FILM
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Keeping history alive
hen people ask filmmaker Eric Slade
about his work and he starts spieling
off his credits (they are impressive),
the one response he invariably pro
vokes is: “Really? You worked on Hard Copy!"
T hat truly is the least of his accomplishments.
Dedicated to creating films that make a dif
by O riana G reen
ference, Slade most recently added a significant
contribution to the preservation of queer histo
ry. Hope Along the Wind: The Life of Harry Hay
tells the story of our era’s first gay activist. The
film will he shown at a benefit screening
March 3 at Hollywood Theatre.
In 1948 Hay penned the manifesto that
sparked the mtxlem gay rights movement.
Working on behalf of presidential candidate
Henry Wallace, he had set out to write a plat-
form plank pushing to end police entrapment of
homosexuals, a common txxurrence at the time.
Instead, Hay authored a more startling doc
ument declaring homosexuals an oppressed
. minority; he believed what needed to change
were societal attitudes. It’s impossible to over
state how radical his ideas were in the rah-rah,
an-apple-pie-on-every-table, post-war days.
v
So radical that it took Hay many months to
collect a handful of gay men who responded to
his vision. T hat core group, cloaked in secrecy
and known to one another at first only by
pseudonyms, eventually became the Matta-
chine Society, the country’s first successful gay
H arry Hay ttxlay— the activist is flanked by his longtime partner, John Burnside, and Portland
rights organization.
filmmaker Eric Slade
“The vision of the original group was a trans-
electro-shock “therapy” or even a lohotomy.
formation of society,” Slade explains. “They didn’t
hen Slade showed his finished film to
It took a long time for Hay to find the man of
Hay— who, hy the way, is still feisty at
just want to make it safe to he gay.”
his dreams, hut, happily, in 1963 he partnered up
89— his only criticism was that he
Ironically, the organization Hay started
with John Burnside, and they’ve been together
wished the director had captured more of “the
eventually ousted him for being too radical. In
ever since. After colon cancer surgery two years
horrors we lived through.” Still, Hope Along the
the dark days of the M cCarthy era, the young
ago, Hay sprang right hack and looks forward to
Wind does make the point that pre-Stonewall,
men brave enough to join weren’t quite ready
a big 90th birthday bash April 7 in San Francis
every time homos gathered they risked their
to associate with a founder who recently had
co. His partner is still spry and “only 85”!
been a card-carrying Communist.
After Mattachine, Hay pioneered another
During the 1930s, many proriiinent pro
gay movement. In search of answers to his
gressive thinkers openly explored commu
three prevailing questions about homosexu
nism as an antidote to the Great Depression.
als— who are we, where do we come from
For Hay, it turned out to he useful training in
and why are we here— he began to study the
activism and direct action.
berdache tradition among Native Americans.
O ne of the more startling tidbits in the film
That confirmed Hay’s belief that gays serve a
is the revelation that Hay was politicized and
purpose separate from heterosexuals, which
introduced to Marxist ideas by one of his early
led the two men to resettle in New Mexico
lovers, actor Will Geer (yes, kids, Grandpa
and
immerse themselves in tribal culture.
Walton), then a handsome young buck. The
This, in turn, gave birth to the Radical
two joined legions of other activists and
Faeries
in 1979. The film has some delightful
worked to raise awareness of the need for the
footage of Hay and friends frolicking at the
very benefits we enjoy today: Social Security,
Faerie outpost in southern Oregon. As he
health insurance and workers compensation.
puts it, he wanted to "create a place to heal
Hay quickly became a labor organizer and
from hatred.”
T he sexy and stoic H arry Hay circa 1930
Marxist teacher, although homosexuality was
not embraced within the party.
lade got to know Hay through the Radi
reputations, jobs, homes and freedom. Being
In fact, it wasn’t until 1938 that “homosexu
cal Faeries. He says the idea for the pro
certified queer could land you in jail or a men
al” turned up in a U.S. dictionary. Until then,
ject “had been percolating for a long
tal hospital, where you might be subjected to
the buzzwords were “nervous” and “that way.”
W
Portland filmmaker documents
the legendary life of H arry Hay
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time, and it amazed me th at no one had done
this documentary.”
But first the director accumulated that
impressive list of credits, including his first job
after Emerson College: working for Portland
Public Schools in the television services
department. Slade was a one-man band—
shooting, producing and editing the series
School Reel, which aired on KOIN-TV for a
couple of years.
“The hook was that the kids were the
reporters, and we won some awards,” he
explains. “It was great experience for me
because I had to do it all— dozens and dozens
of stories.”
Slade then worked as an assistant editor at a
large editing house, Northwest Video Works,
doing television commercials, documentaries
“and all kinds of high-profile, expensive stuff.”
In 1987 he answered the lure of larger
opportunities in San Francisco, where he
worked as a free-lance director of photography
on all kinds of projects, including for University
of California on HIV and breast cancer educa
tion, and Safety in Numbers, a safe-sex video for
the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, which, he
confides, was “actually softcore erotica.”
Slade is rightfully proud of his work for the
C enter for AIDS Prevention Studies as well as
Acting Up for Prisoners, a film about the
A C T UP campaign to bring HIV health care
to women behind bars.
“In ’93 all HIV-positive women in Califor
nia were being segregated in one wing of one
prison, but once A C T UP got the word out,
things changed. Activists did a huge amount of
good,” he recalls. “And I wanted to do a docu
mentary about how direct action works. T hat’s
why I chose Harry. H e’s one of those guys.”
Slade, who recently moved back to Port
land with his lover, believes Hay deserves to be
revered alongside the other great civil rights
leaders, and he hopes his film will help achieve
that. If you ever meet up with the director, do
him a favor. Exclaim: “Really? You made the
Harry Hay film?” j n
H ope A long
toe
ORIANA G reen is a Portland writer who is thank
ful Harry Hay has balls of steel.
Needles
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W ind : T he L ife of H arry H ay
premieres 2 p.m. March 3 at Hollywood Theatre,
4122 N.E. Sandy Blvd. Tickets are $ 10 at the door
or $25 for the movie and post-show reception at near
by Caravan Studios. Advance tickets are available for
$8 and $20 from in Other Words and Gai-Pied. Pro
ceeds benefit the Harry Hay Documentary Project.
To send Hay a birthday card (or thank-you note),
write in care of Mark Garrett, P.O. Box 14032,
Son Francisco, C A 94114. (If you feel like making
a donation to his medical care, enclose that, too.)
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