Having just previewed  Kristine Stolakis debut feature film PRAY AWAY that Netflix is releasing in August I am simply fuming with anger.  Not with the documentary itself which is totally excellent, but the subject matter.  It is a profile of the “pray the gay away” movement which damaged so many lives, and even ending a great many too.  That review will have to wait until I can calm down a little, and also as we are obliged to honor embargo dates.

My curiosity of how a newbie filmmaker could helm such a compelling feature had us researching short films she has made to date.  One is The Typist from 2015.  It’s a documentary that re-enacts the true story of a gay Korean War veteran tasked with writing the military discharges of outed gay seamen. The Typist details a conflicted clerk’s participation in discrimination and his divided allegiance to homosexuality and heroism.

It’s one small neat reminder of the history of the sheer hypocrisy of LGBTQ men and women in the Armed Services who were prepared  (and allowed) to die for their country but were still hunted down and persecuted.

Check out the movie below.