Inauguration Day – My View

We started the day with all of us answering e-mails – Atom working press possibilities and updating our schedule, me working on the blog, and Anna doing some guerrilla marketing. For the first time since we arrived on Friday, we turned on the TV (muted) to watch the coverage of the inauguration.

At 9:40 we ran out to catch the shuttle, arriving at Sundance headquarters just before 10:30 for a roundtable with funders and broadcasters of feature-length documentaries. Instead, every television screen in the building was turned to the inauguration as Barack Obama spoke to our nation for the first time as president. Applause, shouts of “amen,” and cheering broke out from time to time. For me, I was quite moved by his words. I teared up. Many of us have waited a very long time for a leader like Barack Obama to move us away from the greed and aggression that has informed our culture and driven our politics for decades. It was a great moment. Yet at the same time, as he called the nation to include people of all religions, even those who are not religious, and as he named all the different colors of people, calling on us to break down the boundaries, there was one glaring omission. He did not speak to the prejudice and discrimination against those of us with different sexuality. From the anti-gay campaign of Anita Bryant and the Southern Baptist Church through the harrowing years of the AIDs epidemic that gutted the gay community, to the devastating passage of Prop 8 in California, gays, lesbians, and others have been used as scapegoats in the most horrifying manner in the name of religion and conservative politics. I heard nothing in his speech that included me. Sure, I’m white. I have no religious affiliation. But I am still vulnerable to the whims and fears of people that do not recognize me as a full human being. The majority should never be able to vote on a law that would remove the rights of any minority. It is antithetical to the intent of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

So as the national anthem began, for the first time in my life, I did not stand up. When I am given the same rights as my fellow citizens, then I will stand.

Day 6 – Getting on with the work

OKAY! So I got that out of my system. The round table began late at Sundance, since everyone watched the inauguration. So from 11:30 to 12:45, Atom, Anna, and I split up and moved from table to table to listen to representatives from many funding agencies and broadcasters, and also to pitch our documentary to them. I spoke with POV (the PBS show) and was able to give a screening copy to both TV2 Denmark and HBO. The response was all very positive. Afterward, we were very jazzed, and at the same time drained. It’s hard to have the ON switch flipped day after day. After a lunch that took 2 hours (very slow service), we hit the Queer Lounge for our meeting with a representative from a very good company that has shown quite a lot of interest in our film. They act as a middleman between filmmakers and all the distribution platforms, somewhat like an agent. It was a heady meeting, incredibly positive. Anna and I have been discussing the distribution strategy we think would work best for Graphic Sexual Horror. And the proposed distribution deal was almost identical. So we celebrated by purchasing a vintage bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape and spending another late evening in the hot tub, not sure if we should hold our breath or breathe a sigh of relief. And Atom missed her flight home.
Karaoke on the way home in the Music TaxiHot tub outside at night: Barb, Anna and Atom, our lovely friend-for-hire