Before Stonewall

Very interesting look at how gay and lesbian people lived pre 1969 and the difficulties the lifestyle entailed. Well worth seeing, especially for anyone who thinks they're oppressed now. Educational and important.

A truly landmark documentary about the experience of being gay in America over the course of the 20th century, at least up until the 1969 Stonewall riot. Through the use of a wide variety of archival footage and lots of interviews with people who lived through the times and helped bring about change, it gives the context for bigger historical moments (like the Kinsey report, the McCarthy driven purges in government, and the trial over Ginsberg's Howl), as well as profoundly personal moments (like being a gay soldier in WW2, the WAC bravely standing up to Eisenhower, and the influence of Ann Bannon's books, or countless others). It was heartbreaking to hear the stories of the repercussions of being gay in some of these years, e.g. being committed to an asylum, losing one's job, or being publically outed and branded a pervert.

As one of the people interviewed points out, it's hard to imagine all of this happening - and that was in 1984, so it's even harder to fathom these things 36 years later. (Or is really hard to fathom with homophobic incidents still regularly popping up in the news? I don't know.) The film feels a bit frayed and it isn't perfect - but considering the enormous step forward even making it represented, I really enjoyed it nonetheless. It's a snapshot in time and since then there has been further progress, including a greater appreciation for the full LGBTQ community and MUCH greater acceptance in mainstream culture - as well as backlash and serious struggles along the way (I would love to see an updated version of this film!).

Ironically, the documentary was made right as the AIDS crisis was taking off, to which the Reagan administration's depraved indifference would certainly count as a struggle (and we see Reagan lamely commenting that he believes being gay is a psychological disorder). If anything, I wish the film had pointed out more of the problems which still remained to the community; it has the air of finality, as if Stonewall happened and then "we made it." Then again, its focus is history, as its title suggests. Anyway, this is a good documentary, and it would be good as an educational film.

I have lost count of the number of times I have seen this wonderful documentary. The archival material alone -- film clips and still photographs of gay life in America between 1900 and the '60s -- is enough to make this film a treasure; but it is the interviews with survivors of the pre-Stonewall era that make Before Stonewall a priceless heirloom of gay studies and a must in the personal education of any socially conscious person interested in gay culture.

This informative and enlightening documentary examines how gay people lived and supported and recognized each other in the days before the landmark disturbance at the Stonewall bar in New York in 1969, an event that gave new impetus to the gay rights movement in the U.S. It features many brave individuals who risked life and limb back in the "dark ages" by even broaching the subject of homosexuality in the open. Many viewers will find revelations here that are fascinating, for example how World War II, of all things, served to end the isolation felt by many gays who fought and served back then. It deserves a wide audience.

Before Stonewall is a unique piece because it was made in 1984, 15 years after Stonewall: It was still fresh in people's memory, it wasn't so long before.

Above all, it means that the people interviewed in the program were old enough to remember what the 20-30s were like, remember an experience in the army during the Second World War, remember life as a young gay person in the fifties. Most of those people wouldn't be able to be interviewed today: Most probably died of old age and many probably died of the greatest tragedy to ever affect the gay community a bit after the documentary was made: the aids epidemic.

Thus this documentary is invaluable to anyone interested in gay history, and one can really feel grateful that it was made back then, that someone decided to collect all those memories and amazing life experiences, or they would have been lost for ever.