''Happy Birthday, Marsha!'' is a fictional

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

that imagines the

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

and

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

rights pioneers

Marsha P. Johnson Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945 – July 6, 1992) also known as Malcolm Michaels Jr., was an American gay liberation''I've been involved in gay liberation ever since it first started in 1969'', 15:20 into the interview, Johnson is quoted as ...

and

Sylvia Rivera Sylvia Rivera (July 2, 1951 – February 19, 2002) was an American gay liberation and transgender rights activist September 21, 1995. Accessed July 24, 2015. who was also a noted community worker in New York. Rivera, who identified as a drag q ...

in the hours that led up to the 1969

Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of Ju ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The film stars

Mya Taylor Mya Taylor (born March 28, 1991) is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Alexandra in the 2015 film ''Tangerine'' for which she won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female. Early life Mya Taylor was b ...

as Johnson. It was written, directed, and produced by

Tourmaline Tourmaline ( ) is a crystalline silicate mineral group in which boron is compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. Tourmaline is a gemstone and can be found in a wide variety of colors. The ...

and Sasha Wortzel. The filmmakers raised over $25,000 on Kickstarter to fund the film. The film is a sponsored project of

Women Make Movies Women Make Movies is a non-profit feminist media arts organization based in New York City. Founded by Ariel Dougherty and Sheila Paige with Dolores Bargowski, WMM was first a feminist production collective that emerged from city-wide Women's Li ...

. The film premiered in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in March 2018. The film also showed at the 2018 BFI London Flare LGBTQ+ Film Festival. The film received some press after Tourmaline accused David France of using some of her labor in his own film, '' The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson'', on Johnson's life, which France denied.

Historical accuracy

The film has been described as "ahistorical", as it has some major historical discrepancies. The movie claims that Johnson was throwing a birthday party on June 28, the night of the

Stonewall riot The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the LGBT community#Terminology, gay community in response to a police raid that began in t ...

, but that was impossible since Johnson's birthday has been documented to be August 24.U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, Death, Burial, Cemetery & Obituaries: "Michaels, Malcolm Jr alcolm Mike Michaels Jr Michae Jr alculm Jr SSN: 147346493. Gender: Male. Race: Black. Birth Date: 24 Aug 1945. Birth Place: Elizabeth, Union, New Jersey lizabeth, New Jersey Death Date: Jul 1992. Database on-line. Provo, UT, US: Ancestry.com"Scan of Birth Certificate
Accessed July 8, 2017 The movie claims that Sylvia Rivera was fighting with Marsha P Johnson in the riot, but her presence has been denied by many Stonewall veterans, including Johnson herself. Johnson claimed that Rivera has "fallen asleep in Bryant Park after taking heroin" at the outbreak of the Stonewall riot and that Johnson "woke her up to tell her about the riots."David Carter: Historian of The Stonewall Riots
Accessed July 8, 2017 The film depicts Johnson as the first person to fight back the police, but that account was also denied by Johnson herself, who stated that she arrived at the bar at two o' clock, and "the place was already on fire... it was a raid already. The riots had already started."Making Gay History The Podcast, episode 11 - Johnson & Wicker
Accessed July 8, 2017 Therefore, Johnson could not have been the first person to fight back at the riot.

References

External links

Official website
American LGBT-related short films Films about trans women LGBT-related drama films 2018 LGBT-related films 2018 drama films African-American LGBT-related films LGBT-related films based on actual events Films set in 1969 Kickstarter-funded films Biographical films about LGBT people 2010s English-language films 2010s American films American drama short films {{LGBT-drama-film-stub