“Art is our weapon. Culture is a form of resistance.”
Shirin Neshat, Iranian Visual Artist
October is always a busy month and that’s been no different here at SONG. As Libra and Scorpio season filled out hearts, we celebrated LGBTQ History month with our annual people of color membership gathering (named after after Bayard Rustin), honored Miss Major as she retires from TJI Justice Project (donate to her retirement giving circle HERE), and denounced the inaccuracy of Stonewall, the movie. LGBTQ month is coming to a close and, thankfully, Stonewall, with its flat out lies and white-washed “history” tanked at the box office.
In the spirit of the righteous leaders and real heroines and heroes of Stonewall (including Miss Major, Sylvia Rivera, and Marsha P. Johnson), we’ve put together Igniting the Kindred: A SONG Film Series Toolkit.
We believe movies are a way for us as LGBTQ people to see our stories reflected back to us and to society. Often, they can be powerful and deeply moving tools to learn about histories that have been stripped away from us. We also know that movies can be deeply painful, enraging, and played out by capitalizing on our lives in ways that commodify us, flatten our identities, and sanitize and whitewash our experiences. Even with this reality, we crave, dig up, and seek out stories to grab onto that are filled with heart, that give us hope, and that fuel our souls.
We made this film series toolkit as part of the ongoing cultural work LGBTQ people have been building for decades and centuries: the effort to claim our rightful place in history and share with each other and the world the words and wisdom of our lives.
Igniting the Kindred: A SONG Film Series Toolkit
This toolkit will walk you through how to set up your own SONG film screenings where you live. It includes: tips for how to plan a showing, film suggestions, and discussion guides that engage themes of race, class, sexuality, gender, desire and struggle, and suggestions for how to organize your community after a screening. This toolkit features 5 films.
How To Survive A Plague
A documentary, with footage from the late 1980’s through the mid 1990’s, paired with current interviews, that examines organizing within New York based ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power).Connector.
Tongues Untied
A documentary and collection of personal stories about the intersectional experiences of living in the US as a Black, gay man.Connector.
Call Me Kutchu
A documentary film that follows the stories of LGBTQ people in Uganda who are working to live freely and proudly under a government that deems homosexuality illegal and punishable by law.Connector.
Milk
A feature film about Harvey Milk, a white gay man who was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California and the US.
Pay It No Mind: The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson
A feature-length documentary on trans-activist, Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson.
QUESTIONS or FEEDBACK?
We offer these films and this toolkit not as an exhaustive list but as a way to meet and connect with other LGBTQ people in your town and community. Let us know how we can connect with and support you using this toolkit. Give feedback, tell us how your screening went, ask questions or scheme. Contact SONG staff at 404-549-8628 takeaction@southernersonnewground.org.
