Guest Blogger-Dan Goldes

The Show Me Justice Film Festival is on April 7th and 8th at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, Missouri. As the festival approaches, guest blogger Dan Goldes discusses Equal Justice Under Law, an official selection of the 2016 Show Me Justice Film Festival.

Dan Goldes is the director of Equal Justice Under Law, released in 2015 and an official selection of seven U.S. film festivals to date. His previous short film, ub2, about language related to HIV, played at 36 U.S. and international festivals. He is currently at work on 5 Blocks, a long form documentary about a San Francisco neighborhood undergoing its most dramatic change in 50 years. Visit equaljustice-film.com

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Equal Justice Under Law, my short documentary about the U.S. Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision, was made quickly. When the decision was announced, I knew I needed to be in San Francisco’s Castro District, not far from my home, to celebrate – and to film. The only camera I had access to was the one on my cell phone, so that’s what I used.

It only occurred to me later that this powerful tool, carried by millions and used over the past few years to show the world’s progress toward democracy in places like Ukraine, Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria, was now being used to share a different kind of celebration. The joy on the street that day was palpable, and I wasn’t the only person capturing it on video.

During the day-long celebration, I began to hear about President Barak Obama’s speech about the court decision and, later, about him singing “Amazing Grace” at the eulogy for slain Rev. Clementa Pinckney in Charleston, SC. While mindful of the problems of appropriating another culture’s music, it struck me how closely aligned the causes of racial justice and LGBT equality, and that that song was a way to connect them in my film.

I hope that viewers will also see those connections: that the fight for social justice is one that affects everyone. There is no “us” and “them.” There is only “we.”

-Dan Goldes