''Happy Birthday, Marsha!'' is a 2018 fictional

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

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 ...

and

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

rights pioneers Marsha P. Johnson and

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

in the hours that led up to the 1969

Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, Stonewall revolution, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous riots and demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The film stars Mya Taylor as Johnson and Eve Lindley as Rivera. It was written, directed, and produced by

Tourmaline Tourmaline ( ) is a crystalline silicate mineral, silicate mineral group in which boron is chemical compound, compounded with chemical element, elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. This gemstone comes in a ...

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 Maria Dougherty, Ariel Dougherty and Sheila Paige with Dolores Bargowski, WMM was first a feminist production collective that emerged from ...

. The film premiered in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

at Outfest Fusion 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 and footage in his 2017 documentary, '' The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson''. France denied the allegations. Subsequent investigative articles in ''

The Advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. The Advocate, The Advocates or Advocate may also refer to: Magazines * The Advocate (magazine), ''The Advocate'' (magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States * ''The Harvard Advocate' ...

'' and ''Jezebel'' found Tourmaline's accusations baseless.

Synopsis

The fictional treatment is inspired by the various, conflicting rumors surrounding the

Stonewall uprising ''Stonewall Uprising'' is a 2010 American documentary film examining the events surrounding the Stonewall riots that began during the early hours of June 28, 1969. ''Stonewall Uprising'' made its theatrical debut on June 16, 2010, at the Film Fo ...

of June 1969, including the mistaken belief that the uprising took place on Marsha P. Johnson's birthday. It begins with Johnson inviting some friends to a birthday party, and preparing for the celebration. However, after a friend turns down the invitation, Johnson decides to go to the

Stonewall Inn The Stonewall Inn (also known as Stonewall) is a gay bar and recreational tavern at 53 Christopher Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It was the site of the 1969 Stonewall riots, which led to th ...

(a gay bar in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

), planning to read poetry to the Stonewall audience. At the bar, Johnson is confronted by event security, who claim people aren't allowed to perform in drag. Johnson is continually hassled by security and law enforcement throughout the film. After a joyous, drag performance to a supportive audience, Johnson is having a drink at the bar when the two police officers from earlier in the film try to remove Johnson from the bar. An enraged Johnson throws a drink at the officers, immediately inciting chaos in the bar, starting the Stonewall riots.

Cast

* Eve Lindley as

* Cyrus Grace Dunham as Junior *Ken King as Officer Staggert *Rios O'Leary-Tagiuri as Bambi *Silas Howard as Stonewall Manager * Mya Taylor as Marsha P. Johnson *Kristen Parker Lovell as Afro Girl

Historical context

The Stonewall uprising was a series of spontaneous protests led by members of the gay community against the police, that took place at the

, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village, during June, 1969. The first riot began in response to a police raid of the bar in the early hours of June 28. Nine policemen arrived to arrest employees for operating the bar without a liquor license, and the police proceeded to assault and arrest patrons and clear the bar. Police had recently raided two other gay bars in Greenwich Village, but the uprising at the Stonewall Inn marked the first time gay patrons had fought back against the police. Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945 – July 6, 1992) was an African-American

Gay Liberation The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s in the Western world, that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride.Hoff ...

activist and self-identified drag queen, active through the 1960s through the 1990s in New York City and internationally. Johnson fought on the frontlines of the Stonewall riots against the police. Though some mistakenly credited Johnson with starting the riots, Johnson was always open about having arrived at the Stonewall Inn at 3am after the riot had already begun.

(July 2, 1951 – February 19, 2002), a younger drag queen, of Puerto Rican and Venezuelan descentRivera, Sylvia, "Queens In Exile, The Forgotten Ones" in ''Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries: Survival, Revolt, and Queer Antagonist Struggle''. Untorelli Press, 2013. September 21, 1995. Retrieved July 24, 2015. who later in life came to identify as a transgender person,Gan, Jessi
"'Still at the Back of the Bus': Sylvia Rivera's Struggle".
''CENTRO: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies'' 19.1 (Spring 2007): 124-139. was also a gay and transgender rights activist in New York City whose activism began around the time of the Stonewall riots. While Rivera spoke about being at the riots, Marsha P. Johnson and others, including Stonewall historian David Carter, disputed her claims based on contradictory descriptions Rivera gave and eyewitness accounts that deny her presence.

Historical inaccuracies

The film has been described as "ahistorical", as it has major historical discrepancies. Some of these discrepancies include the basic premise that Johnson was throwing a birthday party on June 28, the first night of the

, 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
Retrieved July 8, 2017 The short film claims that Sylvia Rivera was fighting with Marsha P Johnson in the riots, but Rivera's presence has been denied by many Stonewall veterans, including Johnson. Johnson stated multiple times that Rivera has "fallen asleep in Bryant Park after taking heroin" at the outbreak of the Stonewall riot and that Johnson "woke iveraup to tell her about the riots."David Carter: Historian of The Stonewall Riots
Retrieved July 8, 2017 The film depicts Johnson as the first person to fight back against the police, but that account was also denied by Johnson, who gave interviews about arriving at the bar at three in the morning, after "the place was already on fire... it was a raid already. The riots had already started." Therefore, Johnson could not have been the first person to fight back at the riot.

Controversy

In a 2017 Instagram post,

claimed filmmaker David France took inspiration from her grant application video and research to make his documentary, '' The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson.'' In a tweet addressed to him, she accused, "your film only exists because I put that video online." In a ''

Teen Vogue ''Teen Vogue'' is an American progressive online publication, formerly in print, launched in January 2003, as a sister publication to '' Vogue'', targeted at teenage girls and young women. Like ''Vogue'', it included stories about fashion and ...

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page," is a type of written prose commonly found in newspapers, magazines, and online publications. They usually represent a writer's strong and focused opinion on an issue of relevance to a targeted a ...

, she expressed her concerns that France succeeded in making the film she wanted to make because he is white and cisgender, and has access to resources she does not, while her work is marginalized due to being a trans woman of color. France responded on social media and in interviews where he acknowledged his privileges, but also "flatly denied" all allegations of plagiarism. Investigative articles in ''

'' and ''Jezebel'' found Tourmaline's accusations of plagiarism baseless, stating that France had not seen Tourmaline's grant application and had only been told about the project due to mutual friends knowing he had also spoken, since the 1990s, about making a film about Johnson. The "video that ourmalineput online", which she accused France of stealing, was of

's famous "Gay Power!" speech. It was filmed at

NYC Pride The NYC Pride March is an annual event celebrating the LGBTQ community in New York City. The largest pride parade and the largest pride event in the world, the NYC Pride March attracts tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewa ...

in 1973, 10 years before Tourmaline was born, by the Lesbians Organized for Video Experience (LOVE) Collective. It had been shown in the Queer community since 1973, and reached international audiences on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

in 1995 as part of

Arthur Dong Arthur Dong (born October 30, 1953) is an American filmmaker and author whose work centers on Asia America and anti-gay prejudice. Career Arthur Dong was born on October 30, 1953, in San Francisco, San Francisco, California. He graduated from Ga ...

's documentary, ''The Question of Equality: Out Rage '69'', as well as on HBO in 2011. France told journalists, "I knew those clips. Those clips were available in multiple places. The majority of the stuff that was on her page she had borrowed from Randy." (Journalist, archivist and friend of Johnson and Rivera,

Randy Wicker Randolfe Hayden "Randy" Wicker (born February 3, 1938) is an American author, activist, blogger, and archivist. Notable for his involvement in the early homophile and gay liberation movements, Wicker has documented the early years and many of th ...

). Tourmaline had uploaded the "Gay Power!" video clip to Vimeo in 2012. While Tourmaline falsely claimed ownership of the footage in the OpEd, in a tweet on April 17, 2017, Tourmaline admitted she stole the footage: "i stole it and uploaded it in 2012 as a form of direct action against assimilation and historical erasure of trans life". When the LOVE Collective issued a copyright violation claim against Tourmaline and had their footage removed from Tourmaline's Vimeo channel, Tourmaline accused France of being behind the removal. LOVE Collective's Tracy Fitz confirmed to ''The Advocate'' that they, as the license holders, took down Tourmaline's illegal usage, and that France had nothing to do with it. They also confirmed that France paid them for all use of their footage in his films (predominantly footage never used by Tourmaline). In interviews with journalists, France reminded readers that as a gay man who lived through the AIDS pandemic, he not only knew Marsha Johnson, but that he used both personal knowledge and footage he already had of Johnson that he had shot at

ACT UP AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is an international, grassroots political group working to end the AIDS pandemic. The group works to improve the lives of people with AIDS through direct action, medical research, treatment and advocacy, ...

and other

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

-related events for his documentary, ''

How to Survive a Plague ''How to Survive a Plague'' is a 2012 American documentary film depicting the early years of the AIDS epidemic, and the efforts of activist groups ACT UP and TAG. It was directed by David France, a journalist who covered AIDS from its beginnings ...

''. He also provided documents to investigators about his plans to make a film about Johnson, which he had been considering ever since Johnson's death in 1992. Speaking to ''The Advocate'', France did concede one point: he acknowledged that he was present at Cooper Union in November 2015 when Tourmaline exhibited work that included a rare clip of Johnson, speaking in a basement, shot in 1991 by New York University professor Darrell Wilson, previously inaccessible to anyone but New York University film students. France had subsequently obtained a copy of the footage, of which a 14 second excerpt is included in his documentary. While France stated that he had been previously aware of the footage's existence, ''The Advocate'' report agreed that in this one instance, "the fact that his film uses this video after he saw it for the first time during Gossett's presentation does support her claim that, 'Clearly France has seen and learned from our work.'"

References

External links

Official website
*{{IMDb title American LGBTQ-related short films Films about trans women 2010s LGBTQ-related drama films 2018 LGBTQ-related films 2018 drama films 2018 films African-American LGBTQ-related films LGBTQ-related films based on actual events Films set in 1969 Kickstarter-funded films Biographical films about LGBTQ people 2010s English-language films 2010s American films American drama short films Films set in New York City