The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson
Dir: David France
2017
****
David France's compelling documentary is remarkable in what it achieves but the title is ever so slightly misleading. Marsha P. Johnson was a well known character during the early days of gay rights activism, she was at Stonewall and was well known in the Greenwich Village area. Adored by all, Marsha was one of the first members of the trans community to be truly accepted, in part due to her gentle nature and likability. In 1992 she was found face-down floating in the Hudson River. The police declared suicide without much investigation but the community knew there was more to it than that as Marsha was not unhappy and had lots to live for and had also made future plans. Fast-forward to 2017 and we follow Victoria Cruz, a trans activist who moved in the same circles as Marsha, who has since devoted her life to the anti-violence project, an organization that aims to investigate and prevent violence against those in the LGBTQ community. She deals with many cases and explains that over the decades there has been thousands of hate crimes against LGBTQ people that most people aren't aware of. The justice for Marsha movement had continued for some time but here we see Cruz go back to the original investigation to see if she can find something that might have been missed and soon discovers the possibility of police cover ups and mob involvement. While the film becomes almost like a modern day Agatha Christie novel, the actual details become less important than the fact that these types of crimes, specifically involving LGBTQ people, are largely ignored. It is just Marsha's death though that is investigated, her life and transition are skipped over, which makes the title a little misleading. There is also just as much attention focused on trans activist Sylvia Rivera, if not more. Rivera was far more vocal within the movement and angered many homosexuals whom she accused of forgetting about trans people. It is largely thanks to her that trans people had a voice early on but what didn't help was that she was clearly a drug and alcohol addict. She became more famous later on when she became one of the many people evicted from one of the various piers of New York that was home to many homeless. She became a voice not just for trans people but the forgotten street people of New York, the discarded and abandoned. She got sober and spoke to crowds of people to cheers and jubilation, rather than the booing and hissing of the 1960s crowds. In many respects she deserved her own documentary, as did Marsha. The drug and alcohol addictions of the main players was frustrating to see, as these people were fighting for freedom and justice, while destroying themselves physically but those that survived still remember and come out to tell of their struggles. It is an astonishing story, not always told in the most methodical way but all of the key points come across - I just wish there was more detail, and truth be told, this should have been an investigative series, rather than a feature length documentary.