Netflix picks up LGBT campaigner death doc

Streaming service Netflix has taken worldwide rights to a doc that explores the controversial death of LGBT rights campaigner Marsha P. Johnson.

The SVOD service will launch the film globally later this year after acquiring the rights to David France’s The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson.

The film follows veteran crime-victim advocate Victoria Cruz, who reexamined the circumstances around the death of Johnson, whose body was found in New York’s Hudson River in 1992.

The NYPD declared the death a suicide, but the movie highlights troubling new questions about the cold case.

The doc also looks at the political legacy of Johnson, who was known as the ‘the Rosa Parks of the LGBT movement’ and formed the world’s first trans rights organisation (Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries) along with Slyvia Rivera in 1970.

“Almost single-handedly, Marsha P. Johnson and her best friend Sylvia Rivera touched off a revolution in the way we talk about gender today,” said David France, who directed How to Survive a Plague.

“Their names should be household words, but Marsha’s life was cut tragically short and Sylvia died shortly thereafter, the victim of a broken heart. Getting to know their story through the investigation undertaken by Victoria Cruz, a seminal activist in her own right, has been one of the great honors of my career. Now, with Netflix as our distribution partner, I am confident the legacy of these tremendous women will never be forgotten.”

New York-based Public Square Films is producing, with Joy A. Tomchin and Sara Ramirez (Grey’s Anatomy) the executive producers. L.A. Teodosio is the producer.