Abby Drue will share her reminiscences of the 1969 Atlanta raid at a screening of Andy Warhol’s Lonesome Cowboys this weekend at Agnes Scott Faculty.
Atlanta Satisfaction and Out on Movie staff as much as current a screening of Lonesome Cowboys, the movie that triggered the raid, together with discussions about queer activism within the South.
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Very like the nationwide Satisfaction motion was sparked by the 1969 police incursion on the Stonewall Inn in New York, the Southern demand for queer rights was galvanized when Atlanta police raided a screening of Andy Warhol’s Lonesome Cowboys on the Ansley Mall Mini-Cinema on August 5, 1969. The theater’s supervisor was arrested, and the movie was confiscated. And a motion — which continues to today — started in opposition.
Now, on August 1 and August 2, Atlanta Satisfaction and Out on Movie, Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ movie pageant, have joined forces to current a two-day summit at Agnes Scott Faculty. The occasion known as Reel Resistance: How the Lonesome Cowboys Raid Sparked the Southern Queer Rights Motion. The occasion kicks off with a screening of Warhol’s movie, adopted instantly by a dialogue with longtime Atlanta activist Abby Drue, who was attending the movie on the evening of the police raid.
“Abby is literal dwelling historical past and has been concerned with just about each vital queer group in our metropolis and state in some unspecified time in the future,” stated Steven Igarashi-Ball, Atlanta Satisfaction’s director of communications and neighborhood engagement. “She is aware of all people and continues to be actually lively locally. I’m excited for individuals to get to listen to the reflections of any individual who was truly on the occasion.”
The remainder of the summit’s occasions on Saturday will discover the long-term impression of the raid, together with discussions with historians Martin Padgett and Wes Nimmo, artist Taylor Alxndr and activists Vandy Beth Glenn and Mark S. King, amongst others.
This 12 months’s Atlanta Satisfaction theme, “Rooted in Resistance,” impressed the occasion, Igarashi-Ball stated.
“This 12 months is the fifty fifth anniversary for Atlanta Satisfaction,” he stated. “So we, as a part of our present strategic plan, vow to do a greater job of preserving our historical past, not solely as a corporation however our queer neighborhood historical past on the whole.”
Not too long ago, Igarashi-Ball stated organizers watched Lonesome Cowboys — a Western primarily based on Romeo and Juliet — for the primary time to arrange themselves for what they’d be exhibiting an viewers.
“Wow, there’s quite a bit to unpack within the movie,” he stated. “In a whole lot of methods, it doesn’t age properly. Nevertheless it’s an vital time capsule. It’s particularly vital given the social context of what it means for our metropolis and our neighborhood.”
In a press release, Out on Movie Director Jim Farmer stated, “What excites me most is the possibility to convey generations collectively, with those that lived this historical past and people who are simply starting to form their very own. We’re utilizing the ability of cinema to ignite conversations and construct connections throughout generations.”
Out on Movie is utilizing the occasion to launch the Reel Resistance Brief Movie Fellowship, a six-month program designed to empower as much as 5 LGBTQ+ filmmakers throughout Georgia to create narrative and documentary shorts about what formed queer life within the South. This system gives mentorship, manufacturing stipends of $3,000 and a screening of the completed product.
Filmmaker Ava Davis, an Out on Movie board member, stated films concerning the queer expertise have all the time introduced the neighborhood collectively, from Lonesome Cowboys to extra trendy fare.
“The ability of a film is its close-up,” Davis stated. “It goes in straight in on an individual, exhibits their emotion and magnifies it on the display screen. It connects with audiences immediately. We’re in a position to see a lot emotion simply with that close-up. So that you’re in a position to inform the emotional part of a motion. You’re in a position to see the way it impacts lives. Even whether it is only a subset of the neighborhood, you’re seeing one thing that you wouldn’t be capable to be aware of or witness to in every other type or style.
“That’s why it’s additionally doubly vital that these tales are being instructed by the neighborhood that they’re about, in order that after we’re experiencing these feelings and listening to these narratives, it’s coming authentically from that neighborhood.”
The place & When
Reel Resistance: How the Lonesome Cowboys Raid Sparked the Southern Queer Rights Motion. Screening of Lonesome Cowboys at 7 p.m. August 1, adopted by the firsthand expertise of native activist Abby Drue and a reception. The neighborhood summit takes place from 10:30 a.m. to five p.m. Saturday, August 2. The day begins with Martin Padgett and Drue discussing the fallout from the raid and the historical past of activism that adopted. The afternoon will supply six targeted breakout periods on the position of politics, social media, drag, movie and extra. $30-$75. Dana Wonderful Arts Constructing at Agnes Scott Faculty, 137 South McDonough St., Decatur. outonfilm.org.
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Benjamin Carr is an ArtsATL editor-at-large who has contributed to the publication since 2019 and is a member of the American Theatre Critics Affiliation, the Dramatists Guild, the Atlanta Press Membership and the Horror Writers Affiliation. His writing has been featured in podcasts for iHeartMedia, onstage as a part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Brief Play Competition and on-line in The Guardian. His debut novel, Impacted, was printed by The Story Plant.