‘Political Animals’ Still In the Fight

“Political Animals,” which recently won audience and jury awards at its premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival (see our video coverage), seems especially timely as it screens at Frameline in San Francisco this weekend and at Outfest in Los Angeles on July 14.

The film, from filmmakers Jonah Markowitz and Tracy Wares, features the first four “out” legislators in the state, former Senators Sheila Kuehl, Carole Migden, Christine Kehoe and former Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg, and documents how they banded together to force change in domestic and LGBT policies, as well as put human faces to LGBT issues.

“I feel accomplished … unbelievably jubilant about this film,” said Carole Migden, who was instrumental in getting the film made, in addition to being among the featured subjects. The film “combines a fascinating viewing experience, along with a great deal of authentic and important history,” she added, in a conversation with GoWeho’s Laurie Schenden before the film’s premiere.

All four women expressed pride in the work they did to further the rights of LGBT people, at a time when most gays and lesbians feared to be out publicly.

“When I first brought the gay student bill,” Sheila Kuehl recalled, “I had some gay students from Fairfax High school come up to testify with their parents. [An assemblyman] said, “you know, if you’re going to say you’re gay, of course you’re going to get beat up, what do you expect? He didn’t want to stop that.”

All of the women agreed with Kuehl that they “had a sense” that the work they were doing was significant, that “something really big was going on and we were definitely a part of it.”

“It makes me feel, a life well spent,” said Jackie Goldberg, with the others nodding in agreement. “We were a part of something bigger than ourselves. It’s impacted people we’ll never know and will never meet.”

For more about the film see www.politicalanimalsdoc.com.