HBO's "The Case Against 8" a powerful account of the fight for marriage equality

Name: HBO's "The Case Against 8" a powerful account of the fight for marriage equality
Start: 2014-12-27T15:30:00+07:00
End: 2014-12-27T19:15:00+07:00
Location: Central World

Hosted By

Art

HBO's "The Case Against 8" a powerful account of the fight for marriage equality

Details

Nominated for an Oscar Award, this is a powerful emotional account of the journey that took the fight for marriage equality all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. This is a riveting inside look at the groundbreaking Supreme Court case that overturned Proposition 8, California's ban on same-sex marriage. With exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of both the powerhouse legal team of David Boies (a famous liberal lawyer) and Ted Olson (a famous conservative lawyer, who had previously won "Bush versus Gore") and the four plaintiffs in the suit.

Genre: Documentary | Biography | News
Duration: 1 hour, 49 minutes
Ratings:
70% of viewers liked this movie (out of 542 votes)
94% of selected movie critics recommended it (out of 35 reviews)
Directors: Ben Cotner, Ryan White
Stars: (real-life people appear in this documentary)
Country: USA
Language: English with Thai subtitles

How to buy your ticket:

(1) Click above right to RSVP to let us know you will be coming. (This will not get you a ticket). You can attend the coffee hour and/or the movie.

(2) Make a reservation for your ticket on the SF Cinema website. You will need to book your seat soon because THE MOVIE WILL PROBABLY QUICKLY SELL OUT IN ADVANCE FROM INTERNET BOOKINGS.

(3) Go to the SF Cinema ticket booking page:

http://booking.sfcinemacity.com/visSelect.aspx?visLang=1&visMovieName=&visSearchBy=&MemId=

(4) Select "SF WORLD CINEMA Central World".

(5) Select "CASE AGAINST 8, THE" and then select the Sat 27 Dec, 17.00 (5:00 PM) show.

(6) Select the "INTERNET DE" ticket at 190.00 baht.

(7) Select your seat in the bottom row of the "Deluxe" section (190 baht) and click on "Next".

(8) Click on "Pay on PICKUP". Wait for the "Register" option to appear and then click it.

(9) Fill in the registration form, which now has switched to Thai language (the English button at the top of the page doesn't work). Required fields are:

Your email address _________

A password you want to use for SF Cinema ticket booking _______

Re-enter that password _______

Skip the other fields as they are not required.

(10) Finish the booking process.

(11) You will immediately receive an email confirmation of your ticket booking.

(12) Print your reservation and bring it with you to the cinema. If you don't have a printer, you can display your reservation email confirmation on your phone when you are at the box office.

If all the good seats are already reserved, you can go the the cinema at 4:30 PM (when reserved tickets that have not been picked up, are made available for purchase by other people).

Location

The location for this meetup is the CentralWorld Shopping Center. The coffee shop will be Starbucks- 3rd floor and the cinema will be SF World Cinema- 7th floor. CentralWorld is located mid-way between two BTS Skytrain stations, Siam and Chit Lom (Chitlom). It's a 5-10 minute walk on the SkyWalk from either station as follows:

From Siam BTS Skytrain Station - head in the direction of Exit 6 but continue walking on the Sky Bridge (rather than going down the stairs of Exit 6). When you come to CentralWorld, take the second exit marked "CentralWorld" (not the first one). After going up the escalator, keep walking in CentralWorld until you see a metal detector. The particular Starbucks (there are others there) we will be at is just a few feet before the metal detector.

From Chit Lom (Chitlom) BTS Skytrain - One end of the station is directly connected to the SkyWalk to CentralWorld (and the Siam station). That end of the station is in the direction of Exits 1 and 2 (but don't take either of those exits). Walk on the SkyWalk until you reach CentralWorld and take the first exit marked "CentralWorld". After going up the escalator, keep walking in CentralWorld until you see a metal detector. The particular Starbacks (there are others there) we will be at is just a few feet before the metal detector.

Schedule

Before 3:30 PM - Go to the SF World Cinema, 7th floor, Central World and pick up your ticket (show your reservation). You must pick your ticket up at least 45 minutes before the movie starts.

3:30 PM - 4:45 PM - Coffee / snacks at a CentralWorld coffee shop (to be announced later).

4:45 PM - Move to the SF World Cinema on the 7th Floor

5:00 PM - 7:00 PM - The movie, "The Case Against 8"

7:00 PM - 7:15 PM - Our "Thumbs Up/ Thumbs Down" discussion of the movie

**************************************************

Background / Movie Review

With remarkable access to the plaintiffs and legal team over the course of the five-year battle for equality, "The Case Against 8" starts as a relatively straightforward historical documentary about the specifics of the case but becomes something much deeper, and more emotional in the telling. As so often happens with stories of international importance, we often lose sight of the men and women involved. "The Case Against 8" beautifully reminds us of the human beings who opened up their lives to the world and became representatives for one of the most important movements for equal rights this country has ever seen.

In May 2008, the California Supreme court legalized marriage for same-sex couples. 18,000 couples were married over the next few months but the backlash was almost immediate. By November of that year, a proposition was on the ballot to define marriage exclusively as being that between a man and a woman. As the country celebrated the election of Barack Obama, Prop 8 passed with 52% of the vote, resulting in a state amendment and the dissolution of thousands of partnerships in the eyes of the law.

The response was as swift as those who mounted the Prop 8 campaign. Activist Chad Griffin formed the American Foundation for Equal Rights and a chance meeting brought aboard one of the most important allies in the case against 8, Ted Olson, the former solicitor general under President George W. Bush. Olson was the man who argued one of the most important cases in decades, the one that determined that Bush would become President over Gore when Florida proved they were generally incapable of determining who won their state’s delegates. Getting a conservative icon like Olson on the side of the case against 8 was a galvanizing, attention-grabbing move that proved to be the right decision. Olson is a passionate, stunningly intelligent man, who happens to be a conservative that believes in not just the legal cause for gay marriage but that all loving couples have the right on a moral level as well. His closing argument in "The Case Against 8" is one of the most passionate and moving I’ve ever heard. Watching Olson depose witnesses to such an intellectual degree that he sometimes turns them from "Yes on 8" supporters to his cause is one of the film’s great joys. Gay rights are often presented in film as emotional, moral causes, but Olson proves that they’re intellectual, legal ones as well, often by turning their opponents’ own logic against them.

Who better to work with Ted Olson than the man who opposed him in Bush v. Gore, the equally impressive David Boies? And now they needed plaintiffs. After the kind of interview/vetting process that is a key part of most political campaigns, enter Kris Perry & Sandy Stier and Jeff Zarillo & Paul Katimi. "The Case Against 8" directors Ben Cotner and Ryan White never lose sight of the legal drama that’s unfolding but perfectly place it in a foundation that’s relatably human. We meet Kris & Sandy’s sons, who had to each individually agree to be a part of the case before their mothers would place that spotlight on their family. And we spend a lot of emotional time with Jeff & Paul, two men who just wanted to live their lives together but became focal points of an entire movement. One easily loses sight of how much pressure they must have felt to represent gay marriage as a whole. What if they had lost?