By Nicole Breskin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
GREENWICH VILLAGE — A film about the riots at the Stonewall Inn, a major catalyst in the early gay rights movement in Manhattan and beyond, debuts in Greenwich Village Wednesday on the eve of the uprising’s 41st anniversary.
“Stonewall Uprising” portrays the anti-gay sentiment and repressive environment that ultimately led to the three-day uprising that began on June 28, 1969 when police raided a Greenwich Village gay bar and patrons refused to be led away.
“‘Stonewall Uprising’ continues our tradition of telling stories through the voices of an oppressed or misunderstood minority,” said filmmakers Kate Davis and David Heilbroner. “And though the story itself is commonly referred to, it is little known.”
The story is told by locals involved in the riots — drag queens, street kids, journalists, a former New York mayor, the police who led the raids — and utilizes archival footage.
It revisits a time when homosexual acts were illegal throughout America, and homosexuality itself was seen as a mental illness.
“Before Stonewall there was no such thing as coming out or being out,” said Eric Marcus, who is the best-selling author of “Making Gay History: The Half-Century Fight for Lesbian & Gay Equal Rights.” “People talk about being in and out now. There was no out, there was just in.”
Stonewall rioter Martin Boyce said: “You could be beaten, you could have your head smashed in a men's room because you were looking the wrong way.
The film premieres tonight at Film Forum with city speaker Christine Quinn attending, along with writer Charles Busch and filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell and participants in the 1969 riots.
