After Stonewall is a documentary film which premiered in 1999. It is the story of the LGBT community in the US during three decades (1969-1999). It is a sequel to the film Before Stonewall which premiered in 1984.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Director: John Scagliotti
** Writers: John Scagliotti and Andrew Podell
** Narrator: Melissa Etheridge
** Language: English
** Subtitles: English
** Run time: 88 minutes
Several persons are interviewed in this film
Here are the names of the participants
Listed in alphabetical order
Dorothy Allison (born 1949)
Rita Mae Brown (born 1944)
Barney Frank (born 1940)
Barbara Gittings (1932-2007)
Jewelle Gomez (born 1948)
Harry Hay (1912-2002)
Larry Kramer (1935-2020)
Susan Moir
Sheila James Kuehl (born 1941)
Yolanda Whitaker (aka Yo-Yo) (born 1971)
Archive footage is used between the talking heads.
Archive footage is used to support and supplement the statements made by the talking heads.
Archive footage is used when the narrator is speaking.
During the three decades under review here, the LGBT community won some victories and suffered some setbacks. Here are a few examples:
Case # 1
In 1973, four years after the Stonewall Uprising, the American Psychiatric Association reversed an old decision. The APA issued a resolution which states that homosexuality is neither a mental illness nor a sickness.
The statement also pledged APA support for civil rights legislation which would offer homosexual citizens the same protections as other Americans have.
At that time, a majority of US states still had laws which made homosexual activities a crime and uncloseted homosexuals still risked losing their jobs and housing as a result of such laws.
Case # 2
Harvey Milk (born 1930) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Milk was elected in 1977. He served only eleven months, during which he sponsored a bill banning discrimination in public housing and employment on the basis of sexual orientation.
The supervisors passed the bill by a vote of 11 to one and it was signed into law by Mayor George Moscone.
On 27 November 1978, Harvey Milk and George Moscone were brutally assassinated by Dan White, a disgruntled former city supervisor who had cast the sole vote against Milk’s bill.
The election of Milk was seen as a victory for the LGBT community. The bill he sponsored was seen as a sign of progress.
The assassination of Milk was a shocking event which proved that it was still difficult and dangerous to be a gay man or a lesbian woman in the USA.
Case # 3
In the 1980s, a new problem appeared. A mysterious disease began to take its toll: HIV and AIDS. In the beginning, this disease seemed to affect only gay men.
According to some observers, mostly conservatives, this disease was a sign from God: these people were being punished by God for their sinful life.
Later, it became clear that HIV and AIDS could affect any person. Not only gay men.
Members of the LGBT community implored the authorities to take action, but the authorities took a long time to respond to this problem.
For several years, President Ronald Reagan would not even say the word AIDS. He mentioned this word for the first time in September 1985. His first speech about the disease was delivered to the College of Physicians in Philadelphia in 1987.
What do reviewers say about this film?
Here are some results:
75 percent = IMDb
76 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
100 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)
On Amazon there are at the moment more than 40 ratings of this product, including more than 20 with reviews.
The average rating is 4.5 stars, which corresponds to a rating of 90 percent.
The ratings are very good, as you can see. I understand to numerous positive reviews, and I agree with them.
The topic of this film is important. The story deserves to be told, and in this film, it is done very well.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
REFERENCES
# 1. Film and video
The Times of Harvey Milk
(1984)
Before Stonewall
(1984)
Milk
A historical drama
(2008)
Stonewall Uprising
(2010)
Stonewall
A historical drama
(2015)
The Pride of Stonewall
(2021)
# 2. Books
A Queer History of the United States
By Michael Bronski
(2011 = hardcover)
(2012 = paperback)
Gay Press, Gay Power: The growth of LGBT Community Newspapers in America
Edited by Tracy Baim
(With a foreword by John D’Emilio)
(2012)
Winning Marriage: The Inside Story of How Same-Sex Couples Took on the Politicians and Pundits – and Won
By Marc Solomon
(2014 = hardcover)
(2015 = paperback)
Real Queer America:
LGBT Stories from Red States
By Samantha Allen
(2019 = hardcover)
(2020 = paperback)
# 3. The following item is available online
Dave Isay
"Remembering Stonewall,"
99 % Invisible
Episode 218
28 June 2016
# 4. A link to Wikipedia
# 5. A link to the National Park Service
*****
The American politician
Harvey Milk
(1930-1978)
The first openly gay man to be elected
to public office in California,
as a member of the San Francisco
Board of Supervisors.
On 27 November 1978,
he was assassinated by Dan White.
Milk became an icon in San Francisco and
a martyr of the LGBT community.
In 2009, he was posthumously awarded
the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
*****
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