The Bilerico Project | Daily experiments in LGBTQ

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals could issue its decision any day now in Perry v. Brown, the Prop 8 case. The Court posts their decisions online Monday through Friday at 10am. The American Foundation for Equal Rights has plans for a press conference and a national media conference call shortly after the ruling is rendered. Sign up at AFER to get the news as soon as it breaks.

Meanwhile, on March 3, the American Foundation for Equal Rights is presenting a special one-night only West Coast Premier of Dustin Lance Black’s play “8″ directed by Rob Reiner and starring George Clooney at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre.

On Feb. 1, Fly On The Wall Productions will host the West Coast premiere in Sacramento of their Question One documentary that "targets" Schubert-Flint - the powerhouses behind the successful Yes on 8 campaign in California and its spawn, Question One in Maine, that overturned marriage equality in both states. Here's the trailer for Question One"- please see the trailer and more info on the Prop 8 The Campaign below.

The Campaign producer and director Christie Herring is trying to raise the remaining funds to complete the film via the IndieGoGo fundraising site, which will remain open and active until Tuesday, January 17th. Follow developments on Facebook/TheCampaign.

Herring told me:

The battle to stop and the ultimate loss on Prop 8 changed the conversation around marriage equality in this country. Prop 8 continues to be a touchstone for progress on LGBT rights. Not only was the loss of same-sex marriage in a seemingly progressive state like California shocking, but the enormity of the battle itself challenged the LGBT and allied communities to engage, work together, and see themselves and the movement in entirely new ways.

I started shooting for THE CAMPAIGN in May and June of 2008, when the first weddings began. A friend and her partner had arranged to register for their marriage license at 9AM at SF City Hall on the first possible day. They asked my partner and I to come, along with their kids and some extended family, to be there with them. I asked them if I could bring along my camera, they said yes, and so it began. I continued shooting over the next several months, but it was not until I walked into the headquarters in San Francisco that the film, as a film, came into focus.

Why am I making this film?

I grew up in a segregated town in Mississippi, and growing up there meant thinking a lot about what it means to be part of a community and what pushes people apart. My first film, Waking in Mississippi, was about race and community in that town. Although I grew up around politics, I largely avoided it as an adult. Then Prop 8 hit the ballot in my new home state of California, and it threatened to take away my own right to marry. I was suddenly motivated to do something.

The moment I walked through the doors of the “No on Prop 8″ headquarters to volunteer however, I knew I had instead walked into a film I had to make. The life in the room overwhelmed me. I saw people spending their free time doing tedious and sometimes scary work, an incredible range of volunteers from homeless gay youth to elderly heterosexual grandparents, and an unspoken agreement to suspend cynicism and past experience long enough to just maybe make a difference. It seemed that everyone walked in the door looking for a kind of community, and in that they became a microcosm of what connects us all. I was simply compelled to film. I put all of my paid film work aside, gathered my resources and support, and got to work.

Herring wants to complete the film to make it part of the national conversation before Election Day 2012.

(Crossposted at LGBT POV)