Above: Trailer for A Message of Liberation, published on YouTube in May 2019
TW: homophobia, very anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric shown in some footage WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, HOW?
I produced this film independently for a class project in the Spring semester of 2019. When I first presented the trailer (above, left) to my class, the following minutes were full of shocked, emotional silence over the fraught relationship between religion and LGBTQ+ people shown in some of those video clips. This is often the story people are told about LGBTQ+ individuals and Christian religious spaces--we are told of the distances, the conflicts, and the pain. These stories are important and they should be emphasized, focused on, and used to catalyze change in how religious spaces have approached LGBTQ+ individuals in practice and in philosophy. However, I found it important to emphasize the close relationship and enduring impact that LGBTQ+ individuals have had in religious spaces. In fact, I even found that many key leaders in the early gay rights movement of the 1970s--both before and after the Stonewall 'riots' in 1969--were deeply religious individuals who were active and involved members of their religious groups. This seemed to drastically contradict the narrative often given in contemporary histories of the gay rights movement and LGBTQ+ histories. It also seemed that the record was relatively silent on positive or influential relationships between LGBTQ+ individuals and religious spaces. In many ways, history has not changed that much since the 1970s. These films, in combination with the more traditional documentary style films here allow audiences to see how the fight for basic rights continues in religious spaces with LGBTQ+ people leading the charge as they always have. |
INTRODUCTION
Film provides a unique medium for the telling of difficult histories. In the case of this particular film-based exhibit, I sought to tell the untold stories of religious LGBTQ+ individuals, specifically those in evangelical and mainstream American Christianity, during the gay rights movements that have existed from 1970 to the present day. By using film, the project was able to emotionally impact and connect with audiences and present primary sources in ways that are inaccessible through traditional written history. |
Above: A Message of Liberation, Jeff's Interview. The fifth episode. Jeff discusses being an affirming pastor
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FOCUS AND SOURCES
I chose to focus on LGBTQ+ histories between 1970 and today in largely evangelical Christian spaces, with some study of mainstream Christian groups. The first four episodes of the film, available here, addressed the historic gay rights movement using footage from large news sources, like AP, interview and other footage from sermons, churches, groups, and LGBTQ+ individuals licensed under Creative Commons reuse, and B-roll taken with equipment from the Duquesne University digital history lab. I also relied heavily on audio from the LGBT Religious Archives Network at the University of California, Berkeley. LGBT-RAN has an extensive collection of oral histories, exhibits, and other content from religious individuals who were influential parts of the LGBTQ+ community. One of the main obstacles to the film was accessing historical footage of the gay rights movement. In addition to the problem that many news sources did not cover LGBTQ+ related historical events, there was also the problem of accessing footage that was licensed for reuse. Fortunately, several apps allow you to pull footage from locations that allow Creative Commons reuse, such as the Windows app "aTubeCatch." Perhaps my favorite part of the film were the two in-person interviews I was able to conduct. One with a former evangelical pastor who went from homophobic to fully affirming, and another with a recently married couple who participates in Christian religious life. I count these as my greatest successes and perhaps some of the best quality parts of the film, which is why I have chosen to showcase them here. In addition, I believe these contemporary stories tie together the long history of the gay rights movement in religious spaces, with current issues going on with churches and LGBTQ+ individuals today. |
SUCCESS AND FAILURES
One problem was the ongoing emotional toll of watching and rewatching so many hours of footage of pastors, churches, the news, and other sources with flagrant, violent homophobia. I had not counted on this being such a difficult obstacle to overcome. However, after the fourteenth hour of watching bigotry on film had started to take its emotional toll. I'm thankful that none of the intended audience for my film (religious people, LGBTQ+ historians, LGBTQ+ people who are or are not religious, etc.) will not have to watch the same amount of homophobic rhetoric that I did! I also faced difficulty with the software, as I was running a Windows tablet computer using the free VDSC Video Editing software. It's free and open source, which is fantastic and ethical to me; however, the software had some bugs and quirks that made it frustrating at times. You can see during film cuts where the video stops and starts, which doesn't normally happen in programs like iMovie. As a single-student-produced film, the quality is far from perfect. However, it illustrates the power of film to convey hard historical truths and alter the record in ways that are publicly accessible and emotionally powerful. I encourage you to watch whatever parts of the film you find interesting, and send comments, questions, advice, or other info via the Discussion Tab. Let's chat! |
Above: Final Episode of A Message of Liberation, featuring Danielle and Aubrey discussing their marriage, religion, and LGBTQ+ rights today.
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