Saturday, June 02, 2012
OUT AND ABOUT
Today's gay film was the documentary
Twenty interviews with gay Americans.
There is no overstating the importance of this film on the lives of all gay people in this country.
It was shot for theater and then got broadcast on PBS. It has been restored now in this edition with interviews with the surviving members of the panel.
This is what this film did for me.
In 1977, I had been out a few years, I had met John and I had become active in the gay rights movement. But my footing was uncertain.
I was sort of connected to people most of whom were younger than I and engaged in the activities that I was involved with. John and I were not living together and our relationship was up and down. We had few models for how to proceed with our love, where it was going, how to live with it and each other.
Then this film showed up.
The individuals in this film were young and old. They just simply told about their lives. That was enough, in and of itself.
But they were encouraged to talk about their coming out, their lives since that event and what they saw for the future.
They talked about finding themselves and loving themselves as precusors to having relationships and being happy. They were, above all, themselves.
Something went through me. I saw it again. And again. These people, gay men and lesbians, had been relatively successful with their lives. They gave hope and confidence.
They also gave me a history. They had seen and had things happen to them that I would never see in my own life.
I watched the film about ten years ago and by that time I would have a story too. And now, the cycle has come around again.
My history counts for the next generation after me as they were templates for me.
There is a half hour re-interview with some of the principles on this disc. Wonderful.
This is a 5 out of Netflix5. I am so glad that I saw it again today.
