Screaming Queens
It's a hot August night in San Francisco in 1966. Compton's Cafeteria, in the seedy Tenderloin district, is hopping with its usual assortment of transgender people, young street hustlers, and down-and-out regulars. The management, annoyed by the noisy crowd at one table, calls the police. When a surly cop, accustomed to manhandling Compton's clientele, attempts to arrest one of the queens, she throws her coffee in his face. Mayhem erupts -- windows break, furniture flies through the air. Police reinforcements arrive, and the fighting spills into the street. For the first time, the drag queens band together to fight back, getting the better of the cops, whom they kick and stomp with their high-heeled shoes and beat with their heavy purses. For everyone at Compton's that night, one thing was certain -- things would never be the same again.
acknowledgment
Truly CA Funders
Truly CA is a KQED production presented in association with the
Bay Area Video Coalition and the
Film Arts Foundation.
The most advanced non commercial media access and training center in the nation.
Providing education, information, connections and inspiration for the independent film and video community.
Support for
Truly CA is provided by
The Campaign for the Future Program Venture Fund, The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, Ambassador James C. Hormel, and the Members of KQED.
