Coming to theatres and to Netflix tomorrow, Friday, October 6:
THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARSHA P JOHNSON
Director:
David France
Premiere:
Tribeca 2017
Select Festivals:
Sheffield, Traverse City, Melbourne, Seattle, Montclair, Frameline, Outfest, Provincetown, Inside Out, LGBT fests in Portland, Halifax, Barcelona, Seoul, Dublin, Glasgow, Vancouver, Honolulu, Austin, Oslo, Sydney, Chicago
About:
A tribute to a pioneering African American transgender activist, who died in 1992 under mysterious circumstances.
Marsha P Johnson – the P stood for “Pay no mind,” according to the outspoken figure – was a veteran of Stonewall and a familiar presence in Greenwich Village for decades before her body was found in the Hudson River near the Christopher St piers. Traditionally dismissive if not outright hostile to the city’s queer population, particularly trans people, the police hastily deemed Johnson a suicide and declined to investigate further. Decades later, Victoria Cruz, an activist with the Anti-Violence Project, decides to explore the case on her own, seeking justice long deferred for this under-acknowledged community leader. As Cruz speaks to Johnson’s old friends, her story is but one of several that emerge in this sensitively crafted film that speak to a history of inequity and violence being visited upon trans people, especially trans people of color, including the legendary Sylvia Rivera, as well as Islan Nettles, who was murdered in 2016.
what (not) to doc 