Review of Living with Pride: Ruth C. Ellis @ 100, No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon and Golden Threads, reviewed by Julie R. Enszer

Yvonne Welbon is an expert filmmaker and Living with Pride: Ruth Ellis @ 100 (60 min.) demonstrates her attention to the art and craft of filmmaking and her commitment to telling stories too often not captured for the screen.1 The life of Ruth Ellis, an African-American lesbian born July 23, 1899, is one such story. Extensive interviews with Ellis form the core of this film; Welbon also weaves archival images, interviews with friends of Ellis, and dramatic re-creations of Ellis’s experiences to create an engaging hour of cinema.

Ellis was born and raised in Springfield, IL, the youngest of four children. Welbon contextualizes Ellis’s recollections about her parents, both born in the 1860s, with photographs, newspapers from that time, and archival film clips. Particularly compelling is Ellis’s account of riots in 1908 in Springfield when a “mob of whites attacked Colored citizens” and looted “Colored and Jewish owned businesses.” This riot was a catalyst for the formation of the NAACP.

Ellis fell in love with her gym teacher while in high school and met her long-time partner, Ceciline “Babe” Franklin, in the 1930s; they lived together for nearly thirty-five years. “Babe” and Ellis moved to Detroit in 1937, and in 1941 they bought a house that became a social center for African-American lesbians and gay men until 1971. Ellis worked as a typesetter and later owned a print shop in northeast Detroit. Ellis’s stories about the lesbians and gay men of Detroit who frequented her house and attended her Saturday night parties, combined with the dramatic reenactments filmed by Welbon, provide an exciting account of one aspect of African-American lesbian/gay history.

Throughout the documentary Ellis shines not only as a warm person, but also as a proud lesbian. She discusses her “one night stands,” desires for “stout women” with “lovely breasts,” and her last sexual encounter at the age of ninety-five—in her words, “it takes a little longer.” Welbon captures many people who gather around Ellis later in her life in Detroit to provide support, transportation, and camaraderie. Ellis is to this community—this family—a source of inspiration. Although the film’s conclusion, a message to young people to participate in the lives of older people, is a bit didactic for my taste, this is a wonderful film for classroom use; in tracing the life of Ellis, it speaks to the power of community.2

No Secret Anymore (57 min.) tells a history of organizing for lesbian rights in the United States during the twentieth century through the lives of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. The accomplishments of Lyon and Martin are legion. Together and individually, they were involved in starting and sustaining over a dozen organizations, including the Daughters of Bilitis, Citizens Alert, the National Sex Forum, the San Francisco Women’s Center, the Bay Area Women’s Coalition, the California Coalition against Domestic Violence, and the National Lesbian Feminist Organization. They coauthored the book Lesbian/Woman (Volcano, 1991), and most recently advocated for the inclusion of lesbians and gay men at the White House Conference on Aging. No Secret Anymore highlights the years of Martin and Lyon’s shared activism and their reflections on their ability to sustain their activism; equally important, it contextualizes Lyon’s and Martin’s lives with the history of struggles for civil rights and human rights in the United States from the 1950s until the early 2000s.

Filmmaker Joan E. Biren frames the experiences of lesbians during the 1950s and 1960s through interviews with Lyon and Martin as well as with other women.3 She enlivens these narratives with visuals from material artifacts about lesbians during this time including pulp novels, The Songs of Bilitis by Pierre Louÿs and The Ladder, which was the magazine of the Daughters of Bilitis. She also weaves in footage of U.S. historical milestones such as the McCarthy hearings and civil rights demonstrations and images of Harvey Milk.

Biren expertly uses interviews with other activists, who describe their experiences encountering the work of Martin and Lyon, not to invoke hagiography but to examine the impact of Lyon and Martin’s work on generations of activists. The effect is a fulfillment of Lyon’s wish near the end of the film; Lyon says, “I want to see other people get inspired the way we do. In every success there is another to turn on.”

No Secret Anymore explores Martin and Lyon as politically—and organizationally—savvy women and embeds their lives and experiences in a broader narration about lesbian and gay rights in the United States. This film would be effective in classes exploring lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) identities, twentieth-century history, political movements, and women’s studies.4

Golden Threads is a 56-minute documentary about Christine Burton and the organization she founded, Golden Threads, a correspondence club for mature and old lesbians. The film centers on the annual gathering of Golden Threads members in Provincetown, RI. During the first half of the film, interviews with Burton and members of Golden Threads provide engaging perspectives on growing older, dating, and the lives of older lesbians. Many of the women discuss coming out experiences during various decades of the twentieth century.

The real drama of the documentary, however, emerges halfway through the film. Immediately after Golden Threads’s gathering, Burton has a stroke. The second half of the film explores Burton’s life after the stroke. Here compelling footage of Burton’s rehabilitation process and her return to the Golden Threads tenth anniversary gathering a year later is combined with members of Golden Threads reflecting on being sick and living with disabilities. This part of the film is both challenging and riveting for viewers. Director Lucy Winer holds the camera lens on images of Burton’s body as well as the bodies of other older lesbians. She tells a story of aging that is neither idealizing nor mawkish and instead probes with respect and sincere interest the experiences of her subjects.

Golden Threads has at its center lesbianism, but the film is most powerfully an exploration of the effects of aging in women’s lives. When women in the film talk about growing older, their reflections are less about aging and sexual orientation and more about gender and aging. Intersections among disability, gender, and sexual orientation are made visible through the film.

Students may need additional information or contextualization when encountering Golden Threads in a classroom. For students without knowledge of the history and experiences of gay and lesbian people in the twentieth century, some of the narrative might be confusing, including references to Stonewall, experiences in mental institutions, and school teachers fearing arrest. Golden Threads provides a perspective on lesbians and aging that will intrigue students in a variety of disciplines—women’s studies, LGBT studies, gerontology, social work, and sociology.5