The Tara Theatre will host a special screening of Andrew Durham’s award-winning film “Fairyland” on Dec. 6 at 3 p.m.
The event is being coordinated by Touching Up Our Roots: Georgia’s LGBTQ+ Story Project and Georgia LGBTQ History Project. There will be a post-show talkback with activist veterans about the origins of the LGBTQ+ civil and human rights movement from the 1960s to today. Speakers will include Abby Drue, Lorraine Fontana, Maria Helena Dolan, Gil Robison, and Gus Kaufman.
Historian Wes Nimmo, who authored Atlanta’s LGBTQ Context Statement, will moderate the conversation. There will also be a tribute to activist and historian Dave Hayward, the co-founder of Touching Up Our Roots, who died last month.
The film tells the true story of the late Steve Abbott, a former Atlanta resident who lost his wife in a car accident in 1973 and moved with his daughter to San Francisco so he could live as an openly gay man.
The film – based on the memoir by Abbott’s daughter, Alysia – chronicles Abbott’s life as a poet, novelist, and the AIDS crisis that would engulf San Francisco in the 90s. Abbott died from complications of the disease in 1992.
“Fairyland” was produced by Oscar-winning director Sofia Coppola and stars Scoot McNairy as Abbott and Emilia Jones as Alysia, with co-stars Academy Award winner Geena Davis and singer/actor Adam Lambert.