The trailer for the Gus Van Sant/Dustin Lance Black mini-series about the queer civil rights movement has dropped, and it's stunning. Even more shock-inducing than its exquisite timing is the fact that it's being produced by ABC/Disney. Which brings me to my left elbow.
Screen acting has never been my mainstay, for whatever reason. However, my left elbow, long a bit player on the Hollywood scene, is having a bit of a moment. It was first seen onscreen in David Cronenberg's M. Butterfly:
My left elbow's screen début.
Now it's going to be featured (along with the rest of me) in at least sixty seconds of this groundbreaking, star-studded masterpiece. I can't talk about which sixty seconds, because I'm under a terrifying 5-page confidentiality contract (and here I'm not exaggerating) with Disney. Suffice it to say that fans of The Wire are going to want to cuddle up to my left elbow... and even more so, my left hand.
In the midst of my post-election Trumpence despair, for the USA and for the future of the world, I take comfort in the certain knowledge that my left elbow is going to make a difference... or at least, that it's going to take a stand, by bearing witness to the ongoing struggle for justice for the American LGBTQ+ community... whose hard-won gains are now being threatened, like those of so many others, by people who never accepted their integration into the mainstream of society, and who merely bided their time to kick them back into the closet/across the border/to the back of the bus. From the script I read and the images I've seen, it's clear that this story bears witness to the free and courageous and accepting and hopeful America that so many of us used to believe in. That we hope will rise again.
So, way to go, Left Elbow. The rest of me'd better get busy, because it now has a lot to live up to.