Gay/Lesbian Pride March 1985

I'd like to be consistent in what I call these events, but history is working against me.  The sign at the beginning of the March says "Gay/Lesbian" so I went with that.  To call it "LGBT" seems completely anachronistic to me.  Likewise, "Queer."  Furthermore, I persist in calling these events “marches” in order to emphasize their political nature.  I cringe at the term “parade.”

This is some of the first 16mm footage that I processed myself.  You will notice that much of the footage has black speckles.  This stippling effect is the result of the incomplete removal of the anti-halation backing.  Color 16mm movie film has a carbon-based backing on it that absorbs the light in order to prevent the light from bouncing around the emulsion and causing incidental burst of light akin to halos, hence, anti-halation backing.  My new processor was not designed to remove this very sticky backing.  I basically had to use my hand, sometimes with a glove, sometimes with a sponge, at the end of the process to wipe off the backing.  I could never do it completely.  I eventually solved this problem by switching to VNF, a type of film without the anti-halation backing.  Also, I tried to make the digitized version of this footage look as “normal” as possible, but it wanted to explode into a rainbow of hues.

Digital Transfer made possible by a grant from the Al Larvick Conservation Fund.

00:15   Big Apple Corps (also 08:41)

01:29   Ed Murphy (the former bouncer at the Stonewall turned gay activist)

02:09   Werner Lindlar

02:23   PFLAG

03:42   Rolf Sjogren

03:53   David France, Ian Scott Horst

05:59   Nelson Gonzalez

08:20   NAMBLA

09:25   Dignity

10:21   GMHC

12:18   As Is and author William Hoffman (the first play on Broadway about AIDS)

12:52   SAGE

13:36   Rainbow Society of the Deaf

13:56   Gay Men’s Chorus

14:41   Artie Strickler

14:42   Congregation Beit Simchat Torah