The Anchor

The Gay Marriage Review Thing
Written by Tim Labonte Anchor Editor
Tuesday, 18 April 2006
Read the article on The Anchor web site

Don’t believe in gay marriage? Don’t feel that two people in love and commitment should not be able to wed and have a happier life? Well, screw you. Receiving an e-mail about an independent documentary following the gay marriage movement of Massachusetts, I was interested to see what it would say. Was the documentary for the movement or against it? I requested a screener and strayed away from reading any info about it.
Receiving the screener a few weeks ago, I’m kicking myself for not getting this review done earlier. The Gay Marriage Thing, directed by Massachusetts filmmaker Stephanie Higgins, creates a wonderful and loving documentary.

Higgins had no budget. This is pure evidence that you don’t need anything but a camera and film to produce a well made product. The sound isn’t professional and the camerawork and framing are a little off and shaky here and there, but the way the film is edited and organized makes you pay attention to something that other traditional documentaries can’t do: a great story.

What grasped me in the first minutes was the fact that there was a narrative as well, not just talking heads explaining a controversial situation. We learn about Lorre and Gayle (Lorre runs MasterPeace Productions and produced the film as well), a lesbian couple who move into their great aunt’s home because they can’t maintain and pay for their house much longer. Meanwhile, Massachusetts is undergoing a huge and extremely controversial movement: legalizing gay-marriage.

We are given this very well told and heartwarming story about Lorre and Gayle—how they met in college and live together, take care of their Aunt Germaine, and just counting down the days until May 17, 2004, the day when they can finally receive their marriage license.

What made this film great was the non-historical stamping. It wasn’t giving us fact after fact. It was a story of fighting and finally winning. It uses this great way of balancing Lorre and Gayle’s life and experiences between protest gatherings at the state house and interviews with church leaders (Reverand Carlton Smith and Reverand Richard Weisenbach), Massachusetts politicians (representative Kathi-Anne Reinstein) and sporadic protestors for and against gay-marriage. We are given different ideas and views from a pastor who cares for gay people but doesn’t support their marriage, and from a politician who has strong beliefs in gay matrimony but is discriminated and threatened.