In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with filmmakers Kate Davis and David Heilbroner about their documentary Stonewall Uprising that will broadcast on PBS’s American Experience on Tuesday June 11th at 9P. The film is based on David Carter’s Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution and told through interviews with Stonewall patrons, reporters and the policeman who led the raid. Stonewall Uprising recalls the fervently hostile climate in which the gay community was forced to live when the vast majority of medical authorities decreed homosexuality a mental disorder and often prescribed brutal treatment, including lobotomy. This was a time when LGBTQ relationships were illegal in every state except Illinois and our community frequently found themselves being hauled off to jail and their names splashed in the next day’s newspaper. Police entrapment was rampant and being arrested meant that licenses to teach, practice law, medicine or even cosmetology might be denied or revoked. All that began to change on June 28th 1969 when the N.Y.P.D. raided the Stonewall Inn and the gay community experienced what one Village Voice reporter who was on the scene called it a "Rosa Parks moment.” For the first time patrons refused to be led into paddy wagons, setting off a violent uprising that contributed to launching the gay rights movement. Exactly one year later America saw its first Gay Pride Parade as thousands marched up Sixth Avenue in NYC. We talked to Kate and David about their inspiration for this must-see documentary and their spin on our LGBTQ issues.
When asked what they hope to accomplish with this documentary Davis stated, “We hope that the film will help a general population actually across the country and maybe the world to incorporate gay history into American history.” Heilbroner concluded, “One of the things I hope our film can do besides reminding people where the pride parade comes from which is directly out of the Stonewall riots but also we should be grateful how far we have come even though we have a long way to go. It’s amazing how far America has come in the last fifty years.”
Filmmakers Kate Davis and David Heilbroner are Academy Award nominees for Traffic Stop (2018). They co-directed/co-produced The Newburgh Sting (Peabody Award), Stonewall Uprising (Peabody Award) for American Experience, The Cheshire Murders for HBO and Scopes: The Battle Over America’s Soul for The History Channel. Their most recent film, Say Her Name: The Life And Death Of Sandra Bland premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival, broadcasted on HBO and won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Television Documentary. Stonewall Uprising will broadcast on PBS’s American Experience on Tuesday June 11th at 9P and streaming. It will also be shown at Washington Square Park in NYC on June 26th at 8P during NYCPride.
For More Info: pbs.org
An extraordinary documentary -an opportunity to understand what Pride day means in each of our lives since Stonewall. Thanks Charlotte for sharing these filmmakers’ voices.
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