UK – BBC (1995)
I was first introduced to Stonewall during a film marathon and bed picnic feast in the early days of a relationship. By the end I was in tears, and left with an overwhelming sense of pride and a refreshed knowledge of just how lucky I am today.
Winner of awards from a host of international film festivals, Stonewall tells the story of two drag queens, Matty Dean (Frederick Weller) and Li Miranda (Guillermo Díaz), fresh off the bus into New York city from the Midwest, in the months leading up to 1969′s Stonewall riots.
Matty finds himself drawn away from the effervescent but initially apolitical drag queens to the more strait-laced LGBT activists who are campaigning to be recognised as normal people. In 1969 it was illegal even to serve gay men a drink in New York, and it would be another four years before the American Psychiatric Association would remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. Matty heads to Fire Island, where being gay is apparently much more acceptable, but finds the police enforcing the same ridiculous and discriminatory rules there as back in New York.
As the film progresses we learn more about the sacrifices each character has to make just to get by; how they have had to fight for their own version of acceptance, from within the LGBT community and the outside world. The scenes in which the more conservative activists scorn the flamboyant drag queens have been reenacted every weekend in every gay bar ever since. But when a man in his forties is finally feels free enough to dance with another man for the first time you wonder who has the right approach – and it’s hard not to be moved.
The film culminates in the Stonewall Riots themselves, which spontaneously erupted following a police raid on the epnoymous gay bar in the week of Judy Garland’s death. It was most definitely the straw that broke the camel’s back and the riots lasted for three full days. In just a few short years after the riots LGBT groups had sprung up not just throughout America, but in the UK and beyond.
The beatings, police brutality, abuse and indoctrinated discrimination are tough viewing. But we should not forget that is how it was, and, indeed, that’s how it still is in some countries. That shouldn’t put you off. This film isn’t a call to arms: it’s a celebration of our history. Stonewall’s detractors argue the characters could never have afforded such a big apartment, that the wrong bus was used, and other trivia; but that really isn’t the point of this film. It’s an homage to those who fought for our rights.
If you manage to track this film down, it won’t come with the fanfare of a blockbuster. But it will leave you enriched and proud.
Throughout March, So So Gay will review its writers’ top LGBT films to support the build-up to the 25th BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. The Festival takes place between 31 March and 6 April. For more information, visit the official website and follow the BFI’s official Twitter feed @BFI
About the Author
Subscribe with iTunes
