From Where We Stood:
AIDS & the Culture Wars
This has been a busy and productive year and the journey is amazing.
The big news is the documentary has morphed into a “limited series.” I have the first three episodes done and others very close.
Late last year I was able to hire (fresh from film school with at masters degree) a professional assistant editor, Carly Wymer, who is fixing transitions, balancing sound, and making all the colors match between the two cameras. She has been invaluable and her work is fantastic.
Tyler, Texas
Mostly Feedback
At The Darl Center screenings in April, the two audiences differed, as did some reactions - the later crowd being mostly LGBT+ folks. Both shows were extremely productive.
I was reminded that I needed to include more of the anti-gay propaganda; talk more about the symptoms, the physical wasting, and the deadly effects of the virus. Another asked if I could identify the locations better.
Anti-gay propaganda
I made some big adjustments before a screening in New Orleans, for part of “Louisiana Queer Arts” conference. Again the feedback was constructive.
The audience there consisted of mainly older gay men (well ok, my age). They asked that I slow the pacing down, and to please put people’s names on the screen for longer and more often.
Once I began to slow things down, the project really began to take shape. It was also now getting longer, and no one wanted me to cut anything. So a series was decided.
“Lift the Ban,” New Orleans
What’s left?
Editing, editing, editing.
Once I began to slow things down, the project really began to take shape. It was also now getting longer, and no one wanted me to cut anything. So a series was decided.
Many of the stories are already finished, but other more complicated stories are not. For example I am starting to work on the “Gays in the Military” issue, how we got Clinton elected and the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” fiasco. This is important history that continues to “dog” our community today, and I have lots of my own archival footage to dive into.
Dallas gay bar scene, 1950’s
What we need
I am unable to pay my assistant on a regular basis, which is slowing things down,
and we have licensing fees to cover on any outside copyrighted material used.
We need $40,000 to finish expediently.
We will be seeking grants again, but the funding climate for us is brutal in today’s world.
Please consider a donation this year to the
LGBT Legacy Project
to help us finish this timely production.
Every dollar always counts.
Thank you
About the Documentary
The documentary looks at the continued rise of the LGBT Movement during the 1980’s – 1990’s. A movement that had cohesion of purpose, fueled by Stonewall and ignited by Anita Bryant’s “Save Our Children” campaign in 1977.
The documentary will place into the historical record stories from the Midwest and Deep South in regard to both the political advances and setbacks of the era. Parallel and interwoven stories of HIV/AIDS are told through those who experienced and survived these tumultuous years.
The cities included are guided by the producer’s own journey – from New Orleans (1983) to Dallas, Texas (1993), Wichita Kansas (1995) and finally to Cleveland OH (2002 – present day).
The documentary frames the progress of a strong but scattered LGBT movement in the 1970s into a cohesive national force by the 1990s. This still only partially visible community of social activists took on the task of gaining their civil rights. They also took on the task of caring for people within that community who had contracted HIV/AIDS.
A vast collection of broadcast quality footage from the era is at the producer’s disposal. Beginning in 1986, and for over ten years, she created LGBT programming for a local access cable TV, shooting locally and attending national conferences. Many of the storytellers are in the original footage, providing fascinating insights into the emotionally charged political struggles of the times.
MADE IN CLEVELAND
“Beautiful. You tell the story as one of us who lived and loved through it all. You had the emotional courage to take us back to the horror that it was with the heroes and heroines of then and now.
The thread of love and courage in the face of discrimination, disease and death serves as a tribute to our community for its strength during those dark times. It offers us hope as we confront dark days that threaten us now. Bravo.”
~ Ron Joullian, New Orleans,
November 2024
Phill Wilson at the 1995 Creating Change Conference - NGLTF
Some stills from our video archives
