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Asbury Park resident Gil Caldwell and his colleague Marilyn Bennett have successfully raised all of the funds needed to back their 30-minute documentary film, “From Selma to Stonewall.”

The film explores the similarities and differences between civil rights and LGBT movements in the United States.

A total of 98 backers have donated $150 over the $20,000 sought. Three days remain in the campaign.

Caldwell, a retired minister with the United Methodist Church, and Bennett, a former minister who can no longer serve the church due to her sexual identification as a lesbian, met 14 years ago when they were arrested together while protesting the anti-gay policies of the church, Caldwell said.

Over the years the two have exchanges honest, open debate about their life experiences. Caldwell calls their companionship an “odd couple, of sorts.” He is a black, heterosexual male and self-proclaimed Civil rights foot soldier. Bennet is a white, homosexual female and LGBT rights activist.

“From Selma to Stonewall” is a 30-minute film that chronicles their effort to ask questions about the American conscious as it relates to race, sexuality and gender, and the complex role religion plays in the mix.

It centers around historical sites significant to both movements: Selma, AL, where civil rights leader Martin Luther King led a march of 25,000 people to the state capitol in Montgomery that resulted in winning voting rights for African Americans, and the Stonewall Inn in New York City, a gay club that was raided by police in 1969 which sparked an uproar of protest and demonstrations from the gay community.

The film questions what  these two movements mean to Americans today and how they shape society and personal relationships, he said. Caldwell hopes the overarching themes will “not only be bold and brazen in talking about racism and homosexuality” but also lead to open discussions on classism, militarism and economic issues Americans face, he said.

“There is a need for open discussion on these issues that divide us.”That is where I want ‘Truth in Progress’ to go,” he said. “I think any movement today must be broader than its priority.”

“Truth in Progress” started as a string of emails [Bennett lives in Helena, MT] between the two that were eventually published as a book and have expanded since into the short doc.

A private donor will match the amount of the successfully funded campaign and the money will pay for production and other costs associated with the film, he said.

The two will use the film to help put pressure their denomination to get rid of anti-gay legislation at the 2016 United Methodist conference.

“The nation is moving so rapidly in terms of marriage equality, but our denomination has dragged its feet on it,” Caldwell said.

[Screen grab taken from the “From Selma to Stonewall” trailer above shows Bennett [at left] and Caldwell [at right] interviewing longtime Stonewall Inn bartender, “Tree.”]

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