Details for The Hidden History Of Homosexual Australia

The Hidden History of Homosexual Australia is a thoughtful documentary which looks at the three main periods of gay and lesbian Australian history. The convict era, the period when it was considered to be a sin against God to have gay sex. The medical period which lasted from the turn of the century until the nineteen sixties, which saw the use of “aversion therapy” and even brain surgery to “cure” gay people. And the third period when homosexuality came to be seen as a political, cultural, and personal issue. It looks at activism and the liberation struggles of the sixties through to Mardi Gras and the general public acceptance that came about in the eighties and nineties.

It uses historical and photographic archives and interviews with experts alongside TV News and excerpts from cinema features to show how gays and lesbians have been treated or viewed in Australia for more than two hundred years. It contrasts the apparent ease with which Queensland’s first premier Robert Herbert lived openly with his male partner during the 1860s with the 1960s when gay men left Australia in droves as a result of the often violent repression that they experienced.

It also asks though: have gay and lesbian people really reached a sunny dawn for themselves in Australia today? Or like gay people everywhere, are they still living out the same stories of persecution and oppression of the past but in subtler, more contemporary ways?

Lesbians are often under-represented in most gay history documented by gay men, but this film attempts to be more balanced and to cover the experiences of both lesbians and gay men. It has many fascinating details including rare footage from the silent movie era, but only just enough to make you want for more detail. At 84 minutes, it’s an engaging and well-made film, but it is only the tip of an iceberg.

Interviewees: John Mardsen, David Marr, Steven Cheung, Edward Young, Sue Wills, Gary Wotherspoon, Robert French, Clive Moore, Dennis Altman, Basil Donovan, Ruth Ford, Lucy Chesser, Graham Willet

File size: 700.4 MB

Download this movie here: Details for The Hidden History Of Homosexual Australia

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