After protests over the erasure of trans women of color from Robert Emmerich’s Stonewall, expectations are high for the short film Happy Birthday, Marsha!, about trans activist Marsha P. Johnson. If the trailer’s any indication, this movie will slay!
Marsha features acclaimed Tangerine star Mya Taylor in the title role.
The trailer shows off a sumptuous, hyper-real 60’s aesthetic.
The film also features trans actresses Eve Lindley, Cherno Biko, and Rios O’Leary-Tagiuri.
There’s even a glimpse of Marsha P. Johnson herself in the trailer!
That’s right — it’s gonna be legendary.
BuzzFeed News caught up with filmmakers Reina Gossett and Sasha Wortzel, who showed us some wonderful exclusive images from the making of the movie.
Gossett told BuzzFeed News: “The pictures were all taken during the shooting of our ‘Hotel Dixie’ scene in which Marsha, Sylvia, Bambi and Andorra are hanging out in a hotel room they share.The scene is a flashback to 1965 when Sylvia is new to their scene and to sex work. Marsha is acting a as a sort of mentor to Sylvia.”
Commenting on the rich look of the film, Gossett notes: “We wanted the movie to reflect Marsha’s beauty. She wasn’t really fancy but she was fanciful, and when we talk about aesthetics it’s about the beauty of how she relates to other people.”
Wortzel adds: “Frequently people expect that if a film is political it’s not going to be beautiful. It was really important for us to make a film that was deeply political and personal in many ways but also gorgeous to look at.”
Happy Birthday Marsha is currently raising funds on Indiegogo, to make sure the film will be as amazing and beautiful as possible.
Venting time! If you’re not a fan of bitching and whining please scroll past this. I’m so over my best friend’s brother. I moved in with her, her husband, and her brother because I am good friends with her and loved the idea of living with her. I however never wanted to live with her brother, I just thought he’ll have his space and I’ll have mine and the separation will make it okay. Well boy oh boy what a shitty roommate he turned out to be. First apparently this whole home is about sharing which would be all fine but he specifically takes full advantage of what’s yours is mine. I think it’d bother me less if I ever saw him buy groceries but he never does. Also half the time I’m stuck sharing my things with him when I didn’t even know I was sharing. He just finds whatever is yummy in the fridge and eats it. He never bothers to ask he just takes and takes. I myself rely largely on work to feed me as I can’t really afford groceries so largely this isn’t an issue I run into a lot. Lately however I got back into buying things for coffee ans making myself coffee so I can keep energized for work and guess who’s been drinking all my damn coffee in my fucking mugs. Like I have no issue sharing my mugs but I recently bought a new one and was so excited to use it the next morning to only find it dirty in the sink half full with my coffee and my creamer which he didn’t ask for or pay for or even ask. My budget typically is pretty tight so how much creamer and coffee I make has to last me a certain period of time and he is up in here wasting it >:( I about lost it. Then tonight I had some guacamole leftovers (no chips tho mind you) and he some how are that too. We had no other Mexican or even Mexican adjacent food and he ate my damn guacamole. It makes me so mad and she’s like well write your name on it. This frustrates me because never in my life with all the people I’ve lived with have i had this issue before. It also doesn’t help that avocados are not cheap >:/ I want to move but I feel like that’s me being way too dramatic especially because I’ve only recently moved in here but he is driving me crazy. What makes it worse is for a few weeks he was in jail and it was so nice while he was away. Like pure heaven so I’m now being a terrible person for hoping he goes to jail again because she won’t ever kick him out. And trust me eating my food is the tamest bad thing he’s done but she’ll never learn until he truly burns her and I just don’t want to get burnt trying to pull her hand out of the fire.
Notice how quick the Orlando shooting turned into a referendum on gun control rather than one on anti-LGBT legislation sweeping the U.S.
Notice how this instance of anti-LGBT violence is being used to bolster the state security apparatus rather than challenge it.
Notice how queer death is used to bolster the imperialist “war on terror” & legitimize state sanctioned racial profiling.
Which is what the terrorist watch list mostly is.
Notice how no one wants to put the shooting in the context of anti-LGBT, antiblack, anti-immigrant transmisogynistic violence.
Notice how much easier it is for us to discuss “islamist violence” than any of these other violences.
Notice how they never use the word “terrorism” when it’s queer POC dying.
Notice how the shooting is being used as an excuse to further militarize queer and POC spaces.
Notice the ties between rising nativism/nationalism and the death rates of the ones excluded in order to “make america great again”]
And now we’ve got states like Mississippi trying to pass more anti-gay/discriminatory laws. Right after the Orlando massacre. What the FUCK is wrong with people.
