The Stonewall riots of June 27-28, 1969 marked the beginning of the LGBT movement. These riots marked a very violent clash between New York City police officers, and the gay and trans party-goers at the infamous Stonewall Inn (a prominent gay bar). Members of the New York LGBT community clashed with police, starting the gay liberation movement that is still alive today. Protesters (many of the forerunners being PoC and transwomen) aimed for sexual orientation rights and liberties, free of persecution from the predominantly white and cishetero American society during the 1950’s and 60’s. More information on the riots can be read through Columbia University’s webpage and this PBS piece.
The Stonewall riots are one of the most important events in the history of the American LGBT movement. Many would assume that a movie adaptation of the events would bring more attention to the cause, and reach an audience not otherwise affected by LGBT concerns (i.e. the cishetero community). Many survivors of the riots should be ecstatic to see Sylvia Rivera, and Marsha P. Johnson, two very important transwomen of color who heavily advocated for LGBT and WoC rights throughout their lifetimes. Rivera and Johnson, alongside many men and women, risked their own lives to fight for their neglected rights as U.S. citizens (despite being gay, transgender, and/or PoC). Stonewall shows a diverse group of people (both cis and trans, white and PoC) uniting to fight for their rights and the LGBT movement. But that is not “Stonewall,” the film adaption set to be released on September 25, 2015 according to its IMDb page, the two most important figures of the riots (Rivera and Johnson), are not even the main focus of the films. Instead, Hollywood will revolve around Trevor (played by white cisgender Jonathan Rhys Meyers), and his fictional involvement in the riots. White men will portray transwomen characters (instead of actual transwomen PoC actresses?). While Rivera isn’t even mentioned in the list of characters on the IMDb page, at least Johnson is. Except Johnson, a transwoman of color, will be played by male actor Otoja Abit (at least he’s African-American, right?). I’ve gone through the IMDb list of actors/actresses to determine just how much artistic liberties Hollywood took. The first ten actor/character pairings are listed below; -Jonathan Rhys Meyes (white male actor) will play Trevor (assumed white male character) -Ron Perlman (white male actor) will play Ed Murphy (assumed white male character) -Joey King (white female actress) will play Phoebe (assumed white female character) -Jeremy Irvine (white male actor) will play Danny (assumed white male character) -Jonny Beauchamp (PoC male actor) will play Ray Castro (assumed PoC male character) -Caleb Landry Jones (white male actor) will play Orphan Annie (assumed White female character) -Matt Craven (white male actor) will play Deputy Seymour Pine (assumed white male character) -David Cubitt (white male actor) will play Coach Winters (assumed white male character) -Atticus Mitchell (white male actor) will play Matt (assumed white male character) -Mark Camacho (white male actor) will play Fat Tony (assumed white male character) Based on these actors/actresses and characters alone, the majority of the film is composed of white male actors and white male characters. Abit, who plays Johnson, barely made the top twenty characters list on IMDb. In addition, the director of the film Roland Emmerich, released a statement on his Facebook page explaining his decision to use a white cisgender male as the lead in the movie. The post can be read from his page, or here below where I’ve pasted it. “When I first learned about the Stonewall Riots through my work with the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, I was struck that the circumstances that lead to LGBT youth homelessness today are pretty much the same as they were 45 years ago. The courageous actions of everyone who fought against injustice in 1969 inspired me to tell a compelling, fictionalized drama of those days centering on homeless LGBT youth, specifically a young midwestern gay man who is kicked out of his home for his sexuality and comes to New York, befriending the people who are actively involved in the events leading up to the riots and the riots themselves. I understand that following the release of our trailer there have been initial concerns about how this character’s involvement is portrayed, but when this film - which is truly a labor of love for me - finally comes to theaters, audiences will see that it deeply honors the real-life activists who were there — including Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Ray Castro — and all the brave people who sparked the civil rights movement which continues to this day. We are all the same in our struggle for acceptance.” I find it strange that Emmerich says the film will honor the real-life heroes (a lot of whom were transgender), but fails to both incorporate these trans heroes, and cast transgender actors and actresses to play them. If Emmerich really wanted to honor them, he would actually include Rivera and Johnson as the leads, and have them played by transwomen of color. It’s 2015, this isn’t a radical idea. Why should you boycott this film? While it is good Hollywood has chosen to develop a movie around an event so vital to the LGBT community, the characters and actors/actresses chosen for the film completely undermine its message. I am not surprised by the complete erasure of the transmen and, more importantly, the transwomen who were so heavily involved in the riots. To make matter worse, the few transwomen who will be shown in the movie appear to be played by men instead of actual trans actresses (they’re out there!). AND there are very few PoC characters, which is not true of the actual Stonewall riots at all. I don’t expect Hollywood to make a movie with 100% historical accuracy, but this interpretation of the riots is entirely unacceptable. It erases the very important voices that worked so hard to further the LGBT movement, namely Rivera and Johnson. And without these two women (as well as all the other transwomen and PoC involved in the actual event), what is the point of creating the movie? Why tell a story that is just going to be whitewashed, as well as cisgenderized? This type of historical revisionism just cements the mistreatment of these marginalized people. Instead of watching “Stonewall,” consider watching (and donating) a more representative and accurate movie based on the riots; “Happy Birthday Marsha” . This independent film project desperately needs help raising the remaining funds to make the film, so consider donating here if you believe in the cause. ***NOTE: Below are a list of my sources, and other articles/pages you can read if you are interested in this topic. The opinion expressed in this post is entirely my own, and I have no affiliation to the “Stonewall” movie or IMDb or "Happy Birthday Marsha," The Stonewall Riot and Its Aftermath from Columbia University “Stonewall Riots: The Beginning of the LGBT Movement” from The Leadership Conference Introduction: Stonewall Uprising from PBS The Sylvia Rivera Law Project “Meet the Trans Women of Color Who Helped Put Stonewall On the Map” by Jamilah King Happy Birthday Marsha
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This film only boasts 62% on Rotten Tomatoes, but I'd highly suggest the faux documentary style. Choppy film clips and raw seemingly unscripted dialog place the audience immediately in the film. The Sacrament follows the plot of Jonestown fairly closely, and viewers can't help but find themselves invested in the plight of those held at the encampment.
Reviewers found it slow moving, however I found the pace to only feed into the anxieties the film creates, and allows time for viewers to grow invested and begin to care about the characters. Watch The Sacrament if you're a fan of documentaries, like vice-style writing, or don't mind the grittier side. Race to Nowhere is a documentary focusing on the pressures of the American education system, and how damaging it is to the American youth. This film combines interviews, statistics, and testimonials to create an all encompassing call to action to reduce the stress we put on our children and teens.
I found this film to only reiterate things I already knew from growing up in the American school system, however I still found it very meaningful. Especially, with school back in session in the next few weeks, I highly suggest this film as a wake up call to all students, educators, parents, and school administrators. Race to Nowhere is available on Netflix now. ***MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*** I recently saw the movie “Paper Towns,” the film adaption of the 2008 John Green novel of the same title. The film starred Nat Wolff as Quentin Jacobsen, Cara Delevingne as Margo Roth Spiegelman, Austin Abrams as Ben Starling, Justice Smith as Marcus Lincoln, Halston Sage as Lacey Pemberton, and Jaz Sinclair as Angela (found here on IMDB) The movie follows Quentin “Q” (Wolff) as he and his friends Ben (Abrams) and Marcus “Radar” (Smith) navigate through their senior year of high school in Orlando, Florida. Q never spoke to his neighbor Margo (Delevingne) much, not after he refused to help her sneak out to Seaworld when they were 8-years old. He regretted the decision ever since, and believed he would get a second chance to spend time with the love of his life. And one night, he does. Margo asks for his help in extracting a revenge plot against her ex-boyfriend and former best friends, one of whom was sleeping with her boyfriend at the time. Margo wants to right all the wrongs (and wrong a few rights) in her life. And, best of all, Q finally has his chance at redemption. He believes that things will change for him and Margo after that night, because she was his miracle, his chance at true love. But when Margo disappears (again), Q believes she wants him to find her after finding as series of clues she leaves behind. He and his two friends Ben and Radar, along with Radar’s girlfriend Angela (Sinclair) and Margo’s [former] best friend who knew nothing about the cheating incident Lacey (Sage), travel thousands of miles from Orlando, Florida to the paper town of Agloe, New York. This is where Q hopes to find Margo, waiting for them. Except she isn’t there, no matter how hard the five high schoolers search. Believing that Margo was waiting for him somewhere, Q volunteers himself to stay behind in New York as his friends returned to Florida for their senior prom. While purchasing bus tickets at a station in a nearby town, Q catches a glimpse of Margo outside the window (such convenient timing). He runs to her, calls her name, and sure enough, it’s her. This is my favorite part of the movie (and book), when Q confronts Margo, telling her that he found the clues she left for him and travelled all the way to New York to find her. I love this, because Margo didn’t want to be found. She didn’t expect Q to drive all the way to New York, she left the clues to let him (but not just him, everyone) know that she was alive and well somewhere in the world. And that’s when Q realizes that Margo is just a person, she isn’t a miracle and she isn’t anyone special. He was idealizing her as his savior, the love of his life even though he barely knew her (as she points out at the end of the movie). That was the main reason I enjoyed this movie. While full of clichés, I found it refreshing that in the end, the boy didn’t get the girl. He got something much more valuable; his friends. After confronting Margo for the last time, Q returns to Florida and rushes to prom to dance with his friends. He realizes that they were his miracle all along, that he didn’t need Margo Roth Spiegelman to find adventure in his life. The casting for this movie was very well done, as each actor/actress fit their role perfectly. I especially liked Wolff as Q, Delevingne as Margo, and the small cameo of Ansel Elgort as the convenience store clerk (Elgort held a lead role in Green’s other book-to-movie adaptation, “The Fault in Our Stars”). Each actor did a very believable job within their role, especially Delevingne, having very little prior acting experience. I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys John Green books/movies, and doesn’t mind cliché teen movies. This movie definitely isn’t for everyone, and I wouldn’t call it a piece of cinematic brilliance, but it did offer some of that John Green charm that made it enjoyable to watch. Note: any and all images are very definitely not our own, all from the official Facebook page.
Dogtooth is a gem I found on Netflix a few years ago. I've only seen it once, and it has since been removed from Netflix, but it deeply resonated with me. It can be found for free on Hulu (for mature audiences only, please)
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, Dogtooth is the very best kind of bad trip. A pair of hyper-protective parents keep three children locked down on a compound until their 'dogtooth' falls out. The parents are attempting to protect their young from the sins of the outside world, but end up creating a new kind of sinner. This film is not for the squeamish, but I highly recommend it. It's definitely in my top 5. A tiny kitten does get killed, so if you don't want to watch that, maybe fast forward 5 minutes once you see the kitten? Regardless, Dogtooth is a massively important statement on raising children in this world. For fans of The Virgin Suicides and Melancholia, you should definitely check it out. I’ve always loved the animated Disney and Pixar movies, especially the classic ones (and the ones from the 90’s, being a 90’s kid and all). But it’s hard to pick just one or two favorites, when each decade of movies has its own personality. So the only way to truly pick your favorites is to choose several from each decade, and here are mine. Maybe we even share some in common.
The Beginning (1930s): “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” (1937) Honorable mentions: N/A The Named-After-the-Protagonist Era (1940s): “Bambi” (1942) Honorable mentions: “Fantasia” (1940) The Well-Known Classics I (1950s): “Alice in Wonderland” (1951) Honorable mentions: “Lady and the Tramp” (1955), “Peter Pan” (1953) The Well-Known Classics II (1960s): “The Sword in the Stone” (1963) Honorable mentions: “One Hundred and One Dalmatians” (1961) The Era of Talking Animals (1970s): “Robin Hood” (1973) Honorable mentions: “The Aristocats” (1970) The Depression Era (1980s): “Oliver & Company” (1988) Honorable mentions: “The Little Mermaid” (1989), “The Great Mouse Detective” (1986), “The Fox and the Hound” (1981) The Renaissance Era (1990s): “The Lion King” (1994) Honorable mentions: “Aladdin” (1992), “The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride” (1998), “Hercules” (1997), “Pocahontas” (1995), “Tarzan” (1999), “A Goofy Movie” (1995), “Toy Story” (1995), “Mulan” (1998) “Beauty and the Beast” (1991) “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993) The New Era (2000s): “Lilo & Stitch” (2002) Honorable mentions: “Dinosaur” (2000), “The Emperor’s New Groove” (2000), “Monsters, Inc.” (2001), “Finding Nemo” (2003), “The Incredibles” (2004), “Cars” (2006), “The Princess and the Frog” (2009) The Revamped Era (2010s): “Tangled” (2010) Honorable mentions: “Brave” (2012), “Wreck-It Ralph” (2012), “Big Hero 6” (2014), “Frozen” (2013) You need to watch this. You know it's going to be a good review when it starts with a directive to watch the film...
The Punk Singer is a film about Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre), a punk feminist icon who all but dropped off the face of the Earth in 2005. This documentary provides awesome insight into who she is, what she stands for and how she got to be what she is. Artfully directed by Sini Anderson, The Punk Singer will have you screaming about what you believe in, in no time. An engaging look into the riot grrrrl movement and how hard it is to be a pioneer, definitely watch this, Here's my watchlist as of 8/2 in it's entirety. No judgement please, I know you have just as many embarrassing titles.
Let me know what you think I should be watching. Here goes:
This past Sunday I had a boring night and ended up scrolling through Netflix. This usually leads to mindlessly rewatching The Office or Parks and Recreation for hours but neither of these appealed to me for the first time in a while and I actually scrolled through the “Recommended for You” section, and not just to laugh at how many Disney movies it thinks I need to see again (but I guess I do need to see all of them again (sometimes I think Netflix knows me better than I know myself)).
I, a history geek, clicked through documentaries, still thinking I’d be rewatching the “Dinner Party” episode of The Office if nothing caught my eye, and impulsively decided to commit an hour and fifteen minutes of my life to Ballet 422. Best. Decision. Of the week. This documentary follows the creation of a ballet in 2013, the 422nd original ballet from the New York City Ballet. From practice, to costume design, through rehearsals, all the way up to the opening night, Ballet 422 allows us a unique glance into the world of dance . There is no script, just snippets of conversation in quiet tones during water breaks or in dark corners behind the curtain. The viewer is able to follow these quiet, raw moments behind the scenes as they culminate into the final beautiful performance. It’s soothing to see the calm intensity of the dancers practicing their parts and their gracefulness, even without the tutus. Plus, ballet has always been fascinating to me. All the twirls and leaps and pointe shoes you see make you feel as though you’re part of the company, just waiting for your cue. Luckily, it never comes and you don’t risk embarrassing yourself. I watched this again on Monday. You should watch it too. |
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