Gay USA (film)

Gay USA
Film poster
Directed byArthur J. Bressan Jr.
Produced byArthur J. Bressan Jr.
David Pasko
Joseph Knutson
Cinematography
List
  • Emiko Omori
  • Douglas Dickinson
  • Jim Block
  • John Frazer
  • Lee Warneke
  • Henry Auvil
  • Stephen Fabus
  • Tom Eals
  • Steve McMillin
  • Joe Defrancesco
  • Peter Levine
  • David Rathod
  • Frederick Schminke
  • Max Schmid
  • Debbie Fort
  • Pat Rocco
  • Howard Gard
  • Grant Smith
  • Sara Linden
  • Bill Moritz
  • Paul Mathison
  • Peter Gallager
Edited byArthur J. Bressan Jr.
Thommy Padgett
Production
company
Artists United For Gay Rights
Distributed byFrameline
Kit Parker Films
Release date
  • August 27, 1977 (1977-08-27)
{San Francisco)
Running time
73 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$8,000 – $11,000

Gay USA (also known as Gay USA: The Politics of Celebration), is a 1977 American documentary film directed by Arthur J. Bressan Jr. The film is the first American feature-length documentary by and about LGBTQ people, that focused on the gay rights movement. It has been widely hailed in the gay press as an instrument of solidarity for gay audiences.

Composed of footage shot at a number of gay pride events around the United States in June 1977, the film captures a time just as the gay rights movement began facing the first organized backlash in the form of Anita Bryant and her campaign to repeal anti-discrimination protection in Dade County. Bressan dedicated the film to Robert Hillsborough, who was murdered on June 22, 1977, on the streets of San Francisco for being gay.