Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:But there were little, tiny pin holes in the plywood windows, I'll call them the windows but they were plywood, and we could look out from there and every time I went over and looked out through one of those pin holes where he did, we were shocked at how big the crowd had become. Before Stonewall - Trailer BuskFilms 12.6K subscribers Subscribe 14K views 10 years ago Watch the full film here (UK & IRE only): http://buskfilms.com/films/before-sto. Richard Enman (Archival):Present laws give the adult homosexual only the choice of being, to simplify the matter, heterosexual and legal or homosexual and illegal. Richard Enman (Archival):Ye - well, that's yes and no. It must have been terrifying for them. And the police were showing up. All rights reserved. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots. That was scary, very scary. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We didn't have the manpower, and the manpower for the other side was coming like it was a real war. Dick Leitsch:Very often, they would put the cops in dresses, with makeup and they usually weren't very convincing. Raymond Castro:There were mesh garbage cans being lit up on fire and being thrown at the police. All I knew about was that I heard that there were people down in Times Square who were gay and that's where I went to. It said the most dreadful things, it said nothing about being a person. Liz Davis And Howard said, "Boy there's like a riot gonna happen here," and I said, "yeah." You know, it's just, everybody was there. And they wore dark police uniforms and riot helmets and they had billy clubs and they had big plastic shields, like Roman army, and they actually formed a phalanx, and just marched down Christopher Street and kind of pushed us in front of them. It was terrifying. We were going to propose something that all groups could participate in and what we ended up producing was what's now known as the gay pride march. That was our world, that block. Available via license: Content may be subject to . Joe DeCola It was not a place that, in my life, me and my friends paid much attention to. And I raised my hand at one point and said, "Let's have a protest march." It was a leaflet that attacked the relationship of the police and the Mafia and the bars that we needed to see ended. The Mafia owned the jukeboxes, they owned the cigarette machines and most of the liquor was off a truck hijacking. And when she grabbed that everybody knew she couldn't do it alone so all the other queens, Congo Woman, queens like that started and they were hitting that door. John O'Brien:We had no idea we were gonna finish the march. The shop had been threatened, we would get hang-up calls, calls where people would curse at us on the phone, we'd had vandalism, windows broken, streams of profanity. And so we had to create these spaces, mostly in the trucks. I was proud. So you couldn't have a license to practice law, you couldn't be a licensed doctor. Then the cops come up and make use of what used to be called the bubble-gum machine, back then a cop car only had one light on the top that spun around. Just let's see if they can. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:At a certain point, it felt pretty dangerous to me but I noticed that the cop that seemed in charge, he said you know what, we have to go inside for safety. They'd go into the bathroom or any place that was private, that they could either feel them, or check them visually. Seymour Wishman Chris Mara, Production Assistants Then during lunch, Ralph showed him some pornographic pictures. This time they said, "We're not going." Fred Sargeant:The tactical patrol force on the second night came in even larger numbers, and were much more brutal. Over a short period of time, he will be unable to get sexually aroused to the pictures, and hopefully, he will be unable to get sexually aroused inside, in other settings as well. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:At the peak, as many as 500 people per year were arrested for the crime against nature, and between 3- and 5,000 people per year arrested for various solicitation or loitering crimes. A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. We heard one, then more and more. Martin Boyce:We were like a Hydra. Danny Garvin:We were talking about the revolution happening and we were walking up 7th Avenue and I was thinking it was either Black Panthers or the Young Lords were going to start it and we turned the corner from 7th Avenue onto Christopher Street and we saw the paddy wagon pull up there. That never happened before. (c) 2011 Where did you buy it? Few photographs of the raid and the riots that followed exist. Raymond Castro:New York City subways, parks, public bathrooms, you name it. I was a homosexual. Eventually something was bound to blow. It won the Best Film Award at the Houston International Film Festival, Best Documentary Feature at Filmex, First Place at the National Educational Film Festival, and Honorable Mention at the Global Village Documentary Festival. It was done in our little street talk. And the Village has a lot of people with children and they were offended. Samual Murkofsky Slate:Boys Beware(1961) Public Service Announcement. Ellinor Mitchell Danny Garvin:Something snapped. John O'Brien:All of a sudden, the police faced something they had never seen before. I didn't think I could have been any prettier than that night. The mirrors, all the bottles of liquor, the jukebox, the cigarette machines. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The federal government would fire you, school boards would fire you. Oddball Film + Video, San Francisco They call them hotels, motels, lovers' lanes, drive-in movie theaters, etc. Martin Boyce:It was thrilling. kui Urban Stages Cause I was from the streets. John O'Brien:Heterosexuals, legally, had lots of sexual outlets. Diana Davies Photographs, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations Mayor John Lindsay, like most mayors, wanted to get re-elected. I would get in the back of the car and they would say, "We're going to go see faggots." It was as bad as any situation that I had met in during the army, had just as much to worry about. It was as if an artist had arranged it, it was beautiful, it was like mica, it was like the streets we fought on were strewn with diamonds. A CBS news public opinion survey indicates that sentiment is against permitting homosexual relationships between consenting adults without legal punishment. I say, I cannot tell this without tearing up. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community is a 1984 American documentary film about the LGBT community prior to the 1969 Stonewall riots. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Our radio was cut off every time we got on the police radio. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:Saturday night there it was. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:Those of us that were the street kids we didn't think much about the past or the future. Eric Marcus, Recreation Still Photography Leaflets in the 60s were like the internet, today. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And by the time the police would come back towards Stonewall, that crowd had gone all the around Washington Place come all the way back around and were back pushing in on them from the other direction and the police would wonder, "These are the same people or different people?". Corbis We were winning. Gay bars were to gay people what churches were to blacks in the South. Slate:The Homosexuals(1967), CBS Reports. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:They started busting cans of tear gas. And here they were lifting things up and fighting them and attacking them and beating them. She was awarded the first ever Emmy Award for Research for her groundbreaking work on Before Stonewall. We were thinking about survival. They were supposed to be weak men, limp-wristed. And gay people were standing around outside and the mood on the street was, "They think that they could disperse us last night and keep us from doing what we want to do, being on the street saying I'm gay and I'm proud? Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. Amber Hall A Q-Ball Productions film for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Narrator (Archival):We arrested homosexuals who committed their lewd acts in public places. The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. The mayor of New York City, the police commissioner, were under pressure to clean up the streets of any kind of quote unquote "weirdness." Fred Sargeant:When it was clear that things were definitely over for the evening, we decided we needed to do something more. And I ran into Howard Smith on the street,The Village Voicewas right there. Once it started, once that genie was out of the bottle, it was never going to go back in. John O'Brien:I was with a group that we actually took a parking meter out of theground, three or four people, and we used it as a battering ram. Do you understand me?". Tires were slashed on police cars and it just went on all night long. That's what happened on June 28, but as people were released, the night took an unusual turn when protesters and police clashed. Dick Leitsch:And that's when you started seeing like, bodies laying on the sidewalk, people bleeding from the head. I learned, very early, that those horrible words were about me, that I was one of those people. Jerry Hoose:I remember I was in a paddy wagon one time on the way to jail, we were all locked up together on a chain in the paddy wagon and the paddy wagon stopped for a red light or something and one of the queens said "Oh, this is my stop." At least if you had press, maybe your head wouldn't get busted. First Run Features Danny Garvin:There was more anger and more fight the second night. Mafia house beer? I mean does anyone know what that is? Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:It was always hands up, what do you want? We went, "Oh my God. When police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City on June 28, 1969, the street erupted into violent protests that lasted for the next six days. That summer, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. Like, "Joe, if you fire your gun without me saying your name and the words 'fire,' you will be walking a beat on Staten Island all alone on a lonely beach for the rest of your police career. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:Yes, entrapment did exist, particularly in the subway system, in the bathrooms. Ellen Goosenberg Everyone from the street kids who were white and black kids from the South. Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives And it was fantastic. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Teddy Awards, the film was shown at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2016. Martin Boyce:I wasn't labeled gay, just "different." And if we catch you, involved with a homosexual, your parents are going to know about it first. Marc Aubin Scott Kardel, Project Administration In the trucks or around the trucks. Narrated by Rita Mae Brownan acclaimed writer whose 1973 novel Rubyfruit Jungle is a seminal lesbian text, but who is possessed of a painfully grating voiceBefore Stonewall includes vintage news footage that makes it clear that gay men and women lived full, if often difficult, lives long before their personal ambitions (however modest) It was narrated by author Rita Mae Brown, directed by Greta Schiller, co-directed by Robert Rosenberg, and co-produced by John Scagliotti and Rosenberg, and Schiller. ABCNEWS VideoSource The documentary "Before Stonewall" was very educational and interesting because it shows a retail group that fought for the right to integrate into the society and was where the homosexual revolution occurred. In a spontaneous show of support and frustration, the citys gay community rioted for three nights in the streets, an event that is considered the birth of the modern Gay Rights Movement. Before Stonewall 1984 Directed by Greta Schiller, Robert Rosenberg Synopsis New York City's Stonewall Inn is regarded by many as the site of gay and lesbian liberation since it was at this bar that drag queens fought back against police June 27-28, 1969. It was a horror story. I first engaged in such acts when I was 14 years old. And there was like this tension in the air and it just like built and built. The award winning film Before Stonewall pries open the closet door, setting free the dramatic story of the sometimes horrifying public and private existences experienced by gay and lesbian Americans since the 1920s. What finally made sense to me was the first time I kissed a woman and I thought, "Oh, this is what it's about." Transcript A gay rights march in New York in favor of the 1968 Civil Rights Act being amended to include gay rights. Martin Boyce:That was our only block. Former U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with gay rights activist Frank Kameny after signing a memorandum on federal benefits and non-discrimination in the Oval Office on June 17, 2009. All of this stuff was just erupting like a -- as far as they were considered, like a gigantic boil on the butt of America. Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. Meanwhile, there was crowds forming outside the Stonewall, wanting to know what was going on. Getty Images They frequent their own clubs, and bars and coffee houses, where they can escape the disapproving eye of the society that they call straight. There were gay bars in Midtown, there were gay bars uptown, there were certain kinds of gay bars on the Upper East Side, you know really, really, really buttoned-up straight gay bars. Slate:Activity Group Therapy (1950), Columbia University Educational Films. John O'Brien:The election was in November of 1969 and this was the summer of 1969, this was June. Doric Wilson:And we were about 100, 120 people and there were people lining the sidewalks ahead of us to watch us go by, gay people, mainly. MacDonald & Associates Danny Garvin:With Waverly Street coming in there, West Fourth coming in there, Seventh Avenue coming in there, Christopher Street coming in there, there was no way to contain us. Alan Lechner Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:As much as I don't like to say it, there's a place for violence. And then they send them out in the street and of course they did make arrests, because you know, there's all these guys who cruise around looking for drag queens. If there had been a riot of that proportion in Harlem, my God, you know, there'd have been cameras everywhere. Mike Wallace (Archival):Two out of three Americans look upon homosexuals with disgust, discomfort or fear. I hope it was. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:There were complaints from people who objected to the wrongful behavior of some gays who would have sex on the street. Based on June 21, 2019 1:29 PM EDT. Dick Leitsch:And the blocks were small enough that we could run around the block and come in behind them before they got to the next corner. Danny Garvin:It was a chance to find love. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:A rather tough lesbian was busted in the bar and when she came out of the bar she was fighting the cops and trying to get away. We'd say, "Here comes Lillian.". Revealing and often humorous, this widely acclaimed film relives the emotionally-charged sparking of today's gay rights movement . Pamela Gaudiano William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The Stonewall riots came at a central point in history. And you felt bad that you were part of this, when you knew they broke the law, but what kind of law was that? John O'Brien:Whenever you see the cops, you would run away from them. Never, never, never. Greenwich Village's Stonewall Inn has undergone several transformations in the decades since it was the focal point of a three-day riot in 1969. They were to us. A person marching in a gay rights parade along New York's Fifth Avenue on July 7th, 1979. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:Gay rights, like the rights of blacks, were constantly under attack and while blacks were protected by constitutional amendments coming out of the Civil War, gays were not protected by law and certainly not the Constitution. Just making their lives miserable for once. David Alpert Dick Leitsch:Mattachino in Italy were court jesters; the only people in the whole kingdom who could speak truth to the king because they did it with a smile. If there's one place in the world where you can dance and feel yourself fully as a person and that's threatened with being taken away, those words are fighting words. Geordie, Liam and Theo Gude So if any one of you, have let yourself become involved with an adult homosexual, or with another boy, and you're doing this on a regular basis, you better stop quick. Participants of the 1969 Greenwich Village uprising describe the effect that Stonewall had on their lives. And the people coming out weren't going along with it so easily. So I attempted suicide by cutting my wrists. Yvonne Ritter:And then everybody started to throw pennies like, you know, this is what they were, they were nothing but copper, coppers, that's what they were worth. Eric Marcus, Writer:The Mattachine Society was the first gay rights organization, and they literally met in a space with the blinds drawn. Because its all right in the Village, but the minute we cross 14th street, if there's only ten of us, God knows what's going to happen to us.". Narrator (Archival):This involves showing the gay man pictures of nude males and shocking him with a strong electric current. In 1999, producer Scagliotti directed a companion piece, After Stonewall. Martin Boyce:Well, in the front part of the bar would be like "A" gays, like regular gays, that didn't go in any kind of drag, didn't use the word "she," that type, but they were gay, a hundred percent gay. Transcript Enlarge this image To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City, activists rode their motorcycles during the city's 1989 gay-pride parade. Jerry Hoose:The bar itself was a toilet. But it's serious, don't kid yourselves about it. Finally, Mayor Lindsay listened to us and he announced that there would be no more police entrapment in New York City. It was narrated by author Rita Mae Brown, directed by Greta Schiller, co-directed by Robert Rosenberg, and co-produced by John Scagliotti and Rosenberg, and Schiller. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:I had a column inThe Village Voicethat ran from '66 all the way through '84. In 1924, the first gay rights organization is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. So in every gay pride parade every year, Stonewall lives. The Underground Lounge And, I did not like parading around while all of these vacationers were standing there eating ice cream and looking at us like we were critters in a zoo. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We told this to our men. Daniel Pine New York City's Stonewall Inn is regarded by many as the site of gay and lesbian liberation since it was at this bar that drag queens fought back against police June 27-28, 1969. Before Stonewall. It eats you up inside. And if enough people broke through they would be killed and I would be killed. Well, it was a nightmare for the lesbian or gay man who was arrested and caught up in this juggernaut, but it was also a nightmare for the lesbians or gay men who lived in the closet. Narrator (Archival):Note how Albert delicately pats his hair, and adjusts his collar. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:The police would zero in on us because sometimes they would be in plain clothes, and sometimes they would even entrap. But you live with it, you know, you're used to this, after the third time it happened, or, the third time you heard about it, that's the way the world is. But I'm wearing this police thing I'm thinking well if they break through I better take it off really quickly but they're gunna come this way and we're going to be backing up and -- who knows what'll happen. It was fun to see fags. Martha Shelley:We participated in demonstrations in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. A sickness of the mind. And so there was this drag queen standing on the corner, so they go up and make a sexual offer and they'd get busted. Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:The Stonewall, they didn't have a liquor license and they were raided by the cops regularly and there were pay-offs to the cops, it was awful. That wasn't ours, it was borrowed. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:So at that point the police are extremely nervous. And they started smashing their heads with clubs. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:We would scatter, ka-poom, every which way. Narrator (Archival):Richard Enman, president of the Mattachine Society of Florida, whose goal is to legalize homosexuality between consenting adults, was a reluctant participant in tonight's program. Danny Garvin:It was the perfect time to be in the Village.