Think you know everything there is to know about the 1969 Stonewall riots? Think again. Stonewall Uprising, the latest must-see documentary from producer/ directors Kate Davis and David Heilbroner (Southern Comfort, Waiting for Armageddon), offers a fresh look at that pivotal event in the gay rights movement when homosexuals “discovered a power we didn’t even know we had.”

The film uses rarely-seen archival footage and photos, plus eyewitness interviews that include one of the six cops who participated in the initial raid on the (Mafia-run) Stonewall Inn, a Village Voice reporter who ended up barricaded inside the bar with the police, street hustlers, drag queens and even Ed Koch, who was mayor of New York City on the night that “the police actually ran from us.” Even more surprising, it wasn’t just gays who rioted that weekend, there were Black Panthers, anti-war protesters and scores of straight people fed up with the status quo.

As context, the film provides painful insights into the climate of repression gays and lesbians experienced at a time when some 3,000-5,000 people were arrested each year in Manhattan simply for being gay, enduring prison time and electroshock therapy. Required viewing for all history buffs — and our entire community — this insightful and uplifting documentary brings Stonewall down off its pedestal and gives it back to the people, where it has always belonged. — D. ROBERT FOSTER