Sally Gearhart is a self-described radical feminist lesbian. She’s also a total laugh riot. And it’s the humor that complements the fascinating history at the heart of Sally! Starting with Sally literally kicking open the doors of the camper where she lives as hard rock music plays, Sally! is a portrait of Gearthart’s life from LGBTQ+ activist to forgotten queer icon. The movie plays as a contrast and in tandem with the likes of The Life of Times of Harvey Milk, a figure Gearhart herself was connected to at the time.
Craig examines how the Castro, the popular San Francisco neighborhood where the LGBTQ+ community gathered in the 1960s and 1970s, was more of a haven for gay men than lesbians. But as icons like Cleve Jones and another say, “Lesbians are invisible … because they’re women,” so many of Gearhart’s contributions were minimized or excised completely. The movie plays clips from Gus Van Sant’s 2008 biopic on Harvey Milk, playing scenes from it alongside real-life footage of Milk and Gearhart.
In 1979, Gearhart wrote and published The Wanderground, a novel about a female utopia that, as one talking head explains, was more accessible than Margaret Atwood’s more dystopian The Handmaid’s Tale. Sequences from the book are rendered in animation, read by Gearhart, to illustrate a core principle of the activist’s philosophy: that women needed to live in isolated communities, without men. The documentary unravels this principle and the varying schools of thought on it. Several of Gearharts friends, lovers and students go back and forth on whether they ascribe to this part of Gearhart’s philosophy, and how it tended to make her an outsider even in the lesbian community.
Her contributions to the LGBTQ+ community in the 1970s—a time where anti-gay bills like the Briggs Initiative sought to remove them from jobs—alone would be worthy of a documentary. But there’s even more insight into Gearhart as a person. She’s also a Bible expert and professor of rhetoric. Before her passing in 2021, Gearhart is seen struggling with dementia, her friends raising funds for her to have full-time care. It’s a sad ending, though the documentary never devolves into tragedy. The whole purpose is to showcase Gearhart’s contributions and bravery to the end. “She changed history. She should be remembered for that,” one of her friends says and it’s true.
Sally! is as fun and feisty as its subject. The heavy preponderance of nudity makes it best suited for college students and above. Craig and her co-directors do a solid job of blending queer history with literature, animation with talking head documentary style. It’s a wild and accessible look at a forgotten icon. Recommended.
Which academic library collections should include this LGBTQ history documentary?
Sally! is a valuable addition to academic libraries in categories like LGBTQ documentary, LGBTQ Cinema, and Documentary Film Collections. It’s also a complement to film programming focused on gender, queer history theory, LGBTQ+ history, political issues affecting the LGBTQ+ community, social issues, or biography. Libraries that license DVDs or digital films from Women Make Movies would also be wise to consider.
What academic subjects or media education courses would benefit from this LGBTQ biography?
This documentary supports various subjects including LGBTQ+ political or social history, Documentary Studies, Queer Theory, Gender (specifically Lesbian) Studies. Media libraries curating documentaries focused on queer icons, as well as instructors teaching about the evolution of gay and lesbian communities and queer topics through biography will also find merit in it. It can also be utilized in Queer Literary classes, paired with readings of Gearhart’s The Wanderground or Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale.