The powerful documentary Hating Peter Tatchell is now available to watch on Netflix in Australia and New Zealand.
Produced by Veronica Fury from WildBear Entertainment’s Brisbane office, directed by Gold Coast based Christopher Amos, and executive produced by Sir Elton John and David Furnish, Hating Peter Tatchell tells the powerful and inspiring true story of Peter Tatchell, the controversial human rights campaigner whose protests rocked the establishment, revolutionised attitudes and laws on homosexuality, and exposed tyrants and injustice across the globe.
Five years in the making and filmed across the UK, Russia and Australia, Hating Peter Tatchell follows over fifty-years of Peter’s life from his activist beginnings in Australia with the Anti-Vietnam War movement, to his latest crusade against the persecution of LGBT+ people in the Chechen Republic during the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Moscow that led to his public arrest near the Red Square and Kremlin.
Featuring extensive never-before-seen photographic and video archives, an intimate conversation between Peter and fellow activist and celebrated actor, Sir Ian McKellen, and evocative supporting interviews from allies and adversaries, including former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, actor Stephen Fry, the ex-head of the UK LGBT+ group Stonewall Angela Mason, 1970s pop star Tom Robinson, the world’s first out cabinet minister Chris Smith, and photojournalist Adrian Arbib who reported on some of Peter’s best-known protests,
Hating Peter Tatchell invites audiences to discover how this Australian-born activist went from the ‘Most Hated Man in Britain’ to a national treasure.
Tracing Tatchell’s journey from growing up in Melbourne to finding the gay liberation movement in London in the early 1970’s. The film moves through Tatchell’s attempts to join parliament in the early 1980’s and his activism during the emergence of HIV/AIDS.
“Peter’s activism is one of the ingredients that lead to a better response.” Chris Smith says on Tatchell’s work during this time.
The film shows the links between the civil rights movement and gay liberation, and how Margaret Thatcher’s Section 28 laws live on in Russia’s current anti-propaganda laws.
Over the years Tatchell has lead some creative protests that have dominated headlines and in turn inspired activists around the globe. From mock-weddings, to kiss-ins and encouraging gay men to hand themselves as sex criminals, his organisation Outrage constantly made headlines.
Outrage also launched a campaign which outed high profile people who were themselves gay, but were hypocritically making decisions and statements against LGBTIQA+ people. It was a campaign that was hit by a lot of criticism.
The documentary features a wide range of Tatchell’s contemporaries who admit that sometimes his actions irked them. While one of Tatchell’s regular targets, former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey shares what it was like to be in the activists sights.
The film prompts an intellectual debate on what tactics should be used to bring about the change you are seeking in the world, do activists need to be polite and accommodating of opposing views? Is there a point which warrants more outrageous actions?
During the film Stephen Fry describes Tatchell as one of the greatest performance artists, some one who knows how to get everyone to look and listen to his views, triggering the thought that some creativity is often lacking from many protests and demonstrations.
Check out the documentary on Netflix.
Graeme Watson
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