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Last night I was lucky enough to attend a screening of Track Two, a 1982 documentary on the Toronto bathhouse raids. After nearly being lost to time and decay, the film has finally been digitized and made available in its entirety for free online, thanks to the generosity of Xtra! and the Pink Triangle Press.

The screening took place at Buddies in Bad Time Theatre and was sponsored by Queer Ontario and Xtra!, with proceeds benefiting the 519 Community Centre’s Seniors program. In attendance were two of the filmmakers, Gordon Keith and Jack Lemmon, as well as The Body Politic‘s Ken Popert and Gerald Hannon. It was a truly amazing experience to share a room with so many of Toronto’s gay liberation activists, without whom queers such as myself wouldn’t have all the rights we have today.

After the screening, I spoke with the filmmakers, who wanted to know how I, as a woman, felt about the movie. They said they had tried very hard to show lesbian contributions to the fight, and they were curious to know if they were successful. I told them that it was incredibly powerful to see the footage of lesbians taking to the street in defense of the men and the gay community as a whole. It was also thrilling to see interviews with some of my queer heroes, Pat Murphy and Chris Bearchell, and rousing speeches from Margaret Atwood and June Callwood.

Watch the entire film on YouTube, or read more about it and download a copy from Xtra!

For Hannukah, I managed to put together some pretty decent latkes. I used a recipe I found on The New York Times website. They were the simplest and closest to what I remember as a kid. Frankly, if you’re talking about a latke that doesn’t involve grated potatoes, I’m not interested. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s what I say! ::shakes old lady fist::

Some notes from this humble chef:

I don’t know what planet these people live on, but there is no way this recipe makes 24 small pancakes, unless the pancakes we are talking about are about the size of a Hershey kiss. I made the latkes to the size I have always enjoyed them in Jewish homes and restaurants across North America, which is to say bigger than a silver dollar pancake and smaller than a burger patty, and it made around 12 or 14 latkes. Also, it was way more watery than indicated, so I had to use a lot more than a couple of tablespoons of matzo meal. However, they were REALLY YUMMY and I would say the best latkes I’ve ever had, so this recipe was generally a SUCCESS. And quite easy, too!

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