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A Gay Bishop's Love Story Comes to Sundance

Posted Friday, January 20 2012 @ 08:12 AM by MLP Admin

Live Free or Die is the new film by Macky Alston and Sandra Itkoff about Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopalian bishop. This film was selected for the documentary competition at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. It premieres on Monday. Macky Alston, the film's director is Presbyterian and serves as the Senior Director of Auburn Media and Communications at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City. Sandra Itkoff is the film's producer.    

For Gene Robinson this story means more than the story of his life and ministry. He told the Star-Tribune: “If my story can help a young boy or girl in their teens believe they can have a wonderful and productive life and family, then it’s worth my putting up with a film crew following me around for two years in order to comfort and inspire them.

It’s been years since the incident, but Bishop Gene Robinson’s heart still races when he sees it on film.

Robinson, the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop, was preaching at a church in London when a man in the audience stood and began yelling at him. The heckler waved a motorcycle helmet in his hand as he ranted. Robinson silently wondered if he was hiding a gun or a bomb beneath it.

Ultimately, the man was escorted from the church, but the moment reminded everyone, including Robinson, of the risk he is taking in taking a stand.

It’s one of many moments — some suspenseful, some inspiring, some heartbreaking — captured in “Love Free or Die,” a documentary about Robinson and the rift within the church after his election as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. The film will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Monday, and Robinson will be in Utah next week, talking about the movie and meeting with local clergy.

“As far as we’ve come in terms of equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, we still have a long way to go, particularly in the central part of the country,” Robinson told The Salt Lake Tribune this week. “If my story can help a young boy or girl in their teens believe they can have a wonderful and productive life and family, then it’s worth my putting up with a film crew following me around for two years in order to comfort and inspire them.”

The film follows Robinson as the church grapples with how to handle LGBT issues. Robinson’s election brought to a head divisions between liberal and conservative members of both the Episcopal Church in the United States and the worldwide body of which it is a part, the Anglican Communion.

Read the full story at the Salt Like Tribune.

Filmmakers Director Macky Alston and Producer Sandra Itkoff describe the film in more detail at www.lovefreeordiemovie.com.

LOVE FREE OR DIE is about a man whose two defining passions are in direct conflict: his love for God and for his partner Mark. Gene Robinson is the first openly gay person to become a bishop in the historic traditions of Christendom. His consecration in 2003, to which he wore a bullet-proof vest, caused an international stir, and he has lived with death threats every day since.

LOVE FREE OR DIE follows Robinson from small-town churches in the New Hampshire North Country to Washington’s Lincoln Memorial to London’s Lambeth Palace, as he calls for all to stand for equality – inspiring bishops, priests and ordinary folk to come out from the shadows and change history.

There are several videos about the film at the website.

See Also:

Ref: http://www.mlp.org/article.php/LoveFreeOrDie