Buy Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride on DVD

Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride

Big Gay Movie / Year: 2011

DVD-R

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Synopsis

Gay Pride marches and festivals are happening all over the world sometimes under heavy opposition and violence. Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride is the most comprehensive look at the role of these events ever undertaken. This feature length documentary follows the Vancouver Pride Society’s (VPS) Parade Director Ken Coolen and his VPS colleagues as they travel to places where Pride is still steeped in protest to personally experience the rampant homophobia that still exists. They also travel to Sao Paulo Brazil for the world’s largest gay parade and New York City, the birthplace of the modern gay liberation movement.

Increasingly the Pride movement is globalizing. Coolen and many Pride organizers in North America and Europe, where celebration has overtaken political action, strive to remind their communities that Pride is at its heart a global fight for human rights.

Despite the hundreds of thousands of people cheering in the streets, Pride is much, much more than a parade and a party. It is a giant step on the road to true equality. The GLBT community during Pride is an entertaining and engaging multi- ethnic group than can bring attention to the issue of human rights with diversity, insight, and of course plenty of fabulousness. Some highlights include:

InterPride 2007, Zurich Switzerland: Coolen and co-parade director, Dean Nelson, attend this international conference of Pride organizations. Many human rights activists are interviewed, including American artist and activist Gilbert Baker creator of the first rainbow flag.

Sao Paulo Pride Parade, Brazil: This begins a tour Coolen and the crew will never forget. VIP access to the world’s largest Gay Parade where 4 million people take part in their government sponsored Pride: a street party that defies the imagination. Their theme this year: Homophobia Kills! Then, 7days later …

Moscow Pride: Coolen and crew are the only foreigners involved in the clandestine preparations for this event. Secret meetings, hidden identities, police harassment, the first successful peaceful Pride March, and a violent counter protest reveal just how passionate people can be about a parade.

Pride Colombo, Sri Lanka: Pride events here are only advertised after they take place, in order to protect the identities of those brave enough to attend. Our host, Pride organizer Sahran Abeysundra, later travels to Canada to be a Grand Marshal in Vancouver’s Parade.

Vancouver Pride: “Celebrating 30 Years of the Rainbow”: Back in Vancouver, where equal marriage is legal and the parade entertains half a million people, Ken struggles to make the parade have some meaning after all he has seen. Through Ken we discover that despite thousands of people cheering in the streets, Pride is much, much more than a parade and a party. It’s a giant step on the road to true human equality.

3 Reasons To buy this film

Provides a grave reminder to all of us that LGBT people all over the world must struggle for their rights.
At the same time, the film celebrates the bravery of Pride participants who often risk their freedom (and sometimes their lives) just to stand up for their identities.
Quite simply, it's a brilliant, moving documentary that reminds us why we must fight for what we believe.

Review

This film covers the diverse range of Pride events along with the political dynamics behind them. From Brazil's government sponsored events that attract three million participants to Sri Lanka, where "curative rape" is sanctioned as a "cure" for lesbianism, you are reminded that homosexuality remains illegal in roughly 80 countries (punishable by death in seven). As Ken Cooler (Canadian Pride Festival Planner) travels to various locations around the world a 'Freedometer' charts each location/country's LGBT tolerance level. Highlights of the film include interviews with Gilbert Baker—the activist who created the Rainbow Flag, along with Russian organizer Nikolai Alekseev. Alekseev arranged cloak and dagger meetings to stage and quickly disperse a parade in Moscow, where the mayor has banned the Pride parade forever. This 2008 Moscow Gay Pride March will have you cheering and standing on your feet. Even those who have become jaded toward parades and Pride events will have a lot to reconsider after viewing this inspiring film.

-- Dudley Best

Product Format Information

DVD-R : $19.99

Availability: In stock and ready to ship
Close Caption: Yes
Region Code: None
UPC: 807839005295
Catalog #: DR3232683

Studio : Big Gay Movie

Languages: English (Primary)
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen

Customer Reviews

Pride and Politics

Amos Lassen wrote on 05/05/2011:

The new documentary, “Beyond Gay” is now on the festival circuit and has people talking. The film looks at how a Pride parade organizer checks the relevance and role of Pride celebrations. We see that sometimes these celebrations bring about some violent reactions as well as cause wonderful celebrations. Pride has become a mirror for our civil rights and the film shows just how far we have come. We get a portrait of Pride that is both devastating and joyful. We go to Moscow Pride and see the ingenuity of the Russians, to Vancouver where we understand using Pride as a way of “confronting the authorities”.
Directed by Bob Christie, the film shows us what is happening in gay communities internationally and what is the position of LGBT rights both here at home and in Europe. We see the heroes of our movement and recognize their efforts and the obvious trend of Pride celebrations to become flamboyant parties instead of what they were meant to me—proof in our solidarity and an expression of who we are. It I especially interesting to hear what European Pride producers have to say about the state of Pride. This is a film that every thinking member of the LGBT community should have to see.
Now that Pride has become an international celebration, it is important to understand what it is all about. Ken Coolen is the Vancouver Pride parade director and he and several others of the Vancouver Pride Board travel to the places where Pride is a protest and they learn in their travels that in North America we seem to have lost the idea that Pride is part of the global battle for basic human rights.
Pride is not just an excuse to party, rather it is a stepping stone on the road to equality and it can be used to bring attention to the human rights struggle. Some of the celebrations we see include InterPride, 2007 in Zurich, the international conference of all of the Pride organizations, Sao Paulo Pride Parade with four million people, Moscow Pride and the secret meetings that help produce it along with the harassment by the police, Pride in Colombo, Sri Lanka min which the festivities are only advertised after they are over and Vancouver with a parade that half a million people see. So we see what the real meaning of Pride is and how much we have to learn in order to have it become meaningful.