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Banned Prop 8 Trial Returns to YouTube as Reenactment

by Amar Toor on February 3, 2010 at 05:43 PM


After the Supreme Court decided at the last minute to ban broadcasts of the California Prop 8 trial, filmmakers John Ireland and John Ainsworth were dismayed. As Ireland tells the San Francisco Chronicle, "It frustrated me. Who were they to say that I can't watch this, especially when it's in a public courtroom?" So Ainsworth and Ireland decided to take matters into their own hands, and have now released their own reenactment of the trial proceedings. The Los Angeles filmmakers, who were married before Prop 8 was passed, assembled courtroom transcripts, blog accounts, and an enthusiastic group of professional actors to put together a staged rendering of the trial, which they have posted on YouTube. Though both Ireland and Ainsworth are admittedly anti-Prop 8, they claim to have made a conscious effort at maintaining neutrality, and said they were careful to cast attractive actors to play both plaintiff and defense sides of the field. They're planning to add installments to the saga every few weeks, and hope to have the entire project wrapped by late February.

Of course, we think it's a shame that the chance to watch the real trial was swept out from underneath us at the last moment. But judging from these first few videos, these reenactments seem like a pretty good "next best" option. However strong their personal opinions on gay marriage may be, Ireland and Ainsworth definitely don't let them creep into the film. It really does appear that their only interest, as they told the Chronicle, is "transparency." And that's really the most that we, or any interested citizens, could want. [From: The Business Insider, via: The San Francisco Chronicle]

Tags: gaymarriage, law, Proposition8, top, video, youtube

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