Coming to DVD this coming Tuesday, December 14: EDIE & THEA: A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT
Susan Muska and Greta Olafsdottir, the directors of the acclaimed 1998 THE BRANDON TEENA STORY (the true-life inspiration for Kimberly Peirce’s BOYS DON’T CRY), premiered their newest doc at last year’s Frameline in San Francisco. The film has had a healthy run on the LGBT film festival circuit, where it’s claimed more than twenty audience and jury awards for best documentary. I had the pleasure of including the film as part of the Out at the Movies series I curate for the Jacob Burns Film Center this past summer.
In EDIE & THEA, the titular couple, who met in the closeted early 1960s, have stayed together long enough to see the possibility of publicly and legally celebrating their union. Drawing on the couple’s memories through photos and interviews, Muska and Olafsdottir craft a loving portrait of these outspoken community activists, their lives together in good times and bad, and the dramatic changes that came after Stonewall for LGBT people everywhere. Like BEFORE STONEWALL, EDIE & THEA: A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT enters a select group of important non-fiction projects that chronicle the history of LGBT lives that for too long went untold.
what (not) to doc 