ABOUT THE PROJECT

LOGLINE
Agility, persistence and passionate inquiry have driven Esther Newton’s survival as a butch lesbian, octogenarian athlete, and groundbreaking scholar whose life’s work has influenced generations of LGBTQ activists and scholars.

SYNOPSIS
ESTHER NEWTON MADE ME GAY explores the life and times of cultural anthropologist Esther Newton. The film tells her story of awakening to gay life in the 1950’s, the women’s liberation movement and lesbian-feminism, drag culture and forging a butch identity which for her is now in conversation with trans-masculinity. Keenly attuned to the cultural and societal forces that shaped her life, Esther guides us through an anthropology of herself.

Throughout her career, Esther was a pioneer—questioning and challenging status quo assumptions on gender, sexuality and anthropological methods. At a time when anthropology was limited to studying “far away cultures”, Esther’s foundational book, Mother Camp, was a bold and intimate study of the underground world of 1960’s midwest drag bars. Despite her groundbreaking work, Esther struggled to gain acceptance in an academic world that sidelined women and shunned homosexuals. With dogged persistence and the growing voice of the feminist and LGBTQ movements, Newton would go on to write important works such as Margaret Mead Made Me Gay; Cherry Grove, Fire Island; and “My Best Informant’s Dress” that laid the foundation for a new generation of Queer scholars and activists.

The tone of this film is light and fluid, guided by Esther’s love for a sport — competitive dog agility — that pairs her aging butch body with her beloved dog teammate on an obstacle course that is constantly changing. Agility, persistence and passionate inquiry have driven Esther’s survival as a butch woman, octogenarian athlete, and iconoclast scholar in a world of full of obstacles.

PROJECT TYPE Documentary Feature

DIRECTOR Jean Carlomusto
PRODUCER Shanti Avirgan, Jean Carlomusto

WEBSITE esthernewtonmademegay.com/
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