A trailblazing lesbian anthropologist who constantly challenged societal expectations, Esther Newton qualifies as a certified badass. In the new documentary “Esther Newton Made Me Gay,” director Jean Carlomusto puts Newton’s story on full display against the backdrop of the complex history of the LGBTQIA+ community in the United States. Coming of age in the late 1950s and then forging a place for herself in academia in the years before the Stonewall riots, Newton proves that politics stretches beyond the public space, deep into our lives.
I’ll be honest, despite her being both a University of Michigan alum and former faculty member, I hadn’t heard of Newton prior to seeing this film. Now, I’m a dedicated fan. Throughout the documentary, her personality shines through as she walks us through history and her life with quick-witted quips and frank comments, highlighting her dry sense of humor. By the end of the film I wanted to be her friend, despite our nearly 65-year age gap. The documentary feels intimate, intertwining her personal struggles and successes with the turbulence of LGBTQIA+ history, with Esther fighting homophobia in her personal and professional life. Telling these stories side-by-side, the documentary blurs the line between the political and the personal to show the powerful influence of politics on the lives of Esther and her contemporaries.
The film then reasserts itself as not a history of the LGBTQIA+ community but that of Newton specifically by featuring her current hobbies, notably her goals and setbacks in the field of competitive dog agility. While the occasional transitions among history, her work and her dogs establish her persistence and determination at the forefront of the documentary, they are a bit clunky and cause the film to lose focus. The film also includes some antiquated ideas about LGBTQIA+ identities popular in Newton’s generation (i.e. strict “butch” and “femme” roles). While unaddressed by the film, details of community members in the years around the gay rights movement’s struggle to define themselves imply that these more binary roles are a byproduct of an uncertain time. Although the documentary doesn’t directly discuss the nuance of LGBTQIA+ identity developments over the last half-century, the documentary makes it clear that Newton is proud to pass the torch to the next generation of Queer youth.
“Esther Newton Made Me Gay” effectively demonstrates how Newton’s life is entangled with the long and continuous struggle of the LGBTQIA+ community to gain rights and acceptance in American society. The director effectively sews together these threads to create a tapestry honoring Newton’s contributions to LGBTQIA+ studies and the community as a whole. Almost just as importantly, the documentary establishes how insanely cool Newton is. I’m ultimately left with just one final question: When is the Esther Newton biopic coming out?
Daily Arts Writer Isabelle Perraut can be reached at iperraut@umich.edu.