The powerful trailer for a new documentary about the gay rights movement by West Hollywood filmmaker Ryan James Yezak has sparked a controversy among some LGBT politicos about the lack of inclusion of images of people of color and transgender people in a presentation of LGBT history.
Ironically, the controversy comes on the heels of another discussion Monday night about people of color in film- though this one involves filmmaker George Lucas complaining to The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart that Hollywood wouldn’t fund his new mostly-black cast film Red Tails about the heroic World War II Tuskegee Airmen, which Mother Jones critic Adam Serwer describes as “the heroic and decorated pilots who were the first black servicemembers to fly combat missions at a time when black Americans were not recognized as full citizens in the United States, despite their willingness to fight and die in its defense.”
In the interview, video of which is posted on Mother Jones, Lucas says the film took 23 years to develop: “It’s because it’s an all-black movie. There’s no major white roles in it at all…I showed it to all of them and they said, ‘Nooooo. We don’t know how to market a move like this.’”
MJ critic Serwer says:
Lucas’ explanation of how difficult it is for films with mostly black casts (let alone black directors) was one of my major frustrations watching Pariah, director Dee Rees’ excellent coming-of-age film about a black lesbian teenager in Brooklyn. It wasn’t just that the movie was good, it was that lingering social attitudes about race make such films far rarer than they should be, in part because of the way they skew economic incentives for major studios.
Ryan James Yezak (Photo from his blog)
Ryan James Yezak, a 23 year old filmmaker and blogger from Houston who now lives in West Hollywood, is seeking funding to complete his documentary on the gay rights movement. He says his impetus for making the film was the passage of Prop 8 and his own horror at realizing he is officially a second class citizen when he couldn’t automatically give blood with his boss to help victims of a natural disaster: “I felt like a different species. I did not feel one with the human race in that moment. That was the moment it had a direct effect on me & my rights – that is when I decided to make this documentary.”
There does not appear to be the same concern over fundraising as Lucas expressed. Ironically, it is the lack of image of people of color and transgender people that is of concern to some – including important blogger Pam Spaulding. In her Pam’s House Blend post on Firedoglake, Pam first praises the “powerful compilation of historical events” as “well done, and emotional.” Her “quibble” is with how Yezak’s editorial selection of images represent “the status quo thinking about the movement – it’s largely about gay white men.” She writes:
Aside from clips of Ellen DeGeneres talking about the murder of Lawrence King (and a blink-of-an-eye clip of her coming out on her sitcom), you’d think lesbians are practically non-existent in the movement. And it’s definitely “gay rights” only – don’t expect anything related to trans folk here either. If gays and lesbians are second-class citizens, you have to wonder what society considers transgender citizens if we render them invisible from the movement (as bis already are).
And people of color? Well, aside from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (an opportunity to show gay activist and organizer of the March on Washington, from which the clip is taken, Bayard Rustin, was missed), one unmistakable landmark event in gay rights history is Lawrence v. Texas, which revolved around an interracial couple, John Geddes Lawrence and Tyron Garner. Not in the clips. Note: if Dan Choi hadn’t been in the DADT-related clips, then the vid would have been a complete whitewash. It’s kind of sad.”
Pam wonders if the perception of the LGBT movement will ever “organically evolve into broader vision of the movement? I hope so.”
I noted a number of other lesbians and people of color – I counted MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and CNN’s Don Lemon, for instance. But Pam’s point is well-taken. If the LGBT movement for civil rights is constantly portrayed and perceived as rich, white and highly sexualized younger gay men – what about the rest of us second class citizens who don’t fit that mold? We’re part of LGBT history and the movement, too, and have long struggled against invisibility both inside and outside the movement.
But aside from that easily correctable concern, Ryan James Yezak has indeed created a powerful first look. I cringed when I heard Mike Wallace and the other creeps talking about the ugly shame of homosexuality. This is what so many of us heard and internalized – voices that lead some like myself to consider suicide instead of bearing the shame of this unshakable “evil perversion.” Yezak does us all a wonderful service by showing how the same voices continue today – only in living color – causing suicides and bullying and a host of consequences perpetrated by first class citizens. No More Second Class Citizens! This doc could be our version of “V for Vendetta” – minus the killing, of course.
If you want to help Yezak complete his documentary, here are some useful links:
Click here to be part of this effort to create change: http://kck.st/zUspXy
Click here to tweet this video: http://clicktotweet.com/fRNEm
http://facebook.com/2ndclasscitizens
http://twitter.com/2ndclassctzn
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Given the racist selection of material, I wouldn’t consider this a “documentary about the gay rights movement” as it is some guy’s attempt at a film without actually studying the history. I’m quite tired of this revisionist history that seems so dominant in the “movement” today.
First, to “Lonnie”: “racist selection of material”? Please, climb off The Cross; someone might need the wood.
I can’t fault those reasonably disappointed in what they didn’t see, but what could be “constructive criticism” has turned into knee-jerk reactionism from some that is just as cliche in its own way as the alleged failure of perspective they protest. And protest much too quickly given these few minutes be considered a kind of “first draft” or outline as it’s NOT a “trailer” because those are made after and from COMPLETED works, and this project is just beginning.
At the same time, I was surprised at some of what was included by someone so young, for example the clips of my late friend Leonard Matlovich filmed a few weeks before his death 24 years ago before Mr. Yesak was even born. That he looked far and wide enough to discover someone few people his age have even heard of suggests good intentions on his part. I must also note, with respect, Karen, that Leonard was but one of those touched upon in the film who were/are NOT “rich…highly sexualized younger gay men.” Criticism of his correctable flaws are fair, but unsupportable broadbrushing by those who accuse him of broadbrushing is not. At the same time, I applaud your mixing praise and encouragement with your observations.
John Aravosis criticized him for not including the case of gay sailor Timothy McVeigh, claiming it was the only legal success to date at the time—erasing, himself, the preceding sucesses of Grete Cammermeyer, Keith Meinhold, Zoe Dunning, and Justin Elzie, as well as those pre-DADT of Leonard, Perry Watkins, Miriam Ben-Shalom, and Dusty Pruitt.
Pam chastises him for leaving out “gay activist” Bayard Rustin. Rustin’s a giant hero to me, but Pam, too, is demonstrating ignorance she accuses Yezak of. For only in his last couple of years of life did Rustin come out “publicly,” and do some speaking and writing about homophobia, and lobbying for New York City’s gay rights bill. In fact, a year before he died, Rustin rejected Pam’s label himself, declining an invitation to contribute to an anthology by black gay men: “After much thought, I have decided that I must decline….I did not ‘come out of the closet’ voluntarily—circumstances forced me out. While I have no problem with being publicly identified as homosexual, it would be dishonest of me to present myself as one who was in the forefront of the struggle for gay rights. The credit for that belongs to others. They are the ones who should be in your book. While I support full equality, under the law, for homosexuals, I fundamentally consider sexual orientation to be a private matter. As such it has not be a factor which has greatly influenced my role as an activist.” – from “Lost Prophet, The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin” by John D’Emilio.
Therefore, NOT including him in a documentary about the gay movement—versus about notable gays alone—is entirely appropriate.
Dependent so far upon “found footage,” Metroweekly’s observation is the most reasonable I’ve seen, emphasis mine: “Considering that Yezak’s trailer used mostly television footage, the GLAAD and CAP reports add to the question of Yezak’s goals another question of what footage—and how much diversity—was AVAILABLE to him.”
Thank you.