Gay USA

Friday November 14, 2008
3:00pm

USA 1977 78 minute running time

Director: Arthur Bressan

Free Film!

Gay USA is a US documentary released in 1978 and directed by Arthur J. Bressan, Jr. The documentary focuses on the gay rights movement. Comprised of footage shot at a number of gay pride events around the United States in 1977, the film captures a time just as the gay rights movement began facing the first organized backlash in the form of Anita Bryant and her campaign to repeal anti-discrimination protection in Dade County.

Arthur Bressan created a gay-America panorama when he commissioned filmmakers throughout the country to record all June 1977 Lesbian and Gay Pride parades and marches. He then cut on-the-street interviews--gay women and men talking about their lovers and how they came out--with the resulting footage, including lesbians marching against housework and drag queens protesting fascism. A revolutionary document.

"When the Anita Bryant debacle happened I was hurled into making this political documentary. My naive dream was that if we all saw ourselves in our numbers we would never buy into the guilt trip again. Not from Anita Bryant or from [NYC] Mayor Koch or from Cardinal Cook. Not even from AIDS...."- Arthur Bressan