Roland Emmerich normally spends his time destroying as much of the world as possible in the likes of The Day After Tomorrow and 2012 (he’s currently shooting the sequel to Independence Day), but for his next film he’s looking at a conflict that took place on a slightly smaller scale but had massive ramifications in th years afterwards – the 1969 Stonewall riots.
Over the past couple of weeks the film’s Facebook page has released quite a few new images to go with the first one that arrived in March, giving us our best look at the movie yet.
Here’s the synopsis: ‘Less than 50 years ago, in 1969, being gay was considered a mental illness. Gay people could not be employed by the government. It was illegal for gay people to congregate, and police brutality against gays went unchecked.
‘STONEWALL is a drama about a fictional young man caught up during the 1969 Stonewall Riots. Danny Winters (Jeremy Irvine) is forced to leave behind friends and loved ones when he is kicked out of his parent’s home and flees to New York. Alone in Greenwich Village, homeless and destitute, he befriends a group of street kids who soon introduce him to the local watering hole The Stonewall Inn; however, this shady, mafia-run club is far from a safe-haven. As Danny and his friends experience discrimination, endure atrocities and are repeatedly harassed by the police, we see a rage begin to build. This emotion runs through Danny and the entire community of young gays, lesbians and drag queens who populate the Stonewall Inn and erupts in a storm of anger. With the toss of a single brick, a riot ensues and a crusade for equality is born.’
The movie is due in cinemas later this year. You can take a look at the new pics below, which interestingly includes the recreation of the 1970 Christopher Street Gay Liberation march. Christopher Street is the road that the Stonewall Inn was on, and after the riot Christopher Street days and marches began popping up in all sorts of cities, which was the starts of the May/June ‘Pride Season’ that we know today.
??? This is ridiculous and a little insulting. Are the filmmakers seriously claiming that all the participants in Stonewall were only in their late teens and early twenties???