The documentary was very powerful--John, Roma, and Della had all narrated on it. John only spoke for 10 minutes, and yes, I took pictures! One of the guys who made the documentary had asked Matthew Shepard's mom if there was anybody in particular she wanted involved in the documentary, and she had said, "John Dye." The guy said that became his mission--if Judy Shepard wanted John Dye, then he was going to get him for her. So he called the TBAA studio, who put him through to public relations, who put him through to John's agency, who put him through to John's manager, who heard the story, and told it to John. The guy said within 24 hours of placing the initial call, he got an answer from John--"Yes."

We didn't get to "meet" with him, but it was exciting, to be just 50 feet away from him all night! (Kinda frustrating too, at the same time.) :-) John was wearing a black suit with what looked like a burgundy striped tie (I was too far away to be certain). He talked about how honored and excited he was to be a part of this--he said when he heard about what happened to Matthew Shepard, he went home and cried. He thanked the audience for being there, and said he knew we were there because we cared and we were concerned. In, the documentary, he said he was in San Francisco when Matthew died, and he said he'd been doing grocery shopping one night and found himself on a corner where a vigil was being held for Matthew.

A young woman took his arm and told him she was glad to see him there, and he replied, "Where else would I be?" She asked, "Do you think Andrew was there?" He answered, "Andrew is a character...but God was there."

He made a joke about coming from the South, they have a saying called, "Preaching to the choir," and he said, you know, when he bends over way like this (and he demonstrated) so he's facing the choir instead of the congregation--the audience busted out laughing at that.

The film was very powerful--I think they need to mess with the sound a bit, it got powerful to the point where it reverbed and you had trouble understanding, but it was great. I think it's going up for an Academy Award somewhere in LA on October 22nd? If I remember correctly?

OH--he did say something like, "It's an honor and a privilege to be here--that's not right...we shouldn't have to be here at all." That's not a direct quote, cuz I can't remember exactly what he said, but it was something to that effect.

And the producers hugged everybody who came up on the stage. Yes, including John. Oh, and they wanted to thank all of their volunteers, so they made them a poster of their symbol. John got one too.

When asked to imagine a world without hate, John said he thought it would be a lot like San Francisco early in the morning, with just the hills and silence all around. Damned if I can remember if he said this on the stage or if he said it in the documentary.

He did ask us to think about what it would be like in 100 years--that there would be all new people in the world, none of us would be there. Then he stopped and said, "Well, I don't know about that, my mom's pretty resilent." The audience laughed, so I don't know what else he said exactly, but I think he was asking us what kind of world did we want to leave those people.

One of the things that they showed in the documentary was this "holier-than-thou" preacher with his followers holding up signs that said stuff like, "GOD HATES FAGS" and "GOD LAUGHS WHEN A FAG DIES".

The worst one, IMO, was one with Matt's face on it, with a pink triangle stamped on his forehead, and the sign said, "MATT IS BURNING IN HELL".

To me, that was truly horrific--it was terrible enough that he was tortured to death, but for people to go to his funeral holding up signs like that? That is the ultimate cruelty to his family. I will be honest--I do not approve of homosexuality, but I figure that is something the person will have to answer to God for, but he doesn't have to answer to me. But not approving does NOT give anybody the right to murder a homosexual, nor does it give them the right to rub it in the faces of their grieving loved ones!

James Byrd Jr's. sister was a speaker there too....I was so horrified by her description of her brother's body...the county sheriff was his best friend, and she said that James' body was in such bad shape that the sheriff was unable to identify him, until he got the fingerprints. Can you imagine...you're the law, and you might be outraged by this crime, but you've detached yourself because you've seen it so many times, and this is just another victim--and then you realize it wasn't.

Shannon Who has more to say but is quite worn out right now!

--- Lori, another fan who was there, writes:

I made it to the premiere, and it was incredible! Very moving, yet chilling in its way. It was *way* cool to actually get to see John in the flesh, albeit from a distance. And stupid me, I forgot my binoculars! LOL We were in the balcony, in the front row, and had an unobstructed view of the stage (and John!), which was nice. His speech prior to the screening was only a few minutes long, but he is in the documentary quite a bit. In fact, I think we see more of him in this documentary than we did last season in TBAA. LOL We were hoping to get to talk to John, but alas, twas not to be. Oh, I should also mention that both Roma and Della did some narration in the film.

It was an excellent documentary, and for me, listening to the people whose lives were affected by the tragedies of Columbine, Matthew Shepard, and James Byrd made it more real for me, if that makes sense. If you get a chance, you should see it. The info I have is from the web page, and it looks like they are trying to market the film to different cable networks, public broadcasting, and film festivals, as well as showing it to schools and colleges. They also said they hope to release it on video, both for rental and retail. I would imagine if you would like to know if the film will be shown in your area, you can contact them and ask. Email addy is info@newlightmedia.com. URL is www.newlightmedia.com. I know they will be showing the documentary in Portland on 10/16, if anyone here is in that area. If you are a college student, and would like to have the documentary shown on your campus, there is a link on the webpage to www.campuspeak.com, and they have more info there.

It was a very powerful documentary, and real moving to actually hear the people involved in these tragedies tell their stories, instead of getting it from the media. For me, it just became more real. (If that makes sense.) I was horrifed, listening to James Byrd, Sr.'s sisters describe his body...or rather, what remained of it. To this day, I cannot read a description of how he died. I have to skim over it. Listening to the sisters...wow.

The preacher and his followers Shannon refers to I have known about for a number of years, ever since seeing him on 60 minutes, or one of those shows. Seeing all that hate he and his followers were spewing was just disgusting! The worst was that they had little children there! I just cannot fathom how someone can call themselves a Christian, yet carry a sign that says, "God laughs when a fag dies."

Well, that's all for now! Lori