Netflix is proud to announce that it will be launching THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARSHA P. JOHNSON by director David France (Academy Award-nominee, How To Survive A Plague) on October 6.
The film is a haunting look at the mystery surrounding the death of the legendary New York “street queen,” and at the people in the community who she touched, primarily amongs them legend-in-her-own right Sylvia Rivera. The film will open in theaters in New York and Los Angeles.
Who killed Marsha P Johnson? When the beloved, self-described “street queen” of NY’s gay ghetto was found floating in the Hudson River in 1992, the NYPD chalked it up as a suicide and refused to investigate. However, as shown in Academy Award® nominated director David France’s (How to Survive A Plague) new documentary, many have always questioned this.
Having played a pivotal role in the previous year’s Stonewall Riots, in 1970, Johnson and fellow trans icon Sylvia Rivera formed the world’s first trans-rights organization, STAR (Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries). And despite their many challenges over the years – homelessness, illness, alcoholism – Marsha and Sylvia ignited a powerful and lasting civil rights movement for gender nonconforming people. Now, a quarter century later, at a time of unprecedented visibility and escalating violence in the transgender community, Marsha’s old friend and fellow activist Victoria Cruz has taken it upon herself to reexamine what happened to Marsha.
THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARSHA P. JOHNSON follows as this champion pursues leads, mobilizes officials, and works to tell the story of Marsha’s life, and get to the bottom of Marsha’s death.
2017 / English / USA / 82 mins
