Red-125
Against the Law (2017) (TV) was directed by Fergus O'Brien. It was shown as a narrative feature, but it's more of a documentary about one gay man--Peter Wildeblood--and the many other gay men who suffered horribly in 1950's England.Peter Wildeblood appears as himself in archival footage, and is portrayed by Daniel Mays. Gay sex was against the law in England in the 1950's. People went to prison if they were discovered, and sometimes they were given electrical shocks or strong emetics in order to change their sexual orientation. (Hard to believe, but true.)What made Peter Wildeblood different from other persecuted gay men was that, once he was out of jail, he made gay rights a crusade. (People thought he would slink away and go to Canada or the U.S. That's not what he did.)This is a difficult picture to watch, because the injustice was so blatant. Wildewood died in 1999, but some of the men who were disciplined and tortured are still alive, and haven't forgotten. It's important to see this movie to remember where we were about gay sex, where we are, and where we hope we'll be in the future.We saw this movie at the excellent Dryden Theatre at Rochester's George Eastman Museum. It was shown as part of the extraordinary ImageOut, the LGBT Film Festival. It apparently was made for TV, so it will work well on the small screen. This was the movie's East Coast Premiere. It's hard to believe that the people in Rochester were able to see it before people from NYC, Boston, or Philadelphia saw it. My compliments to the ImageOut Programming Committee for bringing this film to Rochester.
