Fighting in Southwest Louisiana
Peter Friedman
•
27m
Directed by Peter Friedma, JF Brunet • Documentary • With Danny Cooper, Ben Royal • 1992 • 27 minutes
A portrait of Danny Cooper, a mailman in the rural American South who has been openly gay since high school in the middle of “redneck” country. Modest and self-effacing, when asked how he finds the courage, he shrugs, smiles his impish smile and says “People respect you if you respect yourself.” He went from being the only gay person in the region (except for his lover) to being the only HIV positive one, his home becoming known among the locals as “the AIDS house”. Danny is a real charmer, an uneducated local boy with an astonishing yet unassuming sophistication, and a role model for gay people and people with HIV everywhere.
"FIGHTING IN SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA pops our balloons of urban chauvinism...it makes a strong case for coming out, for being yourself." —Mark Finch, British Film Institute
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