105'2017USAdirector: David Francecinematography: Tom Bergmann, Adam Uhlediting: Tyler Walkproduction: Public Square Films
The Oscar-nominated director for “How to Survive a Plague” (WATCH DOCS 2012) takes us back this time to the early days of trans activism in America. Marsha P. Jonson, the self-proclaimed but truly beloved queen of the New York street, was the movement's icon, much like the other protagonist in France's film, Sylvia Rivera, with whom Marsha founded S.T.A.R. (Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries). Their activism came with the indelible stigma of the exclusion that it grew out of and fought against. It was marked by alcoholism and homelessness, and in time, when the gay movement was beginning to pave the way to social integration – it also got isolated within the LGBT community, what Rivera unmasked as treachery in her famous speech. In 1992, Marsha's body was found in the Hudson River. Her friends never believed the police version, which assumed suicide. How did Johnson really die? In France's film, activist Victoria Cruz plays the role of detective, and the film investigation convincingly answers at least one question: why wasn’t the police investigation effective?
Maciej Nowicki
