Arts & Entertainment
This could be a game changer
‘Prison Terminal’ filmmaker was Oscar hopeful for end-of-life doc
George William Hall (Jack Hall), the subject of ‘Prison Terminal,’ which will screen later this month on HBO. (Photo courtesy HBO)
Editor’s note: This article was written before the Academy Awards. “The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life” won in the Best Documentary Short Subject category.
With Hollywood’s elite ready to celebrate at the Academy Awards this Sunday, names like Cate Blanchett, Jared Leto and Jennifer Lawrence are predicted by many to take home Oscar gold.
One name up for an award who probably isn’t familiar to many is documentary director Edgar Barens, a gay filmmaker whose film “Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall” is up for Best Short Documentary this year.
“I was just hit by a wall of emotion and started crying when I heard. I never sought the Oscar thing but when it happened, I was just overwhelmed,” Barens says. “This could be a game changer.”
Growing up in Chicago with European parents, Barens was exposed to the cinema at a very young age.
“I was always immersed in film. As a kid, my brother and I would go to film screenings and foreign films all the time,” he says. “By the time I got to college, I had no idea you could study film, and I was hooked when I saw the classes.”
Barens received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in cinema and photography from Southern Illinois University, but found that it wasn’t the easiest thing to make a living as a filmmaker.
“My dad was an artist and always had projects he was working on and I got his work ethic. No matter what dead-end job I was working at, and I had many of them — such as a phlebotomist when making this film — I was always working on something on the side,” he says. “What I found was many of these temp jobs ended up blossoming into film jobs.”
Barens did company films, short documentaries and any project a company would need a camera and story for. The 53-year-old took most of his savings to invest in making his Oscar-nominated film and HBO came along with funds to finish the project.
“Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall” follows the terminally ill Jack Hall, jailed in maximum-security prison at the Iowa State Penitentiary, as he faces his final days with the assistance of hospice care provided by workers drawn from the prison population.
“For me, I was giving a voice to the prisoners who don’t often get heard,” Barens says. “I was celebrating a program that was developed in their benefit to show people that even though they have done terrible things, at the end of the day, we have to be better than they were when they committed their crimes and show them dignity in their deaths.”
Barens spent six months shooting footage behind the walls of the Iowa State Penitentiary and has put together a poignant account of how the hospice experience can profoundly touch even the forsaken lives of the incarcerated.
It was a topic that wasn’t a new one for Barens, who had done a much smaller film about hospice care in a prison in Louisiana earlier in his career. That was just a two-week shoot about setting up a hospice in a prison, and he always hoped to take a much more elaborate look at the subject.
Going in, he didn’t know exactly what story he was going to tell, but fate turned the attention of the film to Hall, a decorated soldier who went to prison for 21 years for murdering a drug dealer.
“Two months into my stay, Jack started to get sick and it became a no-brainer that he was the guy I was going to follow,” he says. “It’s a hybrid cinema verite. I wanted to make it observational, but I needed information from people so the verite provides a buffer between the talking heads and the observational footage. People lose track that they are in a prison, but you get these little reminders, like when Jack is shackled.”
Gay documentary filmmaker Edgar Barens invested most of his savings to make ‘Prison Terminal: the Last Days of Private Jack Hall.’ (Photo courtesy of HBO)
Barens says he has plenty of footage about the workers, the hospice and the prisoners that didn’t make it into the finished film, and is working on a web-based media project that will let viewers learn more about what they see in the film.
The out filmmaker doesn’t think it’s necessary that his documentaries only deal with LGBT issues but neither does he shy away from the subject, even shooting a series of anti-homophobia public service announcements.
“Being gay is a big part of my life but I don’t think everything film-wise has to have a gay theme,” he says. “I would never shy away from it. I know some ideas of mine coming down the pike have a major gay theme, but not everything has to have that theme.”
A few days after learning of his award nomination, Barens flew to Sundance and learned from past nominees that regardless of whether he wins or not, his film career will probably be an easier ride.
“Just with the nomination they told me to expect not having to worry about how difficult it is to get funding for my next film, because people will recognize the nomination,” he says. “Not that people will throw money at me, but it should help greatly. I’m prepping myself for a big change, but you never know.”
Turning to Sunday, Barens will be dressing to the nines and bringing his mom as his date, and is looking forward to walking the red carpet with the star-studded guest list.
“I would like to wing it, but there are a few names I absolutely have to mention but there is a chance I may not even know who I am,” he says. “I’ll have a cheat sheet with some names and just let the rest come from my heart. That’s if I am lucky enough. It’s pretty nice to be nominated and I feel good for that accomplishment.”
“Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall” will air on HBO at 8 p.m., March 31.
a&e features
Memorial for groundbreaking bisexual activist set for May 2
Loraine Hutchins remembered as a ‘force of nature’
The Montgomery County Pride Center will host a celebration honoring the life and legacy of Loraine Hutchins, Ph.D., on May 2. People are invited to attend the onsite memorial or a livestream event. The on-site event will begin at 10 a.m. with a meet-and-greet mixer before moving into a memorial service around the theme “Loraine a Force of Nature!” at 11 a.m., a panel talk at 12 p.m., break out sessions for artists, academics, and activists to build on her legacy at 1 p.m. and a closing reception at 2 p.m.
Attendees are encouraged to register for the on-site memorial gathering or the livestreamed memorial. The goal of this event is also to collect stories and memories of Loraine. Attendees and others can share their stories at padlet.com.
An obituary for Hutchins was published in the Bladelast Nov. 24, where people can learn more about her activism in the bisexual community. A private service for friends and family was held in December but this memorial service is open to all.
Alongside her groundbreaking work organizing for U.S. bisexual rights and liberation including co-editing “Bi Any Other Name: BIsexual People Speak Out” (1991), she also integrated faith into her sexual education and advocacy work. Her 2001 doctoral dissertation, “Erotic Rites: A Cultural Analysis of Contemporary U.S. Sacred Sexuality Traditions and Trends,” offered a pointed queer and feminist analysis to sex-neutral and sex-positive spiritual traditions in the United States. Her thesis was also groundbreaking in exploring the intersections between sex workers and those in caregiving professionals, including spiritual ones.
In an oral history interview conducted by Michelle Mueller back in August 2023, Hutchins described herself as a “priestess without a congregation.” While she has occasionally had a sense of community and feels part of a group of loving people, she admitted that “I don’t feel like we have the shape or the purpose that we need.”
“I’ve often experienced being the Cassandra in the room, the Cassandra in the community. Somebody who’s kind of way out there ahead, thinking through the strategic action points that my community hasn’t gotten to yet, and getting a lot of resistance and hostile responses from people who are frightened by dissent and conflict and not ready for the changes we have to make to survive,” she said.
“For somebody who’s bisexual in an out political way and who’s been a spokesperson for the polyamory movement in an out political way, it’s very exposing. And it’s very important to me to be able to try to explain and help other people understand the connection between spirituality and sexuality,” she explained citing how even as a graduate student she was “exploring how to feel erotic and spiritual, and not feel them in conflict with each other in my own spiritual contemplative life and my own sensual body awareness of being alive in the world.”
“Every religion has a sense of sacred sexuality. It’s just they put a lot of boundaries and regulations on it, and if we have a spiritual practice that is totally affirming of women’s priesthood and of gay people, queer people’s ability to minister to everyone and to be ministered to be everyone, what does that do to the gender of God, or our understanding of how we practice our spirituality and our sexuality in community and privately?”
“There’s no easy answer,” she concludes, and she continued to grapple with these questions throughout her life, co-editing another seminal text, “Sexuality, Religion and the Sacred: Bisexual, Pansexual, and Polysexual Perspectives,” published in 2012. Her work blending spiritual and queer liberation remains groundbreaking to this day.
Rev. Eric Eldritch, a local community organizer and ordained Pagan minister with Circle Sanctuary who has worked for decades with the DC Center’s Center Faith to organize the Pride Interfaith Service, is eager to highlight this element of her legacy at the memorial service next month.
History
Julius’ Bar ‘sip-in’ laid groundwork for Stonewall
Tuesday marked 60 years since four gay activists held protest
While Stonewall is widely considered the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement in the U.S., a lesser-known protest inside a Greenwich Village bar three years earlier helped lay critical groundwork for what would follow.
Tuesday marked 60 years since the Julius’ Bar “sip in.”
On April 21, 1966, four gay rights activists — Dick Leitsch, Craig Rodwell, John Timmons, and later Randy Wicker — walked into Julius’ Bar and staged what would become known as a “sip-in” to challenge state liquor regulations on serving alcoholic beverages to gay men — with a drink.
Modeled after the sit-ins that challenged racial segregation across the American South, the protest was designed to confront discriminatory practices targeting LGBTQ patrons in public spaces.
At the time, the Mattachine Society — one of the country’s earliest gay rights groups — was actively pushing back against policies enforced by the New York State Liquor Authority. One of those policies could have resulted in the loss of liquor licenses for serving known or suspected gay men and lesbians. The participants had visited multiple establishments, openly identified themselves as homosexual, and requested a drink — with the anticipation of being denied.
Their final stop was Julius’, where reporters and a photographer had gathered to document the moment. When Leitsch declared their identity, the bartender covered their glasses and refused service, reportedly saying, “I think it’s against the law.” The next day, the New York Times ran a story with the headline, “3 Deviates Invite Exclusion by Bars,” cementing the moment in the public record.
Though initially framed with disrespect — the term “sip-in” itself was coined as a play on civil rights protests — the action marked a turning point. It brought national attention to the systemic discrimination LGBTQ people faced and helped catalyze changes in how liquor laws were enforced. In the years that followed, the protest contributed to the emergence of licensed, more openly gay-friendly bars, which became central social and organizing spaces for LGBTQ communities.
The Washington Blade originally covered when the bar was officially added to the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
Today, historians and advocates increasingly recognize the “sip-in” as a key pre-Stonewall milestone. According to the New York City LGBTQ Historic Sites Project, the protest not only increased visibility of the early LGBTQ rights movement but also exposed widespread surveillance and entrapment tactics used against the community.
Marking the 60th anniversary of the event, commemorations have taken place in New York and across the country. Reflecting on its enduring legacy, Amanda Davis, executive director of the NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project, spoke about the event.
“Julius’ Bar is a place you can visit and viscerally connect with history,” said Davis. “We’re thrilled to have solidarity locations across the country join us in commemorating the ‘sip-in’’s 60th anniversary and the queer community’s First Amendment right to peaceably assemble.”
For current stewards of the historic bar, the responsibility of preserving that legacy remains front of mind.
“It’s a privilege and a responsibility to be the steward of a place so important to American and LGBTQ history,” said current owner of Julius’ Bar, Helen Buford. “The events of the 1966 Sip-In here at Julius’ resonated across the country and inspired countless others to stand proud for their rights.”
The timing couldn’t have come at a more important moment, Kymn Goldstein, executive director of the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives, explained.
“At a time when our community faces renewed challenges, coming together in resilience and solidarity reminds us of the power in our collective resistance,” Goldstein said.
The American Civil Liberties Union, an organization dedicated to defending rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution, is currently tracking 519 anti-LGBTQ bills across the U.S. The majority are targeted at restricting transgender rights — particularly related to gender-affirming care, sports participation, and the use of public bathrooms.
Some additional groups and bars that held their own “sip-in” as solidarity events to uplift this historic milestone are from across the country include:
Alice Austen House at Steiny’s Pub, Staten Island, N.Y.
Bellows Falls Pride Committee at PK’s Irish Pub, Bellows Falls, Vt.
Brick Road Coffee, Mesa, Ariz.
Brick Road Coffee, Tempe, Ariz.
Dick Leitsch’s Family at Old Louisville Brewery, Louisville, Ky.
The Faerie Playhouse & LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana at Le Cabaret, New Orleans
Harlem Pride & John Reddick at L’Artista Italian Kitchen & Bar, New York
JOYR!DE KiKi at Loafers Cocktail Bar, New York
Matthew Lawrence & Jason Tranchida / Headmaster at Deadbeats Bar, Providence, R.I.
Mazer Lesbian Archives at Alana’s Coffee, Los Angeles
New Hope Celebrates at The Club Room, New Hope, Pa.
Queer Memory Project at the University of Evansville Multicultural Student Commons / Ridgway University Center, Evansville, Ind.
Sandy Jack’s Bar, Brooklyn, N.Y.
St. Louis LGBT History Project at Just John Club, St. Louis
The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund National Champagne Brunch was held at Salamander Washington DC on Sunday, April 19. Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) was presented with the Allyship Award.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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