Cherry Grove Stories

2018

Documentary

1
IMDb Rating 7.0/10 10 91 91

Plot summary

Even before Stonewall, Cherry Grove and its beach houses on Fire Island were a haven for generations of gay men, lesbians and drag queens. Rare archive footage shows swishy young men in demi-drag, amateur theatricals and a host of drag queens. At a time when it was illegal in the USA for bars to serve homosexuals, there were wild parties, late night outdoor cruising, and hordes of beautiful young men and women out for a good time. This sexually liberated paradise shaped the modern gay community. Though it suffered the effects of the AIDS epidemic early on, the spirit of Cherry Grove continues to exert its magic up to the present day.

Director

Michael Fisher Photo
Michael Fisher

Top cast

720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
711.84 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 17 min
Seeds 32
1.43 GB
1920*1080
English 5.1
NR
us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 17 min
Seeds 80

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by RoyMince 9 / 10

Nothing like a true story

This documentary, is very well put together, based off of our historical event that took place at a time when things were extremely different based off of laws. This is a type of film that you see about every 5 to 10 years and they're always relatively good like your sports movies. Very creative and entertaining this one dives deep into historical points. That leads one to believe they are meant for a bigger purpose on this planet. Do you listen to the messages or do you ignore them? That's a question that you ask if you ever faced with having to fulfill a destiny. This is the kind of film that really right itself but overall the cast and crew did an amazing job with the acting, and it was a very well written project. Two thumbs up. I would Recommend to all, great job.
Reviewed by Red-125 7 / 10

They just wanted some freedom to be themselves

Cherry Grove Stories (2017) is a documentary directed by Michael Fisher. It's about the Cherry Grove community on Fire Island, a tiny piece of land off the coast of Long Island.Houses in Cherry Grove were bought by gays and lesbians in the 1950's. We have to remind ourselves of how hard life was for gays and lesbians 60 years ago. It's still not an easy life, but it's far better than it was then.Cherry Grove was a location where lesbians and gays were in the majority. It must have been almost magical to be openly gay or lesbian in that community. How many other places were there, even in New York City, where you could feel comfortable with displaying your sexuality?Cherry Grove served that purpose, and still does. However, then, as now, society could and would intrude. Police would raid the community, and still do. Cherry Grove wasn't exactly heaven on earth, especially in the 1980's when the HIV/AIDS epidemic struck. Still, even then, if you were gay or lesbian, it was better to be in Cherry Grove than almost anywhere else.The documentary consists mostly of talking heads, but what the people want to tell us is interesting. There's some archival footage that's interesting as well. However, even at just 77 minutes, the movie appeared too long to me. How many shots do we need of waves rolling onto the beach?We saw this movie in the Little Theatre, as part of Rochester's excellent ImageOut, the LGBT Film Festival. It will work well enough on the small screen.
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