Saturday, October 18, 4:30 PM
Cinema 21

RUTHIE AND CONNIE: EVERY ROOM IN THE HOUSE is a film about love and friendship – and the price two women paid to be themselves. In 1959 in a working class Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. Two young married women, both raising young children, meet and become friends – and soon after, the best of friends. They live in the same building. They go to the same synagogue. They are Ruthie Berman and Connie Kurtz, conventional housewives of the 1950's, with two noteworthy exceptions: their passionate interest in community issues gradually turns them into community leaders … and their passionate interest in each other suddenly turns their world upside down. In 1974, Ruthie and Connie fall in love, leave their husbands and children and move in with each other. After years of struggling with shame and homophobia, in 1988, the two women become political activists suing the New York City Board of Education for domestic partners benefits and eventually win them for all city employees. Today, they're still activists. Their workshops for homophobic gays and lesbians, and their families, are a Mecca for many. Whether marching in the Gay Pride Parade or dancing on the Coney Island boardwalk, they are funny, passionate, angry - and always entertaining.

Dir Deborah Dickson
2002 USA 54 min Video English