SATURDAY AFTERNOON
THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARSHA P. JOHNSON

Director: David France
2017 | USA | 107 min
Saturday, October 14; 1:30pm

Who killed Marsha P. Johnson? When the beloved, self-described “street queen” of NY’s Christopher Street was found floating in the Hudson River in 1992, the NYPD called her death a suicide. Protests erupted but the police remained impassive and refused to investigate. Now, twenty-five years on, Academy Award®-nominated director and journalist David France (How to Survive a Plague) examines Marsha’s death—and her extraordinary life— thanks to the work of a dynamic activist named Victoria Cruz.

Marsha teamed up with Sylvia Rivera, the radical duo fought arrests, condemned police brutality, organized street kids, battled the intolerant majority within the gay community, and helped spearhead the Stonewall Riots. In 1970 they formed the world’s first trans-rights organization, STAR (Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries). Marsha and Sylvia ignited a powerful and lasting civil rights movement for gender nonconforming people. (Last year we screened S.T.A.R., a documentary short about Marsha and Sylvia)