TIFF Entry ‘Stonewall’ Gets a Trailer and Poster – Where Pride Began

From Roland Emmerich, more familiar to moviegoers for his massive summer blockbusters like Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, comes a much smaller story and one that speaks louder than bombs. It’s the beginning of the modern day gay rights movement in the film Stonewall, which sees a poster and trailer arriving ahead of its Toronto International Film Festival premiere next month.

The trailer begins with voiceover from President Barack Obama over film images of liberation movements throughout history and then brings us to 1969 New York City as small town Kansas kid Danny (Jeremy Irvine) finds his way to Greenwich Village and meets Danny Castro (Jonny Beauchamp). Bathed in gorgeous summer sun, all seems well in the city until they aren’t. The Stonewall uprising in the early hours of June 28, 1969 was a moment of change. The police had raided the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in New York City and instead of taking their lumps with fear, gays and lesbians and an insurgency of pissed of drag queens fought back. On June 28, 1970, the first Gay Pride marches took place in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago commemorating the anniversary of the uprising.

The film, which also stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ron Perlman is set for release on September 25th from Roadside Attractions.