The Castro

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This record is featured in “Exploring Public Media in the Peabody Awards Collection.” This record is featured in “Peabody Awards Collection.”
Program
The Castro
Producing Organization
KQED-TV (Television station : San Francisco, Calif.)
Contributing Organization
The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip-526-6h4cn7006r
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Description
Program Description
"Now known internationally as the world's first 'gay hometown,' San Francisco's Castro District was a quiet neighborhood of working-class immigrants only a few decades ago. This is the first television history of a remarkable transformation -- how one neighborhood became the cornerstone of an entire social movement. "Using rare archival film and fresh contemporary footage, the story of the Castro's transformation is told by the people who lived it -- young and old, straight and gay. It's a tale of social upheaval, exuberant street culture, political assassination, and a devastating plague. It is a tale full of critics and dissenters, whose voices are heard here as well. But it is also the inspiring coming-of-age story of an entire community: an ongoing saga even today. "This documentary breaks ground on several fronts. Much of the history of gays in America has been written out of mainstream media, and what does appear often fails to place gay Americans into the larger fabric of minority cultures in America. Moreover, mainstream gay history has focused almost exclusively on New York (Charles Kaiser's The Gay Metropolis and PBS's 'A Question of Equality' are recent examples in which significant movements on the West Coast were omitted). 'The Castro' sets matters aright by documenting, in its full drama, humor and flair, the birth of a culture. By taking a long view of one community, 'The Castro' gives important historical context for the momentous events in San Francisco in the 1970's -- first by revealing (again for the first time on television) the extent of a deeply oppressed, politically aware gay underground in the 1950's, and secondly by recognizing that the transformation of this tiny neighborhood was essentially the laboratory for a larger movement that would sweep the country. As the film follows Castro through the AIDS epidemic into the present, the neighborhood becomes a prism through which to view not only gay culture in America, but the struggle of all emerging communities for identity, survival, and, ultimately, acceptance."--1997 Peabody Awards entry form.
Broadcast Date
1997-03-15
Asset type
Program
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
01:27:20.148
Credits
Producing Organization: KQED-TV (Television station : San Francisco, Calif.)
AAPB Contributor Holdings
The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia
Identifier: cpb-aacip-12bf6ac6524 (Filename)
Format: Betacam: SP
Duration: 1:26:00
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Citations
Chicago: “The Castro,” 1997-03-15, The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed April 20, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-6h4cn7006r.
MLA: “The Castro.” 1997-03-15. The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. April 20, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-6h4cn7006r>.
APA: The Castro. Boston, MA: The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-6h4cn7006r