Franco Sacchi, Additional Animation and Effects My last name being Garvin, I'd be called Danny Gay-vin. Doric Wilson Every arrest and prosecution is a step in the education of the public to the solution of the problem. This was ours, here's where the Stonewall was, here's our Mecca. In an effort to avoid being anachronistic . Heather Gude, Archival Research Martha Shelley:The riot could have been buried, it could have been a few days in the local newspaper and that was that. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:There were no instructions except: put them out of business. This 1968 Film Put Drag Queens In The Spotlight Before Stonewall - HuffPost There are a lot of kids here. It was a leaflet that attacked the relationship of the police and the Mafia and the bars that we needed to see ended. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots. And today we're talking about Stonewall, which were both pretty anxious about so anxious. But as we were going up 6th Avenue, it kept growing. As president of the Mattachine Society in New York, I tried to negotiate with the police and the mayor. View in iTunes. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:But there were little, tiny pin holes in the plywood windows, I'll call them the windows but they were plywood, and we could look out from there and every time I went over and looked out through one of those pin holes where he did, we were shocked at how big the crowd had become. And the rest of your life will be a living hell. But it was a refuge, it was a temporary refuge from the street. Martin Boyce American Airlines We were scared. Vanessa Ezersky National Archives and Records Administration All rights reserved. Marjorie Duffield And then as you turned into the other room with the jukebox, those were the drag queens around the jukebox. Samual Murkofsky Chris Mara John O'Brien:Our goal was to hurt those police. Before Stonewall - Rotten Tomatoes We'll put new liquor in there, we'll put a new mirror up, we'll get a new jukebox." 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? Yvonne Ritter:It's like people who are, you know, black people who are used to being mistreated, and going to the back of the bus and I guess this was sort of our going to the back of the bus. John O'Brien:They went for the head wounds, it wasn't just the back wounds and the leg wounds. Martha Shelley "Don't fire. Newly restored for the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Before Stonewall pries open the . Frank Simon's documentary follows the drag contestants of 1967's Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant, capturing plenty of on- and offstage drama along the way. Absolutely, and many people who were not lucky, felt the cops. Raymond Castro:There were mesh garbage cans being lit up on fire and being thrown at the police. And we had no right to such. Fifty years ago, a gay bar in New York City called The Stonewall Inn was raided by police, and what followed were days of rebellion where protesters and police clashed. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:And then the next night. And I hadn't had enough sleep, so I was in a somewhat feverish state, and I thought, "We have to do something, we have to do something," and I thought, "We have to have a protest march of our own." It's very American to say, "You promised equality, you promised freedom." Stonewall Uprising | American Experience | PBS Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:Those of us that were the street kids we didn't think much about the past or the future. Homo, homo was big. Jerry Hoose:And we were going fast. Martin Boyce:It was thrilling. Before Stonewall was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival. And they were lucky that door was closed, they were very lucky. When we got dressed for that night, we had cocktails and we put the makeup on. Director . Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:There were complaints from people who objected to the wrongful behavior of some gays who would have sex on the street. Remember everything. Dana Gaiser Dick Leitsch:And so the cops came with these buses, like five buses, and they all were full of tactical police force. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of straight America, in terms of the middle class, was recoiling in horror from what was happening all around them at that time, in that summer and the summer before. It was a 100% profit, I mean they were stealing the liquor, then watering it down, and they charging twice as much as they charged one door away at the 55. They frequent their own clubs, and bars and coffee houses, where they can escape the disapproving eye of the society that they call straight. As kids, we played King Kong. Stonewall Uprising Program Transcript Slate: In 1969, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except Illinois. LGBTQ+ History Before Stonewall | Stacker Before Stonewall. And we all relaxed. In the trucks or around the trucks. A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. 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. Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. ", Martin Boyce:People in the neighborhood, the most unlikely people were starting to support it. [1] To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in 2019, the film was restored and re-released by First Run Features in June 2019. There was the Hippie movement, there was the Summer of Love, Martin Luther King, and all of these affected me terribly. Hugh Bush Charles Harris, Transcriptions Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. When police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City on June 28, 1969, the street erupted into violent protests that lasted for the next six days. Raymond Castro:So then I got pushed back in, into the Stonewall by these plain clothes cops and they would not let me out, they didn't let anybody out. A New York Police officer grabs a man by the hair as another officer clubs a. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We told this to our men. Even non-gay people. In the sexual area, in psychology, psychiatry. Jerry Hoose:And I got to the corner of Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street, crossed the street and there I had found Nirvana. Directors Greta Schiller Robert Rosenberg (co-director) Stars Rita Mae Brown Maua Adele Ajanaku And they started smashing their heads with clubs. If that didn't work, they would do things like aversive conditioning, you know, show you pornography and then give you an electric shock. John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. Mayor John Lindsay, like most mayors, wanted to get re-elected. W hen police raided a Greenwich Village gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, on June 28, 1969 50 years ago this month the harassment was routine for the time. Urban Stages You see these cops, like six or eight cops in drag. Jay Fialkov I went in there and they took bats and just busted that place up. Andrea Weiss is a documentary filmmaker and author with a Ph.D. in American History. Martin Boyce:Oh, Miss New Orleans, she wouldn't be stopped. ABCNEWS VideoSource A CBS news public opinion survey indicates that sentiment is against permitting homosexual relationships between consenting adults without legal punishment. Then during lunch, Ralph showed him some pornographic pictures. And the police were showing up. A person marching in a gay rights parade along New York's Fifth Avenue on July 7th, 1979. I mean, I came out in Central Park and other places. You know, we wanted to be part of the mainstream society. Almost anything you could name. But, that's when we knew, we were ourselves for the first time. Transcript of Re-Release: The Stonewall | Happy Scribe They are taught that no man is born homosexual and many psychiatrists now believe that homosexuality begins to form in the first three years of life. [00:00:55] Oh, my God. And I think it's both the alienation, also the oppression that people suffered. The music was great, cafes were good, you know, the coffee houses were good. This Restored Documentary Examines What LGBTQ Lives Were Like Before It was first released in 1984 with its American premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and its European premiere at the Berlinale, followed by a successful theatrical release in many countries and a national broadcast on PBS. The Underground Lounge Danny Garvin:We were talking about the revolution happening and we were walking up 7th Avenue and I was thinking it was either Black Panthers or the Young Lords were going to start it and we turned the corner from 7th Avenue onto Christopher Street and we saw the paddy wagon pull up there. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. 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. 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. Former U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with gay rights activist Frank Kameny after signing a memorandum on federal benefits and non-discrimination in the Oval Office on June 17, 2009. This is one thing that if you don't get caught by us, you'll be caught by yourself. Creating the First Visual History of Queer Life Before Stonewall Making a landmark documentary about LGBTQ Americans before 1969 meant digging through countless archives to find traces of. And as I'm looking around to see what's going on, police cars, different things happening, it's getting bigger by the minute. One was the 1845 statute that made it a crime in the state to masquerade. Prisoner (Archival):I realize that, but the thing is that for life I'll be wrecked by this record, see? Based on Doric Wilson:And I looked back and there were about 2,000 people behind us, and that's when I knew it had happened. Lester Senior Housing Community, Jewish Community Housing Corporation Nobody. John O'Brien:The election was in November of 1969 and this was the summer of 1969, this was June. Alexis Charizopolis With this outpouring of courage and unity the gay liberation movement had begun. And when you got a word, the word was homosexuality and you looked it up. Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! Geordie, Liam and Theo Gude Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. We don't know. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community Slate:Activity Group Therapy (1950), Columbia University Educational Films. And so we had to create these spaces, mostly in the trucks. [7] In 1987, the film won Emmy Awards for Best Historical/Cultural Program and Best Research. He said, "Okay, let's go." Amber Hall Raymond Castro:Society expected you to, you know, grow up, get married, have kids, which is what a lot of people did to satisfy their parents. Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries . Martha Shelley:In those days, what they would do, these psychiatrists, is they would try to talk you into being heterosexual. We went, "Oh my God. Leaflets in the 60s were like the internet, today. I have pondered this as "Before Stonewall," my first feature documentary, is back in cinemas after 35 years. On this episode, the fight for gay rights before Stonewall. The Laramie Project Cast at The Calhoun School Because one out of three of you will turn queer. Tom Caruso Eventually something was bound to blow. The cops would hide behind the walls of the urinals. Her most recent film, Bones of Contention, premiered in the 2016 Berlin International And the cops got that. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:It was getting worse and worse. Pennebaker courtesy of Pennebaker Hegedus Films It was a way to vent my anger at being repressed. Homosexuals do not want that, you might find some fringe character someplace who says that that's what he wants. Narrator (Archival):Note how Albert delicately pats his hair, and adjusts his collar. (158) 7.5 1 h 26 min 1985 13+. You throw into that, that the Stonewall was raided the previous Tuesday night. Quentin Heilbroner Before Stonewall streaming: where to watch online? - JustWatch Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:TheNew York TimesI guess printed a story, but it wasn't a major story.