By definition, love is a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. The conversation of race, social status, class, or gender is not attached. How is it that the institution of marriage, which would not be if not for love, could ever be denied to anyone who loves?
Filmmakers Ryan White and Ben Cotner, winners of the Sundance Film Festival award for Best Directing Honors and the Audience Award at the SXSW festival this year, create masterpiece with their HBO documentary film The Case Against 8. What took five years to piece together, the film recounts the legal efforts that subsequently led to the overturning of California’s Proposition 8; a law that emerged back in 2008 in order to prevent the union of same-sex partners from being legally recognizable. The improbable defense duo Ted Olsen and David Boies, who years prior to were representing opposing parties in the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case (2000) where Olsen claimed victory declaring George W. Bush winner of Florida’s 25 electoral votes, were the supreme team behind the groundbreaking stakes which spew enormous public attention. Known conservative Republican attorney, Olsen received backlash as being a traitor to conservative belief. Same-sex couples Kris Perry & Sandy Krier, and Paul Katami & Jeff Zarillo were the victorious Plaintiffs in the Perry vs. Schwarzenegger case which ultimately went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, gaining the support of President Obama and other top political figures.
Although a conquest for California, the issue continues to be a fight today among the 33 other states where same-sex marriage is still considered illegal. The fact that there is still discrimination based on any circumstance in this day and age is preposterous. Marriage is a personal right and therefore should not be up for discussion with any outside groups. Before the film’s HBO premiere on June 23, audience members are welcomed to catch it in select theaters Friday, June 6 around NYC, LA, and a few other major U.S. cities.
The subjects of the documentary were gracious enough to share their thoughts and hopes for this pivotal turn in history with us:
Attorney: David Boies
Q: What was it like working alongside Ted Olsen on such an important case?
A: I thought it was a great opportunity. Ted and I are close friends, so it was a great opportunity to work with Ted this time around. This was a defining civil rights issue of this decade in this country and many other countries around the world. I don’t believe anyone can watch this film, no matter what your views are, and not come out rooting for those Plaintiffs, wanting them to have what we all want, which is a happy-loving family.
Attorney: Ted Olsen
Q: Have you always been on this side of the argument of marriage equality? And what are your hopes for future outcomes that may transpire from the making of this movie?
A: I never felt that it was right to discriminate against persons on the basis of their sexual orientation, never. We feel that, David and I have talked about this a lot, people who see this movie and see the love between the Plaintiffs for one another, and understand their lives and what its meant to them to be excluded the right to get married, anyone who sees the movie will feel the same way we do. It’s been enormously gratifying to be a part of this, probably the best thing that I’ve done as a lawyer. It’s our goal to convince the country that this is right.
-Sade Graham
Another important film on the issue of Gay Rights, which HBO screened this week was “The Normal Heart,” which over a million people tuned in to see. We spoke with some of the supporting cast at the film’s New York premiere.
Adam B. Shapiro
Q: So tell me a little bit about your character in the film.
My character in the film is Bella, I call him the bear of “The Normal Heart.” He’s the class clown, he is the one with the dirtiest sense of humor, he can find a joke about anything and what was both so challenging for me and so exciting for me throughout this process was that I got to find a way to laugh, I got to find a way to make people laugh, in the midst of all of this darkness and sometimes when things are at their darkest that’s what you need most of all, you need a laugh.
Q: Speak about collaborating with Ryan.
Ryan Murphy … Focused, focused, focused. He was ten steps ahead of everybody else the whole process, watching him work was almost dizzying. Because he’d be running here, he’d be running there, he’d be concerned with the smallest detail of each shot, he’d be there to talk about the moment with the actors, he’d be there to give you an idea that you hadn’t maybe thought of initially. And it was so important to him to tell this story… it was really inspiring to work with him.
Frank De Julio
So tell me about your role in the film.
I play Nick, it’s one that Larry added these new characters from the screenplay, he plays a choreographer and he’s partnered with Nino … besides Ned and Felix there you see the other focused couple. And for me anyway, Nick’s character I feel like it’s just to show how fast it happens. Like the severity of how you get it, and within a week and a half, two weeks – you’re gone. And something like that my generation I was growing up in the late 80’s – no idea. Yah know? And I can’t imagine with my social circle of friends now.
Tell me about why this is an important story for you to be apart of?
Because we live in New York City, so the plague has spoken for itself. People know about the plague here, people know about the plague other places. I’m so excited to be apart of this because it’s for the masses, and by no exaggeration are we doing anything added; this is what happened. And this is a movie, that two years ago before I even got the audition I was excited to see it. I’ve never been apart of something that I really want to see. You know what I mean? So when I got the audition and was offered the part I was just beside myself to be apart of something that could be such a political movement. Because it’s more than a movie. It’s a movement
Sean Meehan
Q: Tell me a little bit about your character in the film.
I play the character of Morton, who is not in the original play, however was pretty integral to the goings on in real life. He was as Larry has put it the one that deceived him. So Morton’s real life persona, who’s name I won’t reveal, he was the one that essentially pushed Larry out of the GMHC and was most effected by Larry’s sort of brash techniques and the way that he was going about things, which we know now was obviously quite successful, but at the time my character in real life was at odds with him.
Q: Tell me about meeting with Larry and him guiding you through this role.
Well actually he would yell out, “you’re supposed to be sinister” that was sort of his guidance to me. Because from his perspective of course I was this horrible, sinister man who pushed him out of the GMHC, which of course is not something you can play as an actor. However, that was kind of his guidance but his presence was probably more guidance than anybody needed on that set. That was sort of the energy that kept us on.
Q: Was he there everyday?
No, he was not, he’s been struggling with a lot of health issues so he was certainly there quite a bit but you know as much as he could for sure.
Q: Speak about why this was an important story for you to be apart of.
But this is our civil rights issue, in this generation, so why wouldn’t you want to fight like hell to get something done about these issues. Obviously there’s been a lot done with AIDS research but just the general acceptance of peoples lifestyles, allowing people to do whatever the hell they want in their life, and live there life the way they choose.
Musician Rob Thomas was there to show his support. He told us, “I think this [film] kind of represents a time … I was born in 72’ … everything after this, awareness became a buzz word. The idea of safety became a buzz word and the idea of sex changed forever. And then also the idea of people that have an illness and the stigma that was surrounding that. This stigma started to go away because of this. I think for that reason alone knowing that I kind of came up during that time … is pretty important, and then on top of it, our friend Taylor is in it. And he’s been telling us for months how exciting this is gonna be.”
