Recently, I attended one of the Cinematheque screenings where I watched the film entitled The Laramie Project. The film tells the story of the aftermath and feelings of the community of Laramie, Wyoming, after a man named Matthew Shepard was murdered. Matthew left a bar with two other men who ended up beating him and leaving him tied to a fence by himself outside for hours. When he was found and brought to the hospital, he was in a coma, and later ended up passing away. The reasons for his death sparked a huge outrage not only in his small town of Laramie, but across the globe as well. Matthew’s attempted murderers, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, did not have any other reason to give about why they had beat him other than the fact that Matthew was gay.
One thing that sparked my attention from this film was the amount of people who bonded together in the town of Laramie and their reactions to Matthew’s death. They did not want people to think that because the killers were also from Laramie that all people who lived there are homophobic. Many of the other gay people that were interviewed in the movie discussed how some of them perceive it to be hard to live in a state like Wyoming, where homosexuality is kept more undercover and is talked about less. In a sense, Matthew’s death caused Laramie to become more open to homosexuality because the community bonded together over such the horrible tragedy that happened to him. People realized that even though their sexual orientation may be different, gay people are still human and deserve the same treatment as others.
One thing that sparked my attention from this film was the amount of people who bonded together in the town of Laramie and their reactions to Matthew’s death. They did not want people to think that because the killers were also from Laramie that all people who lived there are homophobic. Many of the other gay people that were interviewed in the movie discussed how some of them perceive it to be hard to live in a state like Wyoming, where homosexuality is kept more undercover and is talked about less. In a sense, Matthew’s death caused Laramie to become more open to homosexuality because the community bonded together over such the horrible tragedy that happened to him. People realized that even though their sexual orientation may be different, gay people are still human and deserve the same treatment as others.
This film was very different than other films with the way it was produced and the different elements that were used because it was documentary styled. Even though the people were actors and actresses, they made the plot of the movie seem very real and like they were not reenacting the actual events that occurred. The music that played was also very reflective on the tone and mood of the movie, and many times it was slow and sad, expressing the emotion of sadness to the audience.
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