AmosL
08-29-2006, 06:12 PM
"KEY WEST: CITY OF COLORS"
AMOS LASSEN and Cinema Pride
"Key West: City of Colors (Picture This! Home Video) is not a new movie but it is one that merits being seen for an uplifting of the spirit and to instill a sense of pride. Key West is a city of diversity. It boasts many varied ethnic backgrounds and lifestyles. Key West offers a warm and accepting place to live for all people. The film was created by Talmadge and focuses on the city but even more specifically on the largest rainbow flag ever created. The highlight of the movie was the unfurling of our flag which stretched down Duval Street from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean.
In 2003 Gilbert Baker, the originator of the flag, sewed a new one specifically for Key West. It was 1 1/4 miles long, 16 feet wide and weighed 3 tons.
It required a staff of 3000 volunteers to carry 17,000 linear yards of material. The joy exhibited by those who carried the flag was exhilarating and quite contagious. The new flag had the original eight colors instead of the six we have now. Fuchsia and purple were discarded from the flag because of the difficulty in obtaining these colors.
The movie begins by introducing us to the city and the people. The residents related what makes Key West so special "In Key West, nobody cares who you want to sleep with." There are representatives of all ethnic groups. all races, all sexualities living together on a 2 by 4 mile island. As one resident said in the movie, "When you put people that close together, they tend to find ways to get along." They certainly all got along for the 25th anniversary of the Rainbow Flag. Gilbert Baker, the flag's creator, explained how he came to design the flag of diversity and it was good to see a man who had lost so many friends to AIDS still be a inspiration to us all.
We learn how Key West became a mecca to gay people and it felt so good to hear about a place where everyone gets along. It was such a beautiful thing to see straight people of color being gay friendly as well as seeing white gay people supporting racial diversity.
The movie closes with this:
"I can choose to hate
or I can choose to love
and worse yet I can choose to fear.
Key West taught me that it has to be my choice."
What a beautiful thing to say about the place you live.
AMOS LASSEN and Cinema Pride
"Key West: City of Colors (Picture This! Home Video) is not a new movie but it is one that merits being seen for an uplifting of the spirit and to instill a sense of pride. Key West is a city of diversity. It boasts many varied ethnic backgrounds and lifestyles. Key West offers a warm and accepting place to live for all people. The film was created by Talmadge and focuses on the city but even more specifically on the largest rainbow flag ever created. The highlight of the movie was the unfurling of our flag which stretched down Duval Street from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean.
In 2003 Gilbert Baker, the originator of the flag, sewed a new one specifically for Key West. It was 1 1/4 miles long, 16 feet wide and weighed 3 tons.
It required a staff of 3000 volunteers to carry 17,000 linear yards of material. The joy exhibited by those who carried the flag was exhilarating and quite contagious. The new flag had the original eight colors instead of the six we have now. Fuchsia and purple were discarded from the flag because of the difficulty in obtaining these colors.
The movie begins by introducing us to the city and the people. The residents related what makes Key West so special "In Key West, nobody cares who you want to sleep with." There are representatives of all ethnic groups. all races, all sexualities living together on a 2 by 4 mile island. As one resident said in the movie, "When you put people that close together, they tend to find ways to get along." They certainly all got along for the 25th anniversary of the Rainbow Flag. Gilbert Baker, the flag's creator, explained how he came to design the flag of diversity and it was good to see a man who had lost so many friends to AIDS still be a inspiration to us all.
We learn how Key West became a mecca to gay people and it felt so good to hear about a place where everyone gets along. It was such a beautiful thing to see straight people of color being gay friendly as well as seeing white gay people supporting racial diversity.
The movie closes with this:
"I can choose to hate
or I can choose to love
and worse yet I can choose to fear.
Key West taught me that it has to be my choice."
What a beautiful thing to say about the place you live.