June 24, 2016
'Stonewall' Director Defends Film, Calls Riots 'A White Event'
READ TIME: 1 MIN.
The director of the controversial and poorly received 2015 film "Stonewall," a drama about a young white gay man during the 1969 historic Stonewall Riots, defended the movie, which has nine percent on Rotten Tomatoes, in an interview with the Guardian.
Roland Emmerich, most known for his action movies like "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Independence Day," spoke with the newspaper about the latter film's sequel and also discussed why he took on a drama like "Stonewall." He also commented on the accusations that he whitewashed the important LGBT rights event by telling the story via a handsome white gay man. But the director defended his film by saying, "Stonewall was a white event."
"My movie was exactly what they said it wasn't," Emmerich told the newspaper. "It was politically correct. It had black, transgender people in there. We just got killed by one voice on the internet who saw a trailer and said, this is whitewashing Stonewall. Stonewall was a white event, let's be honest. But nobody wanted to hear that any more."
After his comment, the Guardian writes that "reports and photographs from Stonewall in fact indicate that the riots were started by gay, straight, trans, white, black, and Latino protesters."
Not only did "Stonewall" received a poor aggregated rating from critics, but it also bombed at the box-office, earning less than $188,000. Emmerich's new film "Independence Day: Resurgence" is now in theaters.
