canmom:

i had been wondering what happened to Reina Gossett’s film Happy Birthday Marsha. Turns out: some piece of shit white guy took the funding grants, Reina
Gossett’s research, even hired people who had been working on her film and
made a documentary for Netflix.

Reina Gossett’s statement:

#deepshare #realtruth
this week while I’m borrowing money to pay rent, david france is
releasing his multimillion dollar netflix deal on marsha p johnson. i’m
still lost in the music trying to #pay_it_no_mind and reeling on how this movie came
to be and make so much $ off of our lives and ideas.

david got inspired
to make this film from a grant application video that @sashawortzel
& I made and sent to Kalamazoo/Arcus Foundation social justice
center while he was visiting. He told the people who worked there -i
shit you not- that he should be the one to do this film, got a grant
from Sundance/Arcus using my language and research about STAR, got Vimeo
to remove my video of Sylvia’s critical “y’all better quiet down”
speech, ripped off decades of my archival research that i experienced so
much violence to get, had his staff call Sasha up at work to get our
contacts then hired my and Sasha’s *ADVISOR* to our Marsha film Kimberly
Reed to be his producer. And that’s just the shit I have the spoons to
name. TRUST🥄THERE’S🥄SO🥄MUCH 🥄MORE🥄.

This kind of
extraction/excavation of black life, disabled life, poor life, trans
life is so old and so deeply connected to the violence Marsha had to
deal with throughout her life. So I feel so much rage and grief over all
of this & STAR must have some serious level plan on moving through
many—and clearly by any means necessary—to get the message out… So
tonight I’m channeling high priestess energy to show me the honey
throne cuz this storm queen is 😖😫😱

comments by Janet Mock:

Filmmaker David France released a Netflix doc Friday about Marsha P.
Johnson. It is based on Reina Gossett’s work (her statement below). 

Reina Gossett is a black trans woman who reintroduced our gen to
ourselves by uncovering/recentering trans women of color
revolutionaries.

Her digital archives of movement foremothers Marsha P. Johnson &
Sylvia Rivera are integral to current understanding of their
contributions. 

She researched/archived/digitized content inaccessible for decades. She
interviewed Marsha & Sylvia’s peers. She did this work without pay.

A black trans woman’s work about a black trans woman was used to make a
film by a credentialed white cis man aided by Netflix’s millions.

Meanwhile Reina is borrowing money to pay rent as viewers around the
world watch a film based on her unpaid & uncredited work. Not OK. 

Support Reina Gossett — she made @hbdmarsha w/ @sashawortzel! Book her as a speaker! Let others know about her work!

This relates to the earlier removal of Reina Gossett’s upload of Sylvia Rivera’s speech
following a copyright claim – apparently this guy had something to do
with the copyright takedown (the copyright was owned by the Lesbian
Herstory Archive, but I think he pressed the takedown claim? I don’t really know the full details there)

THE T ABOUT DAVID FRANCE FROM SOMEONE INVOLVED IN HIS FILM:  

• Reina Gossett’s entire Vimeo channel was downloaded and stored on the hard drives for the film’s archival footage, her name appears throughout both research materials and misc. documents (such as holiday party invitations). 

eina is the reason why David and Co. knew who to reach out to for footage.
• David is not a friend of Marsha’s, the latest excuse which he has been using. The only story he ever told about interacting with her was about buying counterfeit subway tokens from her once. I guess my weed-dealer is my best friend now according to this metric? 

• Another defense David has used is saying the film was hard to make b/c of funding and that money is still apparently owed. Wake up call: The ability to get credit, live and work solely on credit, to take out debt, etc. is WHITE PRIVILEGE. NO POC DIRECTOR OR BUSINESS OWNER WOULD BE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE WORKING ON A PROJECT WHEN THEY OWE MONEY. David again displays his utter ignorance at how whiteness functions in society. 

• There was one fellowship position for a transwoman of color. This was paid entirely through outside grants, David and Co. were unwilling to put any of their own money on the line to support trans people. Had they not gotten the grant I doubt they would have done it. 

• Aside from that fellowship position, only one (light-skint) POC on staff (and only fora couple of months). The only other POC involved in production were unpaid interns (there were five unpaid interns and like 4 regular staff), and Stephen Winter who had a consulting position. Apparently this was not a red flag for production, how you can make a movie about q/t poc whilst having a staff that is like 90% white in a city that is <49% white, statistically. 

• People have asked why Islan Nettles organizing isn’t mentioned that much in the film? The reason is b/c half-way thru shooting all of the TWOC involved in organizing around Nettles wanted nothing to do with him. David’s response in a nutshell: “These crazy people don’t understand my genius and the importance of the awareness I’m raising!‘ 

• Please also note: David made no attempts at accountability throughout this process, until like yesterday when it seems like Netflix took over their PR. Look at the difference betw. the first statement released, and the second which gives lip service to him pledging to help Reina with funding. 

Demand that Reina get paid and credited for her work. You can send $ to Reina at: venmo: Reina-Gossett and PayPal: rmgossett@gmail.com