The Freedom to Marry

I felt like I was standing there beside the freedom to marry activists, meeting, organizing, marching, crying, cheering. A very personal, insider reveal about making positive change. Wonderfully sad and happy moments and a blueprint for bringing people around to see what equality means to the disenfranchised.

You might be tired of the LGBT hoopla over the last few years, but you might be curious about the history of the movement that led to outlawing the banning of gay marriages just last year, thanks to The Supreme Court. The Freedom to Marry is a first-rate doc about the activities leading up to that monumental decision.

Evan Wolfson occupies the prime spot in this comprehensive and accessible recounting of the struggle between liberal and conservative believers about gay marriage. The doc takes an almost neutral stance, letting supporters of the gay movement and the defense of traditional marriage duke it out. Because most of the shots are of supporters, the testimony of the opposition takes a starring role too, so necessary in any doc or debate on such an incendiary topic.

Director Eddie Rosenstein takes a moderate approach as he concentrates on the drama leading up to the SCOTUS decision rather than beating us up with the liberal agenda. As charismatic as Wolfson is, Mary Bonauto, who argues the case in front of the Court, is cool and efficient, and of course successful. One of the finest sequences shows her listening to the recorded trial and stopping the recording to comment on her testimony. Although she does not brag about her part in any way, her sheer competence comes out regardless.

If you're a history buff, you will enjoy the accurate arc of success several years out. If you are a liberal who gets off on great movements like this, you will not be disappointed. If you are a cinephile, you will delight in the doc craftsmanship integrating talking heads with historical footage for a complete film siding with the tide of humanitarian sympathy for freedom of expression characteristic of the U.S.A.

I saw F2M in December as a special showing/fundraiser and it was riveting. The theater was full with people needing a reminder that change is possible and change will happen. The documentary felt like a slow, unfolding mystery. Even though I knew how it would end, though, the way it got there was the real story. Like All The President's Men, this was the story of how a story became a story.

The pacing was perfect: detailed, personal, telling multiple stories at once. Really fun to watch and such an important reminder of what people can do despite a political climate. Love can win.

Even if you don't love docs, and even if you aren't involved in gay issues - see this film. It's really a great ride, and super inspirational. Some friends took us to see it at the Savannah Film Festival. It definitely wasn't my first choice of a film to see. I wanted to see a fiction film, to be honest. But boy am I glad we went! As they say in the old commercials, "I laughed, I cried." I know it went on to win best documentary at Savannah. I hope it wins a lot more awards. Deserves it.

The Freedom to Marry (2016) is a documentary directed by Eddie Rosenstein. Now, the right of people to have a same-sex marriage is simply part of our culture. It's hard to remember that this right came only after a very recent Supreme Court ruling (June 2015).

In the years to come, young people will assume that African-Americans could always ride in the front of the bus, and that race or religion would not bar anyone from becoming President. However, these rights that we take for granted were all won by people who kept pushing for them over many years.

This movie shows us the struggle for same-sex marriage that went on for years before the Supreme Court ruling. Two major players were activist Evan Wolfson and attorney Mary Bonauto.

The movie brings us face-to-face with both Wolfson and Bonauto, as well as with many people who were key supporters, although their roles were somewhat less prominent.

There's no recreated footage in this film. We see interviews with many people, especially Wolfson and Bonauto and we see important meetings, conferences, and strategy sessions, which were filmed on the spot, and then used in the movie.

I think it's important for any interested person--straight or in the LGBTQ community--to see this film and learn from it. What started as a (literally) impossible dream, ended in a historical victory. However, this victory didn't come from hoping and wishing. It came from hard, strategic efforts on the part of many, many people.

We saw this movie at Rochester's excellent Little Theatre. Any movie works better on the large screen, but this one will work almost as well on the small screen. Find it and see it!