The
Stonewall
Nation

2014
HD Video
16 min

Using the interview format as a framework, The Stonewall Nation, engages in the telling and retelling of history by examining utopian ideas and myths concerning sexual liberation, using California in the 1970s as a case study. Invested in the transmission of history across generations, Storihle has worked closely with the accomplished Los Angeles-based actor Michael Kearns in this experimental short. In The Stonewall Nation, Kearns impersonates the activist Don Jackson, revisiting his aim to establish a gay settlement in Northern California. The film portrays a man yearning for community and belonging, while questioning the ideological framework of his idea of a promised land.

Exhibited in its totality, ONE MAN SHOW includes The Stonewall Nation and The Tomorrow Show, as well as print and video material from the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries and the UCLA Film & Television Archive, such as collages by the artist Olaf Odegaard (1938-1997) and a VHS video interview from 1986 with the activist Don Jackson conducted by Odegaard.

Director & Producer
Sille Storihle

Cast
Michael Kearns

Co-producer
Anne Kathrine Bindesbøll

Camera
Willy Busfield

Sound recordist
Evan Pritts

Editor
Katrin Ebersohn

Composer and Sound Design
Vladimir Rakić

Song
Streets of Bakersfield
Written by Homer Joy (1973)

Sung by
Michael Kearns

Musical Arrangement
Joshua Theroux

Color Grading
Eva Martha Zimmermann

Model
Laida Aguirre, Sille Storihle

Assistants
M. Cay Castagnetto, Yelena Zhelezov

Collage
Olaf Odegaard (c. 1980)

Pilot
Michael Gold

Archives
The Alpine County Archives, Manuscripts and Archives Division at New York Public Library, SONY/ATV, The Tom of Finland Foundation, UCLA Film & Television Archive

Thank You
Johanna Breiding, Liv Bugge, Kajsa Dahlberg, Mathias Danbolt, Shoghig Halajian, Katherine Kearns, Jumana Manna, Goro Tronsmo, Tyler Matthew Oyer

Special Thanks
David Evans Frantz and ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives

Financial Support
Fond for Lyd og Bilde, Arts Council Norway, W17, Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond