Release Date: October 7, 2011
Studio: First Run Features
Director: Tim Wolff
Screenwriter: Tim Wolff
Starring: Not Available
Genre: Documentary
Plot Summary: Mardi Gras, drag royalty and a glittering civil rights revolution - where else could these elements come together but in the city of New Orleans? Interweaving archival footage with contemporary interviews, Tim Wolff's documentary film "The Sons of Tennessee Williams" tells the story of New Orleans' outrageous gay Mardi Gras over five decades and uncovers the history of the earliest civil rights for gay people in the U.S. In January 1959, during the height of anti-gay laws that criminalized public association for gay people in this country, a group of men in New Orleans decided to throw a Mardi Gras ball of their own. Mardi Gras organizations in New Orleans, called Krewes, are social clubs comprised of members who celebrate the annual Carnival season together. Every Krewe has their own festivities, including parties and parades, usually ending with a formal ball and the coronation of a King and Queen. But years of travails ensued...
"The Sons of Tennessee Williams" is the result of 15 years of research through 120 hours of archival ball footage, still pictures and interviews from some 20 of the "SONS" themselves, ending with contemporary HD coverage of the Krewe of Armeinius 40th anniversary ball in 2008. We travel through the pathos of 1950s era persecution and arrest to the uncommon freedoms in the decades that followed as the gay krewes' popularity and political power began to emerge. A full decade before the Stonewall riots, these men, who are the embodiment of the archetypal "southern bachelor gentleman," complete with the cast-iron fortitude, worked directly with the public to create an open, accepted gay cultural event. Soon, "society matrons begged for ball tickets from their hairdressers and everyone in New Orleans wanted to go to the ball, gay, straight, even the Mayor of the city!"
Studio: First Run Features
Director: Tim Wolff
Screenwriter: Tim Wolff
Starring: Not Available
Genre: Documentary
Plot Summary: Mardi Gras, drag royalty and a glittering civil rights revolution - where else could these elements come together but in the city of New Orleans? Interweaving archival footage with contemporary interviews, Tim Wolff's documentary film "The Sons of Tennessee Williams" tells the story of New Orleans' outrageous gay Mardi Gras over five decades and uncovers the history of the earliest civil rights for gay people in the U.S. In January 1959, during the height of anti-gay laws that criminalized public association for gay people in this country, a group of men in New Orleans decided to throw a Mardi Gras ball of their own. Mardi Gras organizations in New Orleans, called Krewes, are social clubs comprised of members who celebrate the annual Carnival season together. Every Krewe has their own festivities, including parties and parades, usually ending with a formal ball and the coronation of a King and Queen. But years of travails ensued...
"The Sons of Tennessee Williams" is the result of 15 years of research through 120 hours of archival ball footage, still pictures and interviews from some 20 of the "SONS" themselves, ending with contemporary HD coverage of the Krewe of Armeinius 40th anniversary ball in 2008. We travel through the pathos of 1950s era persecution and arrest to the uncommon freedoms in the decades that followed as the gay krewes' popularity and political power began to emerge. A full decade before the Stonewall riots, these men, who are the embodiment of the archetypal "southern bachelor gentleman," complete with the cast-iron fortitude, worked directly with the public to create an open, accepted gay cultural event. Soon, "society matrons begged for ball tickets from their hairdressers and everyone in New Orleans wanted to go to the ball, gay, straight, even the Mayor of the city!"
Keep an eye out for this upcoming flick - The Sons of Tennessee Williams. Watching the preview below, I'm struck by the sheer unrecognized history. If nothing else, check out the clip starting at 7:30 where they show former queens in their 70s and 80s doing a show. In Indiana, we don't have anything that's been out-and-proud long enough to have that much history. I can't wait to see this movie.
THE SONS OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS is the story of the gay men of New Orleans who created a vast and fantastic culture of "drag balls" starting in the late 1950s. These men worked with the traditions of Mardi Gras to bring gay culture into public settings in the early 1960s. By 1969, there were four gay Mardi Gras krewes, legally chartered by the state of Louisiana, throwing yearly extravaganzas at civic venues around the city.They succeeded in bringing down the "Jim Crow" laws that targeted gay people for offenses such as public assembly, same-sex dancing and cross-dressing. They staged a flamboyant costumed revolution without politics and won freedoms during a time, as now, when laws and people fought against them.
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