049 – Stonewall

This Pride season honors the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots – and here on This Had Oscar Buzz, we are taking a look at the film that only did so in lip service. From director Roland Emmerich, Stonewall is a cautionary case against the kind of year-ahead Oscar predictions that are made without much details on the film’s details. But when we got indication that Emmerich would be taking a white-washed (not to mention Newsies-inflected) approach to queer history, the film became a hot take factory before bombing both at TIFF and with audiences immediately after. This episode, we look at Emmerich’s disaster movie career progression, recommend other better films on queer activism, and run the marathon of Stonewall’s cringey moments. Since Pride is also about honoring community, we also take time to spotlight on two organizations that serve LGBTQ youth: The Ali Forney Center and Kaleidoscope Youth Center. Both organizations work in their communities to work against queer youth homelessness and provide programs that empower queer young adults! Donate and discover more at aliforneycenter.org and kycohio.org, follow at @AliForneyCenter and @KYCOhio!! Follow Us on Twitter! @Had_Oscar_Buzz Joe: @joereid Chris: @chrisvfeil