MAJOR!
-By Naomi Ullian-
Rural homos, we're calling you! Whatever our reclusive tendencies and however lukewarm we may at times feel about Facebook, sometimes the social media really benefits us. Like when Green Mountain Crossroads executive director came across the Facebook page of the documentary MAJOR!, which is now coming to a theater near you.
The "Major to the People" campaign has been offering queer and especially POC-led queer organizations an opportunity to screen this glorious documentary in their communities for free.. When HB pounced on the opportunity via a short application, the warm communications from the film's director/producers included, "We are so excited for you to bring the film to rural Vermont!" In the tradition of Miss Major herself, the screening of this film in Brattleboro will be a collaboration between Green Mountain Crossroads and Lost River Racial Justice (LRRJ) as part of LRRJ’s racial justice film series.
Here are just a few reasons you should join us for a free screening of this highly acclaimed film on April 29th at 4:00 pm at the Latchis theater in downtown Brattleboro.
In 2016 MAJOR! was screened at over 60 film festivals globally and won 19 awards for best documentary. A story of resilience, community, and liberation, MAJOR! chronicles the life and organizing of the fierce queer elder Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a Black transgender woman and veteran of the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion who served for many years as the executive director of the Transgender, Gender Variant, and Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP), a Bay Area grassroots organization led by trans women of color advocating for the rights and wellbeing of trans women of color inside and outside of prison.
In the face of national headlines which often feel like a reduction of queer struggles and triumphs to mainstream gay rights and marriage equality, GMC is so happy for the opportunity to support and help make more visible the work and victories of marginalized members of queer communities. We understand this documentation of Miss Major's life not only as one person's individual journey but as community history and the transformative and revolutionary imperatives of caring for one another.
In partnership with LRRJ, the screening of MAJOR! is a part of a racial justice film series which includes the recent screening of a documentary about the life and work of the Black Civil Rights Movement leader Bayard Rustin, whose queerness is often left out of history books, not to mention the obscuring of his life and work in dominant narratives of Civil Rights in many school curricula. For rural queers people, whose lives often exist at many margins, making LGBTQ organizing visibile is necessary acknowledgement and inspiration in moving us toward collective and collaborative liberation.
As queer elders move away from income-generating work and health needs increase, the work of queer communities is to create networks of care and gratitude, which support the comfort of elders as well as their capacity to continue to contribute their experiences and knowledge to younger generations and organizers. At the screening, GMC will be collecting donations to be shared with Miss Major’s Circle of Care as well as Green Mountain Crossroads, and The Root Social Justice Center.
Official trailer and more information at missmajorfilm.com.
MAJOR! April 29 | 4PM | At The Latchis Theater, Brattleboro | FREE!