Review: STONEWALL UPRISING

A critical flaw in the well-meaning documentary STONEWLL UPRISING is foreshadowed in an opening title card that reads “few photos of the raid and riots that followed exist. Other images in this film are either recreations or drawn from other events of this time”. For an event that was so integral to the advancement of gay civil rights, the New York Stonewall riots are surprisingly undocumented in terms of archival footage. These riots are considered the ‘Rosa Parks’ moment for the gay rights movement. On June 28, 1969, nightstick-wielding police carried out the latest in their regular series of raids at the mafia-run Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. The Stonewalls homosexual patrons, accustomed to the extortion, brutality, and beatings, finally decided to fight back.  They resisted arrest, which sparked a battle, soon drawing thousands of combative supporters who gathered in the street for a fiery three-night skirmish against the police. A symbolic movement was born and a ripple effect was created that can be felt in the gay community to this day.

The 1950’s were a time when homosexuality was considered a mental illness and gay sex was illegal in all 50 states. STONEWALL UPRISING opens with lengthy testimonials from older men and women discussing what it was like growing up gay during that homophobic time. These statements are combined with newsreel footage including an historic 1965 gay march in Philadelphia and some sadly bizarre antihomosexual propaganda films from that era. The problem with STONEWALL UPRISING is that this opening segment goes on for half the film’s running time. I suppose this buildup is supposed to make the section of the film recounting the actual Stonewall riots more meaningful but I felt this was material that had been covered in many previous gay-themed documentaries and seemed like familiar padding. I was expecting something more specific – an account of an event, but STONEWALL UPRISING is more a broad overview of the gay experience and the movie hits its stride only when eyewitnesses to the events at the Stonewall finally tell their stories. The details of the raid are reconstructed mostly through speech (and a handful of grainy B&W photos) so with no actual footage of the event, the filmmakers faced a tough challenge keeping STONEWALL UPRISING cinematic. With so little to work with in terms of elements, maybe making a feature-length doc was not the right avenue, yet at the same time, I’m not sure how they could have improved it. Perhaps the Stonewall riot would make a good backdrop for a narrative (and it has; there was the 1985 drama STONEWALL which I have not seen) but STONEWALL UPRISING is a movie frustrated by its limitations.

Overall Rating: 2 .5 out of 5  Stars