Documentary inspired by YouTube video made by Shane Bitney Crone about his partner’s death and its aftermath
Filmmaker Shane Bitney Crone lost the love of his life in 2011.
He and Tom Bridegroom had been together for six years when Tom died after falling off of a roof while taking photos of their best friend.
Crane’s grief over losing his partner was compounded by the heartless actions of Bridegroom’s homophobic family. They threatened him with violence if he tried to attend the funeral and made no mention of him in the funeral program.
Crane responded by making the heart-wrenching video “It Could Happen to You” (see below), which has had 2.7 million views since it was posted on YouTube in April.
Among those who watched the video was Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, the creator of the classic sitcom Designing Women, who had met Crane and Bridegroom at a gay wedding in Palm Springs.
She now wants to make a documentary about the couple, titled Bridegroom, and has started a Kickstarter Campaign to raise the $300,000 budget.
The film will focus on how people without the legal protections of marriage can find themselves completely shut out and ostracized. Marriage is still not legal in California, where the couple lived.
“Like so many others who saw this video, I was deeply touched — and angered,” Bloodworth-Thomason writes on the page. “I called Shane and told him I wanted to make a documentary that would tell his and Tom’s love story from beginning to end. I have now seen all of Shane and Tom’s videos and home movies. Like a lot of young people, they routinely documented their lives — but this recorded history is so prolific, it almost seems as though they had a premonition or unconscious fear of not getting to live out something important.”
“They are, in fact, the sort of young people who hold within themselves the promise of America,” she added. “And that is why I want to bring to life, on film, this real life Romeo and Romeo—so that all who condemn them, might come face to face with exactly what it is they are opposing.”
As of Friday (June 29) afternoon PST, $120,000 has been raised. The funds will be matched by Kickstarter only if $300,000 is raised by 7 p.m. EDT on July 19.
Story courtesy Greg Hernandez at GayStarNews.
Such a sad story but it has to be told!
I’m very sorry for you loss. My parter had a severe concusion which erased his memory of our love for one another. It could be described as worse then if he had died..There is no closure. He was alive,.He felt anxious and afriad of me., He wanted to escape from his lost memory- especially me. We once felt we were the luckiest couple in the bay area..We never thought that any harm could our way- we were HIV negative.
But having lived through the 80′s in S.F , I witnesssed many horror stories from gay men,, Dead from AIDS without a will, P.O A, or any legal document to channel their wishes to their partner, friends a all. . Usually their biologicl family, very like Toms, swooped in and ‘manged’their sons affairs a/s/a/p and swopped out taking everything.Those experieces hit me. I did write a will.- It costs nothing inCaliforia. A POA & Medical POA were forms bought from Staples ( 75 cents ea,). Two people sign as witnesses.( Any two- I had the Gardener & a Pool Cleaner who I met in the Staples parking lot.
When I met my partner I had him fill out the same I had done. It took him 35 minute. The first year of his injury he was arrested 5 times,( he was amoral) tired to take his life three times.. I found housing . hospitalization, social services, ad ausea. Since I was THE ONE on the documets, I was THE ONE to manage his care. Since i was THE ONE I could also get help for me. One time I did have to crack open and be admitted to the heto caregivers group- it was healig to be with one of similiar situtiuons AND exasperating to battle their reasons as to why they were not like me. But i was . Piece by piece by fact they’lost” their argumets. In a year, my ‘former’ boyfriend had been redesigned by a team of experts. I had to leave town . He was in love. I was proud of what I accompished…Accomplishments only because I had a legal rights to fight for his life. And I exausted and heartbroken. No documents we both signed could mend a broken heart .Fiourteen years have passed. I like to think I was paying him back . Maybe he saved mine in a past life,
By writing what might sound as a insipid little melo dama was useful .IT REMIDED ME> Update my will. My ;WISHES”have changed – big time.! ( My )P,O,A, whereabouts are uknown. Five years have sure changed my priorieties, .
P.S. The experience of the 80′s brought me and dozens of myfriends learned easliy acessible legal protection that we needed for the rest of our lives..it .It’s tragic that our knowledge was often not passed on to the next & the next generation after.
P.P.S – Yes, I knowmy spelling is poor & my sentence structure is odd.Post -concussion. : – O
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