Andrew Moir’s Take Me To Prom shares the same title as another short movie. That one is about ugh, straight people, but thankfully this documentary has none of that mess. It has creative ways of showing snippets of the 70 year time period that it covers. We see that past through seemingly hetero normative photographs but alas, some pictures do lie.
This movie would have been fine had it stuck to teenagers during the mid 20th century. But as I hinted earlier, it expands on what its about. It also shows us the boomers who, unlike previous generations, prefer to stick out from the crowd. Since this is an LGBT film, it shows us its share of men, women, and gender non conforming people.
Documentaries exist to refresh and clarify collective memory and Take Me To Prom does just that. One of its key subjects is Marc Hall, who sued the Durham Catholic School Board for the right to take his boyfriend to prom. It shows him during a time that, looking back at it, was very important for LGBT rights.
Take Me To Prom exposes its subjects in all their beauty. Most of them didn’t get to be or wear what they want during their proms and this movie was their chance at doing that. Race also factors here. As the film progresses, it shows POC and trans people speak up in a way that they couldn’t when they were much younger.
The film lets its subjects discuss problems both big and small. And sometimes the small problems turn into the much bigger struggles worth fighting for. In this doc, all genders wear the best of whatever they want. They look good then as they do now, but they look perfect here because they’re showing up now as themselves.
- Release Date: 5/1/2019
