostly goofing really, basically goofing on them. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We had maybe six people and by this time there were several thousand outside. Alexis Charizopolis Other images in this film are Susan Liberti John O'Brien Before Stonewall - Trailer BuskFilms 12.6K subscribers Subscribe 14K views 10 years ago Watch the full film here (UK & IRE only): http://buskfilms.com/films/before-sto. The events that took place in June 1969 have been described as the birth of the gay-rights movement, but that's only partially true. Naturally, you get careless, you fall for it, and the next thing you know, you have silver bracelets on both arms. Chris Mara Greg Shea, Legal Genre: Documentary, History, Drama. Dana Gaiser Judith Kuchar Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:What they did in the Stonewall that night. Ed Koch, mayorof New York City from1978 to 1989, discussesgay civil rights in New York in the 1960s. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The Stonewall pulled in everyone from every part of gay life. Where did you buy it? Over a short period of time, he will be unable to get sexually aroused to the pictures, and hopefully, he will be unable to get sexually aroused inside, in other settings as well. It's like, this is not right. Jay Fialkov William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The Stonewall riots came at a central point in history. Dick Leitsch:Mattachino in Italy were court jesters; the only people in the whole kingdom who could speak truth to the king because they did it with a smile. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:Saturday night there it was. We had been threatened bomb threats. TV Host (Archival):Ladies and gentlemen, the reason for using first names only forthese very, very charming contestants is that right now each one of them is breaking the law. The Underground Lounge David Carter, Author ofStonewall:Most raids by the New York City Police, because they were paid off by the mob, took place on a weeknight, they took place early in the evening, the place would not be crowded. TV Host (Archival):Are those your own eyelashes? John O'Brien:And deep down I believed because I was gay and couldn't speak out for my rights, was probably one of the reasons that I was so active in the Civil Rights Movement. Quentin Heilbroner Jerry Hoose:I was afraid it was over. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community is a 1984 American documentary film about the LGBT community prior to the 1969 Stonewall riots. And there was like this tension in the air and it just like built and built. New York City's Stonewall Inn is regarded by many as the site of gay and lesbian liberation since it was at this bar that drag queens fought back against police June 27-28, 1969. Martin Boyce:It was thrilling. Because to be gay represented to me either very, super effeminate men or older men who hung out in the upper movie theatres on 42nd Street or in the subway T-rooms, who'd be masturbating. That was scary, very scary. Then during lunch, Ralph showed him some pornographic pictures. Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. 1984 documentary film by Greta Schiller and Robert Rosenberg, "Berlinale 2016: Panorama Celebrates Teddy Award's 30th Anniversary and Announces First Titles in Programme", "Guest Post: What I Learned From Revisiting My 1984 Documentary 'Before Stonewall', "See the 25 New Additions to the National Film Registry, From Purple Rain to Clerks", "Complete National Film Registry Listing", "Before Stonewall - Independent Historical Film", Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (Newly Restored), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Before_Stonewall&oldid=1134540821, Documentary films about United States history, Historiography of LGBT in the United States, United States National Film Registry films, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 19 January 2023, at 05:30. The mayor of New York City, the police commissioner, were under pressure to clean up the streets of any kind of quote unquote "weirdness." Mike Wallace (Archival):Dr. Charles Socarides is a New York psychoanalyst at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. I was celebrating my birthday at the Stonewall. Because its all right in the Village, but the minute we cross 14th street, if there's only ten of us, God knows what's going to happen to us.". TV Host (Archival):And Sonia is that your own hair? The idea was to be there first. There's a little door that slides open with this power-hungry nut behind that, you see this much of your eyes, and he sees that much of your face, and then he decides whether you're going to get in. In 1969 the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village, leading to three nights of rioting by the city's gay community. Many of those activists have since died, but Marcus preserved their voices for his book, titled Making Gay History. Before Stonewall (1984) Movie Script | Subs like Script On June 28, 1969, New York City police raided a Greenwich Village gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, setting off a three-day riot that launched the modern American gay rights movement. And that's what it was, it was a war. And here they were lifting things up and fighting them and attacking them and beating them. "Daybreak Express" by D.A. Narrator (Archival):This is a nation of laws. Somehow being gay was the most terrible thing you could possibly be. I made friends that first day. Yvonne Ritter:I did try to get out of the bar and I thought that there might be a way out through one of the bathrooms. I actually thought, as all of them did, that we were going to be killed. John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. And it would take maybe a half hour to clear the place out. I never saw so many gay people dancing in my life. It was terrifying. Giles Kotcher Pennebaker courtesy of Pennebaker Hegedus Films It premiered at the 1984 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the United States on June 27, 1985. Interviewer (Archival):What type of laws are you after? People that were involved in it like me referred to it as "The First Run." It meant nothing to us. Well, little did he know that what was gonna to happen later on was to make history. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:As much as I don't like to say it, there's a place for violence. For those kisses. Alfredo del Rio, Archival Still and Motion Images Courtesy of We had no speakers planned for the rally in Central Park, where we had hoped to get to. It was the only time I was in a gladiatorial sport that I stood up in. It was an age of experimentation. You see these cops, like six or eight cops in drag. You cut one head off. Martha Babcock Based on Martha Shelley:I don't know if you remember the Joan Baez song, "It isn't nice to block the doorway, it isn't nice to go to jail, there're nicer ways to do it but the nice ways always fail." People standing on cars, standing on garbage cans, screaming, yelling. And if enough people broke through they would be killed and I would be killed. I would get in the back of the car and they would say, "We're going to go see faggots." I'm losing everything that I have. Raymond Castro:So finally when they started taking me out, arm in arm up to the paddy wagon, I jumped up and I put one foot on one side, one foot on the other and I sprung back, knocking the two arresting officers, knocking them to the ground. And there, we weren't allowed to be alone, the police would raid us still. The Chicago riots, the Human Be-in, the dope smoking, the hippies. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. And then there were all these priests ranting in church about certain places not to go, so you kind of knew where you could go by what you were told not to do. Not even us. All of the rules that I had grown up with, and that I had hated in my guts, other people were fighting against, and saying "No, it doesn't have to be this way.". Danny Garvin:With Waverly Street coming in there, West Fourth coming in there, Seventh Avenue coming in there, Christopher Street coming in there, there was no way to contain us. Narrator (Archival):Richard Enman, president of the Mattachine Society of Florida, whose goal is to legalize homosexuality between consenting adults, was a reluctant participant in tonight's program. I was wearing my mother's black and white cocktail dress that was empire-waisted. We were going to propose something that all groups could participate in and what we ended up producing was what's now known as the gay pride march. Liz Davis Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. Before Stonewall - Letterboxd Stonewall Forever is a documentary from NYC's LGBT Community Center directed by Ro Haber. In a spontaneous show of support and frustration, the citys gay community rioted for three nights in the streets, an event that is considered the birth of the modern Gay Rights Movement. Doric Wilson:And I looked back and there were about 2,000 people behind us, and that's when I knew it had happened. You were alone. Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. So I attempted suicide by cutting my wrists. Suzanne Poli Once it started, once that genie was out of the bottle, it was never going to go back in. The medical experimentation in Atascadero included administering, to gay people, a drug that simulated the experience of drowning; in other words, a pharmacological example of waterboarding. I guess they're deviates. And I raised my hand at one point and said, "Let's have a protest march." "BEFORE STONEWALL" - MetroFocus A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. Dick Leitsch:And the blocks were small enough that we could run around the block and come in behind them before they got to the next corner. And the Village has a lot of people with children and they were offended. But everybody knew it wasn't normal stuff and everyone was on edge and that was the worst part of it because you knew they were on edge and you knew that the first shot that was fired meant all the shots would be fired. Frank Kameny, co-founder of the Mattachine Society, and Shirley Willer, president of the Daughters of Bilitis, spoke to Marcus about being gay before the Stonewall riots happened and what motivated people who were involved in the movement. Fred Sargeant:The press did refer to it in very pejorative terms, as a night that the drag queens fought back. Revisiting 'Before Stonewall' Film for the 50th Anniversary | Time And so we had to create these spaces, mostly in the trucks. John DiGiacomo Eventually something was bound to blow. Dan Martino David Carter, Author ofStonewall:There was also vigilantism, people were using walkie-talkies to coordinate attacks on gay men. It was done in our little street talk. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). The scenes were photographed with telescopic lenses. Slate:The Homosexual(1967), CBS Reports. They would bang on the trucks. Eric Marcus, Recreation Still Photography I didn't think I could have been any prettier than that night. That this was normal stuff. I grew up in a very Catholic household and the conflict of issues of redemption, of is it possible that if you are this thing called homosexual, is it possible to be redeemed? It was a way to vent my anger at being repressed. And today we're talking about Stonewall, which were both pretty anxious about so anxious. I famously used the word "fag" in the lead sentence I said "the forces of faggotry." You know. Clever. Glenn Fukushima Maureen Jordan [7] In 1989, it won the Festival's Plate at the Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. The only faces you will see are those of the arresting officers. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:That night I'm in my office, I looked down the street, and I could see the Stonewall sign and I started to see some activity in front. Before Stonewall. What finally made sense to me was the first time I kissed a woman and I thought, "Oh, this is what it's about." Chris Mara, Production Assistants John O'Brien:I was with a group that we actually took a parking meter out of theground, three or four people, and we used it as a battering ram. 'Cause I really realized that I was being trained as a straight person, so I could really fool these people. I would wait until there was nobody left to be the girl and then I would be the girl. Before Stonewall | The New York Public Library Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:They started busting cans of tear gas. It's a history that people feel a huge sense of ownership over. and someone would say, "Well, they're still fighting the police, let's go," and they went in. The very idea of being out, it was ludicrous. They were to us. Before Stonewall (1984) - IMDb Corbis Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:Yes, entrapment did exist, particularly in the subway system, in the bathrooms. by David Carter, Associate Producer and Advisor Gay bars were to gay people what churches were to blacks in the South. Virginia Apuzzo:It was free but not quite free enough for us. One time, a bunch of us ran into somebody's car and locked the door and they smashed the windows in. Dick Leitsch:There were Black Panthers and there were anti-war people. And then they send them out in the street and of course they did make arrests, because you know, there's all these guys who cruise around looking for drag queens. And they started smashing their heads with clubs. J. Michael Grey A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a man during a confrontation in Greenwich Village after a Gay Power march in New York. Jorge Garcia-Spitz So anything that would set us off, we would go into action. And I just didn't understand that. And so there was this drag queen standing on the corner, so they go up and make a sexual offer and they'd get busted. The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. Things were being thrown against the plywood, we piled things up to try to buttress it. Narrator (Archival):We arrested homosexuals who committed their lewd acts in public places. But I'm wearing this police thing I'm thinking well if they break through I better take it off really quickly but they're gunna come this way and we're going to be backing up and -- who knows what'll happen. The newly restored 1984 documentary "Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community," re-released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the seminal Stonewall riots, remains a . The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." I really thought that, you know, we did it. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:The mob raised its hand and said "Oh, we'll volunteer," you know, "We'll set up some gay bars and serve over-priced, watered-down drinks to you guys." Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We were looking for secret exits and one of the policewomen was able to squirm through the window and they did find a way out.
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