Coming to PBS this Sunday, August 25: THE CAMPAIGN
Christie Herring’s behind-the-scenes look back at California’s No-on-8 campaign had its world premiere at Frameline earlier this Summer. It went on to screen at gay fests in Denver, North Carolina, and Houston, before launching its national public television broadcast. The ITVS produced doc will be shown on PBS stations in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Knoxville, Idaho, and Kalamazoo.
Herring’s film focuses on the 2008 battle in the state of California to allow voters to restrict marriage to heterosexual pairs. The infamous ballot initiative, Proposition 8, was a response to the California Supreme Court’s ruling that a previous ban on same-sex marriages was unconstitutional. As supporters of Prop 8 used fear tactics and religious arguments to mobilize voters, Herring turned the spotlight on San Francisco’s No-on-8 campaign headquarters, following the work of campaign organizers and on-the-ground volunteers working to prevent discrimination from being written into the California constitution. To provide further context, highlights of modern gay history – from Mattachine to the wave of gay marriage bans in the wake of the 1998 Hawaiian state constitutional amendment – run periodically throughout the film. As the Prop 8 campaign polls swing for and against same sex marriage, the doc profiles several of the volunteers and their often poignant responses to the tenor of the campaign and its likely impact on their lives. In the film’s closing scenes, Herring importantly notes the renewal of activism that was catalyzed in the wake of the decision, leading to the most recent development as the Supreme Court put an end to Prop 8 and DOMA. Screening during the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for civil rights, the PBS broadcasts of the doc underscore that any discriminatory laws are unjust laws, regardless of race or sexuality, and that change is only possible when enough people stand up for equality.
what (not) to doc 