Still from Gay USA showing footage of the 1977 San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade, courtesy of Frameline.
This event is a screening and discussion of Arthur J. Bressan Jr.’s groundbreaking 1977 documentary Gay USA, which vibrantly captured Gay Freedom Day marches and celebrations in June 1977 across the country. The film was beautifully restored in 2018 by the University of California, Los Angeles Film and Television Archive in collaboration with Frameline and Outfest.
Film historian Jenni Olson, who guided the restoration of the film, and LGBTQ historian Don Romesburg, who co-curated the society’s online exhibition about the first decade of San Francisco Pride, will lead a conversation and Q&A session after the screening. The discussion will focus on the importance of documenting the history of Pride and encourage audience members to engage in their own community-history efforts by sharing their Pride stories and helping to identify unknown individuals depicted in the film.
SPEAKERS
Robert Baez is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law at the University of Florida. He uses community-based methods to instigate meaningful social change. His current project documents contemporary queer and intersectional formations of Pride and situates these mobilizations in contrast to the mainstream gay rights movement.
Jenni Olson is a leading figure in the LGBTQ film world, Jenni Olson has been making connections between queer films and the audiences who need to see them for more than 30 years. She is one of the world’s leading experts on LGBTQ cinema history and was also one of the founders of PlanetOut.com. She is currently an independent consultant and is also an acclaimed writer and filmmaker. Her latest film project is The Royal Road.
Don Romesburg is professor of women’s and gender studies at Sonoma State University and a co-founder of the GLBT Historical Society Museum. He is editor of the Routledge History of Queer America (2018) and has published queer takes on public history, histories of adolescence, sex work, transracial adoption and queer/trans performers. He was the lead scholar working to bring LGBTQ content into California’s K–12 History-Social Science Framework and textbooks and now trains educators on implementation. For these efforts, he is the namesake of the Committee on LGBT History’s Don Romesburg Prize for K–12 Curriculum.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
This event will take place online. After you register, you will receive a confirmation email with a link and instructions on how to join the Zoom webinar as an attendee. The event will be archived on our YouTube page at https://bit.ly/2UyGVbG.
ADMISSION
Free | Suggested donation of $5.00
Register online here: https://bit.ly/2CmaZR4
The event is limited to 500 attendees.
ASL INTERPRETATION
ASL interpretation provided upon request. Please write at least three days in advance of event to leigh@glbthistory.org.
JOIN THE GLBT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Become a member of the GLBT Historical Society for free museum and program admission, discounts in the museum shop and other perks: www.glbthistory.org/memberships.