Head back to The Pines in 1970 with this rare, voyeuristic look at a summer on Fire Island
Welcome back to our queer film retrospective, “A Gay Old Time.” In this week’s column, we revisit 1970’s Sticks And Stones, a micro-budget indie that depicts a slice of gay life one Fire Island summer.To say that authentic gay representation has been lacking for most of the past hundred-something years of cinema history is a gross understatement.
But if the landscape looks thin today—when strides have slowly but steadily been made toward more accurate and diverse LGBTQ+ stories and characters—it was obviously much worse mid-Century; particularly in the immediate pre and post-Stonewall years, when the gay rights movement was barely even starting to make a dent in the cultural conversation.
However, once in a blue moon, the rare movie came along that not only featured gay characters, but centered them. That not only alluded to their queerness in the plot, but the plot revolved around it.
That didn’t shy away from the thorniness of our personal relationships, or our open sexuality, or the unique ways in which we move through life.
