Any suggestions on a good documentary on GLBT issues or history?

[LeftyMom]

A student group I'm involved in is starting a regular documentary film viewing on campus dealing with current issues. Since we're in CA and Prop 8 is a huge issue a lot of us are really passionate about, we want to do something related to GLBT issues. We're at a bit of a loss about what to show- most of the ones I've seen relate to media depictions, because media criticism ties into my academic work, and we're looking more for something we can tie into the marriage issue and that will appeal to young people. Oh, and due to room availability issues, something that's roughly an hour long would be better than a longer film.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[nxylas]

1. The Celluloid Closet was interesting to me

I'm not gay, but I am interested in movie history. It is a history of the way LGBT people have been portrayed in movies through the ages. Personally, I found the first half, dealing with the era of the old Hays Code, more enjoyable, because I always like seeing people slip things past the censors. The latter half, after it becomes acceptable to portray homosexuality openly, was less fun for me (though if I was an LGBT person, I fully accept that I might see things differently).

[jonnyblitz]

3. I recommend that one too for the history of movies and the holly-

wood closet. If i remember that one was narrated by Lili tomlin. Her friend Vito Russo made the movie.

[nxylas]

6. That's right (about Tomlin narrating)

My favorite part was Gore Vidal explaining the gay subtext in Ben Hur, a movie adored by Fundies.

[LeftyMom]

4. Yeah, I have that one, but I think media criticism stuff is fairly arcane,

at least to a young audience who won't be familiar with most of the roles being discussed.

[jonnyblitz]

16. it's more a look at how gays were portrayed in the movies

and how they were treated as actors (kept closeted and forced to date starlets). it's not really media criticism. i think it would be perfect for a young audience to see how the gay was handled over a period of time and how things changed. BUT you know the crowd it's for better than I do so it's up to you.

[JackBeck]

9. First one that came to mind when i saw the OP.

[jonnyblitz]

2. before stonewall, after stonewall, two separate movies.

I could think of more maybe but i need to run errands or i would send you IMDB links! I will be back!!

[LeftyMom]

5. Thanks!

[bain_sidhe]

7. There was a "if these walls could talk" documentary

about a lesbian couple a few years ago... hang on...

Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_These_Walls_Could_Talk_2

Amazon.com link:
http://www.amazon.com/If-These-Walls-Could-Talk/dp/B00004U104/

Hope this helps!

[LeftyMom]

8. Thanks!

:)

[JackBeck]

10. "In The Life" is an hour-long news program shown monthly on PBS.

I was an intern there as a production assistant ages ago, but a DUer, Christian (I forget his full DU name), currently works there and may be able to get you a copy of an episode for educational purposes.

[David Zephyr]

11. "Latter Days". It's perfect for the age group, and timely for Prop 8 & the LDS Church.

This is a marvelous film that covers a lot of territory within a tale filled with hurt, betrayal, love and redemption. It is the little film that packs a powerful blow and can lift hearts that need to be lifted at times such as these.

With the criteria you gave, LeftyMom: My highest recommendation: "Latter Days". But be sure to have a box of kleenex handy. You'll need it.

[jonnyblitz]

14. it's not a documentary but a good movie like you said. nt

[David Zephyr]

21. Yes, you are correct. A recent documentary with Gore Vidal: Middlesex.

This is also very timely and tears apart many cultural misconceptions and notions.

[FreeState]

12. And the Band Played On (AIDS era must see/read IMO)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_the_Band_Played_On_(film)

In a prologue set in 1976, American epidemiologist Don Francis arrives in a village on the banks of the Ebola River in the Congo and discovers many of the residents and the doctor working with them have died from a mysterious illness later identified as Ebola hemorrhagic fever. It is his first exposure to such an epidemic, and the images of the dead he helps cremate will haunt him when he later becomes involved with HIV and AIDS research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 1981, Francis becomes aware of a growing number of deaths from unexplained sources among gay men in Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco, and is prompted to begin an in-depth investigation of the possible causes. Working with no money, limited space, and outdated equipment, he comes in contact with politicians and numerous members of the medical community—many of whom resent his involvement because of their personal agendas—and gay leaders, some of whom—like Bill Kraus—support him, while others express resentment at what they see as unwanted interference in their lifestyles, especially his attempts to close the local bathhouses. While Francis pursues his theory that AIDS is caused by a sexually transmitted virus on the model of feline leukemia, he finds his efforts are stonewalled by, among others, the CDC, which is loath to prove the disease is transmitted through blood, and competing French and American scientists, particularly Dr. Robert Gallo, who squabble about who should receive credit for discovering the virus. Meanwhile, the death toll climbs rapidly.

[JackBeck]

17. There's a reason why Gallo didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize this year.

Most activists and insiders http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.nobel07oct07,0,1325709.story">agree that Gallo was an opportunist

"And the Band Played On" has become somewhat anachronistic when applied to HIV/AIDS research. The history of the LGBT community shouldn't be limited to the dark period when gay men were vilified and scapegoated for a virus that had been around long before they caught it.

And the research promoted by Shilts in his book surrounding "Patient 0", the gay Canadian flight attendant attributed with the mass spreading of HIV, was rescinded by the original researcher 4 years after the fact. But we never hear about that, do we?

Ugh. Now's your chance to spank me and tell me to turn off 'work'. I'm still in workshop mode. I need a glass of wine.

[FreeState]

18. Turn off work LOL -

I think its still an important film/book - just like with any other film or media on GLBT history there are going to be things that bother us and things that over time are looked at differently or debunked (patient 0), but IMO that should not invalidate the whole production. There is still much history and truth in it that we must never forget.

[jonnyblitz]

19. Gaetan Dugas, alias Patient Zero.

I remember clearly the guy that played him in the movie with his French Canadian accent (and I havent seen it in awhile). "So you want to hear about all my beautiful loovaaaars" :D

[Duncan Grant]

13. Paragraph 175

By the 1920’s, Berlin had become known as a homosexual eden, where gay men and lesbians lived relatively open lives amidst an exciting subculture of artists and intellectuals. With the coming to power of the Nazis, all this changed. Between 1933 and 1945 100,000 men were arrested for homosexuality under Paragraph 175, the sodomy provision of the German penal code dating back to 1871. Some were imprisoned, others were sent to concentration camps. Of the latter, only about 4,000 survived. Today, fewer than ten of these men are known to be living. Five of them have now come forward to tell their stories for the first time in this powerful new film.

http://www.tellingpictures.com/films/5.html

It would be interesting to compare and contrast this documentary with contemporary events, imho.

[jonnyblitz]

15. I was just getting ready to suggest that one. nt

[Moloch]

20. The Life and Times of Harvey Milk

is pretty good.

Might be hard to find though, its pretty old.

[mondo joe]

22. I'd go for that, or The Celluloid Closet. NT

[QC]

23. You don't need a documentary. There's a thread in GD where a straight man

is lecturing us on our history and laying out the strategies we should follow.

It's quite illuminating.