Pride Denied

Synopsis

Pride Denied tells the story of how corporate sponsors coopted the concept of LGBTQ pride, turning it into a feel-good brand and blunting its radical political edge. The film locates the origins of pride in sites of grassroots resistance and revolt, going back to the anti-police Stonewall uprising led by queer and trans people of color in 1969. It then traces how the deeply political roots of pride morphed into the depoliticized big-business PRIDE™ spectacles of today -- multimillion-dollar events designed to project an image of tolerance and equality rather than calling attention to the relationship between normative identity, power, and sexual repression. The film also offers a stunning case study in the politics of "pinkwashing," detailing how the government of Israel has used its purported tolerance of gay rights to deflect attention away from its systematic repression of Palestinian human rights. Drawing on the insights of activists, artists, and educators, Pride Denied makes a compelling case for returning to the progressive political activism and grassroots community support that characterized the early LGBT rights movement.

Featuring Jasbir Puar, Dean Spade, Christina Hanhardt, and others.

Release Date:2016

Duration:61 min

ISBN:1-944024-01-8

Subtitles:English

Trailers

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Filmmaker Credits

Produced, Directed & Edited by

Kami Chisholm

Co-produced by

Aimée Mitchell & Danielle Waters

Resources: Downloads and Related Links

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Transcript

Praise

"To criticize the celebration of LGBTQ advances by the mainstream media is by no means to undermine or take for granted how far we have come in the struggle for gay rights: It shows a valid concern for the ways in which corporations engage with LGBTQ causes to make gay liberation profitable. Commercial interests of corporate companies -- especially when it comes to advocating gay rights -- should always be questioned, which is why Chisholm's documentary is an important one. By highlighting the ways in which social issues are often obfuscated by the mainstream media and its appropriation of gay culture, Pride Denied opens up space for valuable discussion."

- Indiewire

"On the heels of the US Supreme Court decision to grant legal rights for same-sex marriage in that country, we are thrilled and indeed proud to announce our support for an in-production documentary that questions the mainstreaming of pride and the assimilation of queer politics into hetero-mainstream culture. Kami Chisholm’s bold documentary Pride Denied moves beyond same-sex marriage, parades and gays in the military to examine ongoing sites of oppression in the US and Canada for queer and trans people that have been largely overlooked by mainstream media in the clamouring to celebrate the legal right to marry."

- Cinema Politica (which selected Pride Denied for its "Adopt-a-Doc" program)

"The historic victory of same-sex marriage becoming legal nationwide within the U.S. has been a monumental win for the LGBTQ community. Yet, the ongoing battle for LGBTQ rights and fight against queer injustice is far from over. Pride Denied hopes to tackle many of these ignored issues within the LGBTQ community (like job discrimination, unjust immigration laws and failed healthcare policies) that continue to hinder countless queer individuals. Pride Denied will also question our community's reflection on the concept of LGBTQ pride to see if it truly embraces our diverse narratives as a whole."

- The LGBT Update

"Gay marriage is legal: our work here is done, right? Wrong. This provocative documentary investigates the World Pride Parade in Toronto to address the limits of contemporary gay civil rights politics. In the rush to secure gay marriage rights and inclusion in the military, North American mainstream GLBTQ civil rights campaigns have forgotten — even excluded — those people who do not conform to respectable, gender-normative, white, upwardly mobile, consuming gay and lesbian lifestyles. Leading queer and trans activists and scholars critique how mainstream gay rights discourses have been used to assert homonationalism abroad, where the limited acceptance of gays and lesbians in the West becomes a standard by which other countries should be judged. The documentary addresses such debates as the corporatization of GLBT pride parades, Israel’s use of gay marketing to “pinkwash” the country’s treatment of Palestinians, the class privilege underpinning gay marriage, and the increased harassment of poor queers, homeless people, and sex workers by Toronto police (as elsewhere) in efforts to gentrify the city. This documentary asserts a necessary reminder of the intersections among gender, sexual, racial, economic, and regional inequalities and how gay rights for a privileged few make invisible once again the daily struggles of many GLBTQ citizens around the world. Likely to provoke lively debates at screenings and in classrooms, the documentary offers tools to begin a conversation about the work still to do in achieving true social equality."

- Katherine Sender
Professor of Communication, University of Michigan

“Center[s] a critique of homonationalism through the corporatization of Pride events (primarily the Toronto 2014 World Pride) and the deployment of LGBTI and gay rights in support of conservative and violent political and economic interests. […] Well-known scholars in contemporary queer studies, such as Christina Hanhardt, Dean Spade, and Jasbir Puar, […] do an excellent job of explaining complex histories and what would be, for many students, unfamiliar and challenging theoretical and political concepts.”

- Films for the Feminist Classroom