Boston Premiere of Marriage Equality Film Friday, July 29th

The Roxbury International Film Festival will host a special screening and panel discussion of Thomas Allen Harris’ new documentary, “Byron Rushing: Marriage Equality & the Fight for Fairness”

Now in its thirteenth year, the Roxbury Film Festival will highlight Harris’ “Marriage Equality” film during the four days of screenings, workshops, and panel discussions.

“Marriage Equality: Byron Rushing & the Fight for Fairness”

FRIDAY, JULY 29th, 2011, 7:30pm

MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

BOSTON, MA*

the screening will be followed by a community discussion

TIX: http://www.mfa.org/programs/series/roxbury-international-film-festival

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115

Tel: 617-267-9300

http://www.mfa.org

http://roxburyfilmfestival.org

The “Marriage Equality: Byron Rushing and the Fight for Fairness” film follows the people and events associated with Representative Byron Rushing’s introduction of Same Sex Marriage legislation to the State Legislature.

Harris’ documentary includes the stories of everyone from political organizers to preachers to people on the street. Human Rights Campaign board member David Wilson was one of the seven plaintiff couples that sued the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the legal right for same sex marriage in the Goodridge vs. The Department of Health law suit which got Same Sex Marriage Rights into the courts.

David Wilson speaks with filmmaker Harris

Councillor E. Denise Simmons at Cambridge City Hall

E. Denise Simmons is a lifelong Cambridge resident who has spent most of her career in public service. In 2008 Simmons became the first openly Lesbian African American Mayor in the United States. Cambridge City Councilor Simmons speaks with Harris about her marriage experience as a Justice of the Peace and a as newlywed.

Reed Sapenter Wedding

Simmons Hayes Wedding

The seventeen-minute documentary interweaves archival footage and photos with contemporary interviews to illuminate events surrounding the pivotal Massachusetts state constitutional convention on Same Sex Marriage which gave new momentum to the national Marriage Equality movement as a Civil Rights issue. At the center of our story is Massachusetts Representative Byron Rushing, a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement who took the campaign for Same Sex Marriage into African American communities, directly challenging many religious leaders, and defining the right to Same Sex Marriage as a Civil Rights issue on par with the liberation movements of the 1950s and 1960s. An unlikely Gay Rights hero in some respects, Rushing, a heterosexual man of strong faith, has spent a lifetime championing the causes of the underserved, overlooked and oppressed.

Following the film screening:

• Q & A with director Thomas Allen Harris
• Conversation with Byron Rushing on where are we now, 7 years after the passage of gay marriage in Massachusetts
• Panel with subjects from the film will include: Cambridge City Councilor E. Denise Simmons, Arnold Sapenter, Rev. Leslie Sterling, David Wilson, Gary Daffin, and Rev. Irene Monroe. Discussion Topics – What’s next? Where do we go from here? Is there a new openness?

* Film screens with the short film “Slow” directly before the screening. Program starts at 7:30

www.roxburyfilmfestival.org, http://marriageequalityfilm.com

http://www.hbgc-boston.org, http://www.glad.org,

www.MassEquality.org, http://www.mac-boston.org