SCA’s Queer Cut Hosts ‘When We Rise’ Prescreening
By Grace Carballo ‘17
Last Tuesday, USC’s School of Cinematic Arts aired a pre-screening of ABC’s new miniseries, “When We Rise,” which officially premieres next week on February 27. Queer Cut, the LGBTQA Student Association of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, hosted the event, which my friend and I were very excited to attend. All SC students, faculty, and guests had the opportunity to attend, but if you missed it, I highly encourage you to watch when it airs on Monday. If the rest of this post doesn’t compel you, then maybe the trailer will.
ABC provided feedback forms for those in attendance to fill out after the screening. Fortunately, one of the co-presidents of Queer Cut reminded everyone that leaving sections of the form blank was absolutely fine, as ABC seemed to view gender as a binary concept. The feedback forms were definitely not made with this specific screening in mind.
“When We Rise” is a new mini-series, which chronicles true personal and political struggles and triumphs of a several key LGBT people who helped pioneer an important leg of the Civil Rights movement. Those at the pre-screening had the opportunity to watch the first 90 minute episode of the series in one of SCA’s classrooms built exactly for this purpose.
In the first episode, set mostly in the early 1970s, we saw the many different factions of the gay movement and women’s movement and how a lack of intersectionality in their approaches hindered their progress. For example, the women’s movement, with organizations like NOW (National Organization for Women) initially took a strong exclusive stance against lesbian women. Similarly, coalitions of women in San Francisco which welcome lesbian women were still wary of collaborating with gay men. And groups of gay men, many of whom were brutally beaten by San Francisco police officers, were racist towards black gay men.
Nothing can be radical, nor revolutionary, if it is built on racism, sexism, or homophobia.
Guy Pearce stars as LGBT activist Cleve Jones. In the first episode, we meet him (played by Austin McKenzie in his earlier years) as a teenager in Arizona, who seeks safe haven in San Francisco after his father insists his sexual orientation is an “illness.” By the end of the episode, Cleve has met other activists and finds a role in the gay liberation movement, inspired to stay in San Francisco and fight after seeing a Harvey Milk campaign flyer.
Mary-Louise Parker stars as Roma Guy (played by Emily Skeggs in the first episode during her younger years), a women’s rights and long-time social justice leader, who in real life, is currently a criminal-justice activist. In the first episode, Roma and Cleve meet at a laundromat and she decides to invite gay allies to the demonstration she planned to protest the unjust arrest of a local woman.
Perhaps the most compelling story in the first episode, for me, was that of Ken Jones, played by Jonathan Majors. He served in the Navy in Vietnam, but was reassigned to San Francisco after a horrible tragedy. We witness Ken struggle with his identities- as a Naval officer, as a black man, and as a gay person. He is confronted with racism in the very movement that is supposed to liberating, and is confronting with homophobia in the church community where he is supposed to feel welcome, and ostracized by others for his involvement in Vietnam.
The cast of When We Rise is unbelievable, including guest stars Henry Czerny, Whoopi Goldberg, Arliss Howard, Sam Jaeger, T.R. Knight, Mary McCormak, Kevin McHale, Rosie O'Donnell, Denis O'Hare, Pauley Perrette, David Hyde Pierce, Richard Schiff, Phylicia Rashad, Rob Reiner and William Sadler.
My friend and I were both pretty profoundly impacted by the pre-screening, not only because many of this history had never been taught to me, but also because there are so many parallels between what happened then and what is happening now. I left the screening thinking about the ongoing civil rights issues of today. What can I do to listen to and raise up the voices of those who society continues to marginalize?
The day after the When We Rise pre-screening, President Trump rescinded federal protections for transgender students leaving it up to states to decide. OITNB star and LGBT activist, Laverne Cox, responded “These bathroom laws are about whether trans people have the right to exist in public space,” she said. “It is not a states’ rights issue; it is a civil rights issue.” Trump’s actions and the protests and organizing in response to them paralleled so closely to the history I had just been horrified by in When We Rise. When people in power ostracize and demonize groups of people for merely being who they are, then those in power must be challenged.
I will continue watching “When We Rise” and continue asking myself and those I love the hard questions to make sure we are not just bystanders. I recognize my privilege both in having the option to stay silent, as well as the privilege in feeling safe to take a vocal stance. Not everyone has the option to “be sick of politics” or to “not have time for this right now.”
When We Rise has received its fair share of criticism already, still days before its official airing. Some have critiqued the later episodes, which I have yet to see, and others feel covering events from 1972 to 2013 in an eight hour miniseries provides merely a superficial overview, “focusing less on what happened and more on how it continues to be relevant.”
From what I saw, though, there is a lot this show can teach us and perhaps even ways in which it will inspire us to take a stand, as well. Executive Producer Dustin Lance Black thinks the show will appeal to the masses, saying in a Slate interview, “there are far more diversity-curious conservatives than you think.”
So, check it out, tell your friends, and pay attention to when future pre-screenings are offered at SCA. I’ll never turn down a free screening.
Fight on and When We Rise On,
Grace Carballo ‘17
If you are interested in learning more about Queer Cut, the LGBTQA Student Association of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, check out their Facebook page.
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