Category Archives: Update

Update – OUT HERE NOW Kansas City LGBT Film Festival – Date/Time/Location

We have received word of our official screening date, time, and location for OUT HERE NOW Kansas City LGBT Film Festival 2017. “Before Homosexuals” will be screened at 1:30PM on June 23rd at Tivoli Cinemas in Westport, Kansas City, MO. Tickets are now available for this event at OUTHERENOW.com.

Need directions to this event? Click Here to be taken to the address on Google Maps.

Official Selection – “Before Homosexuals” Selected to Screen at OUT HERE NOW: Kansas City’s LGBT Film Festival 2017

We are excited to announce “Before Homosexuals: The Prequel to Before Stonewall” has been officially selected to screen at this year’s OUT HERE NOW: Kansas City’s LGBT Film Festival in Kansas City, MO. We do not have the official screening date yet, but we will keep you informed as new information becomes available.

OUT HERE NOW 2017 will run from June 22nd to June 29th, 2017.

Save the Date – “Before Homosexuals” to be Screened at 30th Annual Out Film CT LGBT Film Festival, June 10, 2017

We are proud to announce that “Before Homosexuals” will be screening on June 10, 2017 as part of Out Film CT: Connecticut LGBT Film Festival. The film will screen at 3:00 PM at the Real Art Ways theater in Hartford, CT.

We will keep you updated with new information as it becomes available.

Tickets for World Premiere Screening of “Before Homosexuals” Now Available

World Premiere, MFA Boston 4/8/17 2PM, Wicked Queer

Today is the day!

Tickets to the world premiere screening event of “Before Homosexuals: The Prequel to Before Stonewall” as part of the 33rd Annual Wicked Queer LGBT Film Festival are now available for purchase online at http://www.mfa.org/programs/film/before-homosexuals.

The film will be screened at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on April 8th at 2PM in the Harry and Mildred Remis Auditorium (Auditorium 161). The screening will be followed by a lively Q&A session with director John Scagliotti along with members of the cast and crew. Seating is limited, so purchase your tickets today.

Sneak Peak Scagliotti vs. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

While John Scagliotti was news director at WBCN in 1975 he was arrested by the Boston Police vice squad and charged with “soliciting to commit unnatural and lascivious acts.” A jury dressed in festive St. Patrick’s Day attire quickly brought a verdict: guilty as charged. Scagliotti fought that conviction all the way to the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and with the help of the ACLU, the initial ruling was overturned.

It was a landmark decision for gays and lesbians, and for personal freedom.

Representative Barney Frank at the time told Gay Community News: “This is binding. In effect, it has amended the state’s laws against unnatural acts.… Private consensual, homosexual sex is not convictable.”

Now, more than 40 years later, Scagliotti returns to the scene of the crime April 8th, 2017 at 2PM at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to present the world premiere screening of “Before Homosexuals: The Prequel to Before Stonewall” as part of the 33rd Annual Wicked Queer LGBT Film Festival. He will be joined by members of the crew and cast for a lively Q&A session after the screening.

Tickets go on sale March 23rd at 10:00AM at http://www.mfa.org/programs/film/before-homosexuals

Sneak Peak of the Salacious Reputation of Renaissance Florence

As the late Louis Crompton says in “Before Homosexuals” about the Italian Renaissance, “A number of the artists themselves were undoubtedly homosexual.” Florentines had the most notorious reputations about their sexual proclivities. After interviewing Michael Rocke (Author and Senior Research Associate at Villa I Tatti the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies) and Dr. James Saslow (author of Ganymede in the Renaissance: Homosexuality in Art and Society) the evidence is clear. We offer this sneak peak of our section on Renaissance Florence from “Before Homosexuals”.
Tickets will be available March 23rd, 2017 for the world premiere screening event of “Before Homosexuals: The Prequel to Before Stonewall” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston as part of the 33rd annual Wicked Queer LGBT Film Festival. Join director John Scagliotti and Dr. Bernadette Brooten at 2PM on April 8, 2017 and stay after the screening for a lively Q&A session.
 
Tickets go on sale March 23rd at 10:00AM at http://www.mfa.org/programs/film/before-homosexuals

World Premiere of “Before Homosexuals” at Wicked Queer in Boston

World Premiere, MFA Boston 4/8/17 2PM, Wicked Queer

Court sketch by Carol Ruzicka.

We are excited to announce the world premiere of “Before Homosexuals: The Prequel to Before Stonewall” will take place on April 8th, 2017, 2:00 PM at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston as part of the 33rd Annual Wicked Queer: The Boston LGBT Film Festival.

Emmy Award-winner John Scagliotti guides us in a wondrous tour of erotic history, poetry and visual art in this point-of-view documentary on same-sex desire from ancient times to Victorian crimes. He explores how the sexual revolution of the 1960s and the growth of LGBT political power in the 1990s cleared the path for artists and scholars to re-discover pre-20th century same-sex desires. With dozens of experts he revels in lesbian love spells from ancient Rome, censored chapters of the Kamasutra, Native American two-spirit rituals and more. A prequel to “Before Stonewall” (which he produced with Greta Schiller and Robert Rosenberg), “Before Homosexuals” unearths the garden of human sexual delights and the endurance and creativity of “an army of lovers”.

Scagliotti was news director at WBCN Radio Boston in November 1975 and was arrested. He brings the Boston arrest full-circle when he begins the film on the Greek island of Astypalaia. Standing over same-sex graffiti from 2,500 years ago, he points out the naturalness of homosexuality among the ancient Greeks, in contrast to his arrest and conviction for “soliciting to commit an unnatural act” in Boston in 1975. Scagliotti fought that conviction all the way to the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, where the ruling was overturned.

After being arrested and convicted for “soliciting unnatural and lascivious acts” in 1975, Scagliotti fought (with the help of the ACLU) and won to overturn the ruling at the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, 1977. Still from “Before Homosexuals: The Prequel to Before Stonewall”.

Representative Barney Frank at the time told Gay Community News that this is an important step forward for gays and lesbians. “This is binding,” he said, “In effect, it has amended the state’s laws against unnatural acts… Private consensual, homosexual sex is not convictable.”

Scagliotti will be presenting the film with a few people from both in front of the camera and behind the scenes for this special world premiere event. Tickets can be purchased starting at 10:00AM on March 23rd at the MFA Website or at the Wicked Queer WebsitePrice for tickets will be $11 or $9 for MFA members.

We hope to see you at the screening,

The “Before Homosexuals” Crew

Need directions to this event? Click here to be taken to Google Maps.

Matt Bucy Joins the “Before Homosexuals” Crew as Digital Colorist

Matt Bucy has previously done some beautiful cinematography for our film “Before Homosexuals”, and now we are thrilled to announce that he is joining our crew again as our Digital Colorist. Matt was recently recognized in American Cinematographer for his lighting and camera work on the award-winning recreation of 1960s TV, “Star Trek Continues (YouTube).” Our director, John Scagliotti says, “Now with Matt on board, we will be able to boldly go where no man has gone before!” His experimental film, “Of Oz the Wizard (Vimeo),” a re-edit of the MGM classic, went semi-viral in early 2016, after favorable reviews in the LA Times, on Buzzfeed, Vox, Dangerous Minds and others.

Color correction is one of the final frontiers left in our post production process. We are grateful to the support of so many in helping to create this amazing documentary.

Don DiNicola Joins the “Before Homosexuals” Crew as Music Composer

Don DiNicola as Original Music Composer

Don DiNicola, who wrote the original score for our films “After Stonewall” and “Dangerous Living,” has set to work on the score for our latest film “Before Homosexuals.” Don has more than 15 years of experience in film and television as a composer and music supervisor and has developed a substantial, multi-tiered music publishing company. Our Director John is thrilled to be working with Don again, and says Don is great at capturing with music the spirit and vision we have created for the film.

With the addition of Don’s work, we are officially entering the final phases of our post-production. We expect the film to be completed in time for the festival circuit beginning in the spring of 2017.

“KickFinisher” Kickstarter Campaign a Success!

Aristogeiton and Harmodius

Thanks to the hard work and support of so many individuals our “KickFinisher” Kickstarter Campaign was a success! We appreciate your dedication to our mission of preserving same-sex history. Thanks to your generous support we are on track to finishing this important documentary film. Please follow our progress both here on our website and by visiting and liking our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bhdocumentary

Thank you again,

The “Before Homosexuals” Crew