On June 27, 1969, police raided The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York. In a spontaneous show of support and frustration, the city’s gay community rioted for three nights in the streets, an event that is considered the birth of the modern Gay Rights Movement.
This multiple Emmy award winning documentary pries open the closet door, setting free the dramatic stories of gay communities of eras past. Revealing and often humorous, the award winning Before Stonewall exposes the fascinating and unforgettable decade-by-decade history of homosexuality in America, from 1920’s Harlem through to World War II and the witch hunt trials of the McCarthy era, before winding up at the Stonewall Inn one summer night. Before Stonewall is essential viewing for all those who have celebrated their sexuality, or have been persecuted because of it.
Directed by Greta Schiller (Paris Was a Woman) with cinematography by Sandi Sissel (Tyler Perry’s Meet The Browns, Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs), Before Stonewall is narrated by prolific lesbian writer Rita Mae Brown (Rubyfruit Jungle, The Slumber Party Massacre) and features gay poet Allen Ginsberg, lesbian author Ann Bannon, and a cornucopia of gay activists and normal folk telling their stories.