Dear Friends:
I highly recommend seeing this documentary at Inside/Out on June 1st if you can. I was interviewed for it and I know many other people who were including many who were purged from the military.
In solidarity,
Gary
The Fruit Machine
June 1, 2018
4:45 PM
TIFF Bell Lightbox – Cinema 2
350 King Street West
Toronto ON,
https://www.insideout.ca/torontofestival/film/the-fruit-machine
Screening Sponsor
Some softened by age and sadness, others loud and angry, the voices of the survivors of Canada’s public service and military homosexual purge are now united and determined.
After the Second World War, Canada, and much of the Western world, became preoccupied with national security. Against the backdrop of Cold War paranoia, Canada began investigating federal employees who might be susceptible to blackmail by Soviet spies. Homosexuality, along with drunkenness and adultery, was considered a “character weakness” and became grounds for surveillance and interrogation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police under the directive of the newly established Security Panel. Over the course of four decades, thousands of men and women had their privacy invaded and their careers ruined.
The despair born in those pop-up interrogation rooms has long-paralyzed these public servants and military members. The Fruit Machine is their film, a story of hope and of a country’s struggle to do the right thing.
Premiere:
World Premiere
Director(s):
Sarah Fodey
Country:
Canada
Year:
2018
Run Time:
93 min.
Interest:
Activism, Canadian, History
Format:
Feature Narrative
Stream:
Spotlight on Canada
Restricted to persons 18 or older