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Award Winning Vito Russo documentary VITO, opening in Vancouver theatres July 27th
July 27. 2012 - Vancouver - Having won awards the globe over, the incendiary and moving documentary on
the life of legendary author, cinephile, and activist Vito Russo, VITO, will open at Vancouver's Denman Cinema
About the film
On June 27, 1969, a police raid on a Greenwich Village gay bar called the Stonewall took a surprising turn when patrons
decided it was time to fight back. As a riot erupted on Christopher Street, a new era in the Gay Rights Movement was born.
Vito Russo, a 23-year-old film student, was among the crowd. Over the next twenty years until his death from AIDS in
1990, Vito would go on to become one of the most outspoken and inspiring activists in the LGBT community fight for
equal rights. He was a pivotal part of three well-known organizations during their formative years: GAA
(Gay Activists Alliance), which staged subversive works of protest performance art to secure rights
and dignity for all gay people; GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), formed to
ensure that media representation of gays and lesbians was accurate; and ACT UP
(AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power), a guerilla activist group that turned
the fury over President Reagan's refusal to do anything about AIDS into
a series of highly telegenic acts of civil disobedience. In the midst of his commitment to activism, Vito was also a prolific writer.
His seminal book The Celluloid Closet explored the ways in which gays and lesbians were portrayed on film, what lessons those
characters taught gay and straight audiences, and how those negative images were at the root of society's homophobia. Even
before the book was published, Vito was taking The Celluloid Closet on the road, travelling to gay film festivals and
college campuses for an entertaining and informative lecture-slash-clip show that intertwined Vito's love of show
business and radical gay politics. He continued writing, lecturing, speaking out and acting up until just months before his death.
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For Press and interview inquiries contact:
Ryan Bruce Levey
VFRPR (Vagrant)
416-843-5718
v_f_c_rb@yahoo.ca
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