Filmmaker's 3-year mission to document the historic raid in Fort Worth finally hits

from the Dallas Voice

Like many gay North Texans, Robert L. Camina can still vividly recall the weekend of June 28, 2009 — the night the TABC and Fort Worth police raided the Rainbow Lounge.

Unlike most others, however, Camina had something they didn’t: A video camera. And a desire to use it.

On Sunday morning, as the rumblings of an apparent raid on Cowtown’s newest gay bar — on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Raid, no less — began filtering toward him through text messages and social media, Camina knew there was a story there … one he wanted to document.
“I was really trying to wrap my head around everything,” he recalls. “We don’t know what the facts were, but I thought, ‘We need to get this on video.’”

Camina grabbed his equipment and dashed down to Lee Park in Dallas, where he has planned to be anyway in support of the Million Gay March planned that afternoon.

“I knew the momentum would begin there,” he says. “I made the decision right away to make a short film about the raid.”

That “short film” never materialized. Instead, as the rumors and recriminations flew, as Fort Worth’s gay community came together surprisingly quickly to voice its outrage and as facts slowly emerged, Camina realized there was something here much bigger than he could boil down into a 20-minute documentary.

Now, nearly three years later, Raid of the Rainbow Lounge — a full 100 minutes long — gets its world premiere March 15 at the Palace AMC Theatre in Sundance Square.

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RAID OF THE RAINBOW LOUNGE
Palace AMC 9, 220 Third St.,
Fort Worth. March 15. Doors open at 7 p.m. Screening at 7:30 p.m. followed by Q&A. $20.
RaidoftheRainbowLounge.com