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"AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: STONEWALL UPRISING "
If you look real hard you might see me and Bernie--well, not really,
though we were walking in the Village that night but not that area--we
heard about it the next day like so many other people did.
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Genre: Documentary, Special Interest
Synopsis: "It was the Rosa Parks moment,"
says one man. June 28, 1969: NYC police raid a Greenwich Village Mafia-run gay
bar, The Stonewall Inn. For the first time, patrons refuse to be led into paddy
wagons, setting off a 3-day riot that launches the Gay Rights Movement. Told by
Stonewall patrons, Village Voice reporters and the cop who led the raid,
STONEWALL UPRISING compellingly recalls the bad old days when psychoanalysts
equated homosexuality with mental illness and advised aversion therapy, and even
lobotomies; public service announcements warned youngsters against predatory
homosexuals; and police entrapment was rampant. A treasure-trove of archival
footage gives life to this all-too-recent reality, a time when Mike Wallace
announced on a 1966 CBS Reports: "The average homosexual, if there be such, is
promiscuous. He is not interested in, nor capable of, a lasting relationship
like that of a heterosexual marriage." At the height of this oppression, the
cops raid Stonewall, triggering nights of pandemonium with tear gas, billy clubs
and a small army of tactical police. The rest is history. -- (C) First Run
Features Less
Rated: Unrated
Running Time: 1 hr. 22 min.
In Theaters: Jun 16, 2010
Limited
On DVD: Mar 1, 2011
Distributor:First Run Features
Directed By: Kate Davis ,
David
Heilbroner
Written By: David Heilbroner
