Coming soon: Documentary 'The Lavender Scare' on decades-long witch-hunt against LGBT Americans5/8/2019 Purge of gay government employees began in 1950s, went on for decades An important piece of American history comes into focus in the upcoming documentary The Lavender Scare, opening in New York and Los Angeles June 7 (with a national release to follow). The film directed by Josh Howard documents the witch-hunt against LGBT employees of the federal government, which began under the Eisenhower administration. The rationale for firing gay workers grew out of the Red Scare -- it was thought homosexuality represented such a shameful secret that gay people were uniquely vulnerable to blackmail by Soviet agents. All of this needs to be said. People need to know. "With the United States gripped in the panic of the 1950s Cold War, President Dwight D. Eisenhower deemed homosexuals to be 'security risks' and vowed to rid the federal government of all employees discovered to be gay or lesbian," notes a press release about the film. "Over the next four decades, the longest witch-hunt in American history, tens of thousands of government workers would lose their jobs for no reason other than their sexual orientation." The film argues the witch-hunt produced an unintended effect -- helping to ignite the gay rights movement. The documentary is narrated by actress Glenn Close and includes the voices of Cynthia Nixon, Zachary Quinto, David Hyde Pierce and T.R. Knight. Watch the trailer here: Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival It's been 50 years since Linda Ronstadt recorded the first major hit of her career, "Different Drum," with the Stone Poneys. She would go on to one of the most successful solo careers in music history, charting numbers from "Desperado," to "Blue Bayou," "You're No Good," "Hurt So Bad," "Long Long Time," "Don't Know Much" (with Aaron Neville) and many more. Ronstadt, 72, has been unable to sing for several years as a result of Parkinson's disease. But her accomplishments are celebrated in the new documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, which just premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman directed the film and James Keach, producer of the 2005 biopic Walk the Line about Johnny Cash, produced the documentary. I spoke with Keach on the red carpet at the world premiere.
Director Rachel Lears documents AOC and three other 'insurgent' Democratic women candidates in prize-winning film
Every day, it seems, brings a fresh attack from the right upon Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, freshman Congresswoman from New York. Today, it was Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida (he of the $1.7 billion Medicare fraud), who suggested AOC was "irrelevant," during a Twitter tit-for-tat that began with Scott blasting a gun control proposal from Sen. Cory Booker, a Democratic presidential hopeful.
"That a sitting US Senator can say something lacking so much critical thinking + honesty is embarrassing to the institution," AOC tweeted of Scott at one point. Beware anyone who attempts to ridicule her online--she doesn't let it slide. "She has said that her upbringing in the Bronx and her family has really helped her just to roll with the criticism and turn things into humor and clapbacks," notes Rachel Lears, director of the documentary Knock Down the House, now streaming on Netflix and playing in limited theatrical release. It shows how Ocasio-Cortez and three other long-shot Democratic women candidates took on entrenched incumbents in the 2016 primaries.
Lears began following Ocasio-Cortez long before she became "AOC" and a national political phenomenon. At the time her cameras started rolling, Ocasio-Cortez was working as a waitress and bartender in Manhattan, using what free time she had to mount a challenge to Joe Crowley, one of the most powerful Democrats in the House who hadn't faced a primary challenger in over a decade. But Ocasio-Cortez had a smart strategy. "When you run a grassroots campaign these campaigns are all about engaging voters who don't usually participate in mid-term primaries, so broadening the electorate, bringing in young people and marginalized communities, people who may don't pay attention to mid-term primaries or who don't always vote," Lears explains. "And when you do that all bets are off. Polls only poll likely voters--people who have voted in every primary in the past several years, so it's really hard to know what's going to happen."
AOC was recruited to run by Brand New Congress, a progressive organization that also backed the candidacies of Cori Bush (Missouri's 1st Congressional district); Amy Vilela (Nevada's 4th Congressional district), and Paula Jean Swearingen, a candidate for U.S. Senate from West Virginia, who ran against incumbent Democrat Joe Manchin. All of the women are profiled in Knock Down the House, but only Ocasio-Cortez prevailed in her race.
Brand New Congress continues to seek bold new voices to run for office on a progressive platform, a goal Lears supports through her documentary. "I definitely hope [KDTH] inspires people to take that leap and take on that challenge," she tells Nonfictionfilm.com. "But I also hope it can really fight cynicism at all levels and inspire people to participate in some way whatever their capacity is--whether it's voting or becoming involved in electoral campaigns or community organizing campaigns or even just something as personal as advocating for themselves in the workplace or in their personal life."
Knock Down the House premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, where it triggered a bidding war, selling to Netflix for a reported $10 million. Lears says she and her producing team went with Netflix for several reasons.
"People who usually don't watch documentaries in the theater might watch a documentary on Netflix, so there is opportunity there to reach people. And they also had the simplest program for education and community screenings," Lears comments. "With our day and date release we're going to be in theaters in 11 cities... and also available for community and educational screenings at the same time." Among the people the director hopes to reach with her film are people on the other side of the aisle from AOC. "We've had people come up to us after screenings, multiple times--people who identify as lifelong Republicans or Trump voters, male and female--who explained that they had a lot of misconceptions that they felt were challenged by the film and that they really identified with the story and really enjoyed and were moved by it in ways that they didn't expect," Lears notes. "And so we're incredibly excited for that potential to reach those viewers... We really hope they'll give this film a chance." ![]()
Filmmakers and subjects of "Knock Down the House" attend the world premiere of the documentary at Sundance. L-R producer Sarah Olson, subject Paula Jean Swearingen, subject Amy Vilela, director Rachel Lears, subject Cori Bush, and producer/editor Robin Blotnick. Park City, Utah, January 27, 2019. Photo by Matt Carey
Watson, doc about co-founder of Greenpeace and founder of Sea Shepherd, named runner-up The 18th annual edition of the Tribeca Film Festival has wrapped in lower Manhattan, with a final set of prizes announced. The Audience Award for documentary went to Gay Chorus Deep South, directed by David Charles Rodrigues. The film documents a bus tour that took 300 members of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus to five Southern states -- Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, North and South Carolina -- areas of the country that have seen a resurgence of anti-LGBTQ sentiment and legislation. “The entire reason we made this film was to bring this message of belonging of the LGBTQ community and all other communities that are considered 'the other' to as many people as possible in the world," commented Rodrigues in a statement provided by Tribeca. "The Audience Award at Tribeca is the ultimate celebration of exactly this.” Gay Chorus Deep South screened an additional two times on Sunday after the announcement of the Audience Award, which comes with a $10,000 prize. Below are two videos shot by Tribeca showing a performance by the chorus that followed the film's world premiere. The runner-up for the Audience Award for documentary was Lesley Chilcott's Watson, the story of Capt. Paul Watson, who founded Sea Shepherd and co-founded Greenpeace.
"Captain Paul Watson has spent 40 years fighting to end the destruction of the ocean’s wildlife and its habitat," Tribeca writes of the film. "Part pirate, part philosopher, Watson’s methods stop at nothing to protect what lies beneath." Film co-directed by André Singer is based on three in-depth interviews between Herzog and ailing Mikhail Gorbachev As a German born during World War II who grew up in a divided nation, there are good reasons why director Werner Herzog admires the last man to preside over the Soviet Union. Without Mikhail Gorbachev's leadership, Germany might not have been allowed to reunite as it did. "Peacefully. Peacefully. That's the key," Herzog points out emphatically, during a conversation in Los Angeles days before the theatrical release of his documentary Meeting Gorbachev. "Because normally that would end up in huge bloodshed and tanks rolling out and suppression of popular uprisings. It has happened before and we have a long history of that." I am asking for 400 years for his legacy to live on. Meeting Gorbachev, co-directed by André Singer, is based on a trio of interviews Herzog conducted with Gorbachev. Gorbachev, now 88 and in precarious health, somehow mustered the strength to discuss world events and to offer counsel to a new generation of political leaders. "When you look at him you can see he's doing good battle. Each time he was brought in by an ambulance to my cameras and brought back by ambulance to the hospital. And you can't tell at all," Herzog notes. "In one of the conversations, which is intercut with others, you see him with a bandage at his hand. That was actually [for] the intravenous drip connected to that and they covered that with a bandage." Herzog's sonorous German-accented voice guides viewers through Gorbachev's backstory, detailing his origins as a Communist Party official who actually seemed interested in listening to the people and pursuing reforms. He rose through the ranks and eventually to the top of the Politburo after three previous leaders, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, succumbed to old age in rapid succession. But by the time Gorbachev took power, the Soviet economy was in tatters. The patient could not be saved. "The Soviet Union was in full decline," Herzog notes in his narration. Gorbachev's unenviable role became managing the dissolution of the USSR. "He created the preconditions of it by restructuring the Soviet empire and by opening politics up to scrutiny, transparency. That was unheard of in the Soviet Union," Herzog marvels. "He ended the Afghan War -- and I'm speaking now of Russia's occupation of Afghanistan over 10 years -- he stopped that. He brought the troops back and many, many other achievements within the span of only six years of holding the reins of the Soviet Union." Within that six-year span Gorbachev struck a major arms control agreement with his American counterpart, President Ronald Reagan, which Herzog regards as Gorbachev's greatest achievement. "In Reykjavik [Iceland], Gorbachev and Reagan looked beyond the horizons and they made things possible that were almost unthinkable -- arms reduction in a magnitude that is unknown in world history," Herzog observes. "And now today we have a narrative which is owned by the Western media which is to demonize Russia, which I think is a mistake. You should rather talk -- even if you consider Russia an enemy, talk to them." At this point of our chat, Herzog paused to give an unexpected shoutout to the current American president, Donald Trump. "He has the courage to speak to the enemy, North Korea, the most unlikely of all combinations -- Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump," he remarks. "And although we don't have a treaty yet I hope it will come to something in real disarmament. But at the moment I can see and sense that the dangerous situation is already somewhat defused... Speak to the most unlikely. Speak to those who are your enemies out in the world." Related: Werner Herzog brings Meeting Gorbachev to the Tribeca Film FestivalThe New York Times gave Meeting Gorbachev, which is now playing in New York and LA, its stamp of approval with a Critics Pick designation. But other critics have faulted the filmmakers for not probing Gorbachev on his thoughts about Vladimir Putin, the quasi-Czarist leader of Russia. "But that's ephemeral, you see," Herzog responds. "And Gorbachev did not want to speak about what is going on [in Russia] right now. I respected that. And by the way, I think both sides [Gorbachev and Putin] have differences of opinion but they both seem to respect each other." Gorbachev is said to be more popular in the West than in Russia, where some of his countrymen resent him for allowing the USSR to fall from its perch as a superpower. But Herzog says pro-Gorby sentiment may be on the rise in the ex-leader's homeland. "It seems to be warming up because the film was shown last week at the end of the Moscow Film Festival -- completely overrun screening attended by the co-director of the film, André Singer," he comments. "And André tells me it was a very big, warm applause for Gorbachev, who unfortunately could not attend. I do believe the climate is changing." In the film, Gorbachev criticizes those in the U.S. who gloat over "winning" the Cold War. "It was our joint victory. We all won," Gorbachev insists. And he sends a direct message to political leaders of today who don't seek common ground on the global stage. "There are those who don't understand the importance of cooperation," Gorbachev comments. "There should be no place for such people in politics." Herzog believes Gorbachev's unusual capacity to think in these terms has secured him an honored place in history. Herzog repeats a comment he makes in the film: "I am asking for 400 years for his legacy to live on." Read: |
AuthorMatthew Carey is a documentary filmmaker and journalist. His work has appeared on Deadline.com, CNN, CNN.com, TheWrap.com, NBCNews.com and in Documentary magazine. |