The upstairs inferno refers to a devastating fire that blasted through the Upstairs Lounge in New Orleans June 24th, 1973. The Upstairs Lounge was a gay bar and at that time a place for the MCC – Metropolitan Community Church and pro-LGBT Protestant denomination – to hold services. The culprit or arsonist has never been confirmed or apprehended. The fire took the lives of 32 people, and the documentary centres around the surviving community’s struggles in finding a place to hold a remembrance service.
We were warned this documentary would be graphic, but we weren’t warned about how gut-wrenching it would be. Real people’s stories of real events that really happened. The most shocking thing in addition to the horrific deaths and pain members were put through, was the refusal of prominent community leaders to acknowledge the suffering of so many, and the refusal of many local churches to let the MCC hold a remembrance service in their churches, seeing as theirs had just been burned out. The Mayor did not release a statement, he and two others remained completely silent, even though three months earlier a fire attack had claimed a third of the lives. The interview cast were still highly sensitive to the fact that no condolences had been given by any officials – because at that time gay people were perceived as inhuman. This hate crime became the largest gay mass murder in New Orleans and U.S. history, but hardly anybody knows about it. I certainly had no idea something like this had happened, and something so severe as to claim so many lives.
The voice over section of the documentary outlined the facts and the statistics, and recounted the tale, but it was the interviews that hit me hardest. Heartfelt, real and painful emotions from people whose entire lives had been affected by the attack– reverends, church leaders, patrons of the bar, fire victims and survivors. The effect of the fire had stretched far, and touched countless lives.
The director of Upstairs Inferno, Robert L. Camina, was welcomed on stage, and he said that if we couldn’t relate to anything else in his documentary, that beside the sexuality and religion, we would be touched by empathy of human suffering and experiences we were about to be shown. I’m sure everybody in that cinema was.
Upstairs Inferno
Mardi Gras Film Festival
Upstairs Inferno review by Kena
