1 x 90 min theatrical feature documentary and Social Impact campaign, currently in development with the assistance of the NZFC.

Directed by Welby Ings, Produced by Marilyn McFadyen

Country of production: New Zealand, USA

Language: English

1980s New Zealand, where being gay means hiding in plain sight and local homophobes, backed by the Far Right churches of Reagan’s America, are hell bent on destroying any liberal fantasies of change. With money and power behind them, they wage open warfare on New Zealanders fighting for their right to be different.

We know the broad political story of how homosexual law reform was won in the 1980s, but we don’t often hear the voices of the amazing men and women who lived it. The gritty activists who were spat at and reviled, who risked jail and losing their families. They fought both local and international hatred, taking to the streets in anger and in celebration.

Cynthia Bagwash who disrupted meetings in her stylish fox-fur and white gloves, the lusty anthem singers harassing Salvation Army anti-reform petitioners, the young lesbian woman subjected to over 200 ECT treatments, the heartbroken nurses working in the AIDS wards, and the man tasked with bringing his cousin’s body back to the marae.

The conservative opposition fought back with hatred and vitriol, backed by American religious fundamentalists modelling themselves on Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority.

It was brutal, it was dangerous, at times it was funny as hell - and it changed our nation forever.