With Flag Wars, documentary filmmakers Linda Goode Bryant and Laura Poitras touch on the subject of gentrification of deteriorating urban communities by gay men and lesbians. The topic is given an effective treatment in their P.O.V. documentary for PBS, which is scheduled to air June 18 on KPBS channel 15, at 3:00 a.m. and 9:30 p.m.

The “flag wars” of the title takes on more than one meaning. First, it refers to the rainbow flags that hang outside of some GLBT homes, and the response to the decorative and declarative items by the non-gay residents in the Columbus, Ohio, neighborhood where the documentary was filmed. It also refers to the ominous presence of right wing Christian activists, and the burning of a rainbow flag that had been flying outside of the Ohio state house. The Gay and Lesbian Times recently spoke with Bryant and Poitras about their collaboration.

Linda Goode Bryant: It actually started when I went back home — I’m from Columbus, Ohio — I went home to be on a panel there. My parents bought their house in 1946 and still live in the community in which we filmed. My father picked me up from the airport, and we were driving back to the house, and as we turned onto our street, I noticed that there were pastel flags hanging from a couple of porches. I asked him, “What’s up with these flags?” Because, even being from New York I didn’t immediately reference rainbow flags, because it was the neighborhood. He said, “That’s what the gay guys put up when they move in.” I was surprised that that was happening. I came back to New York and Laura (Poitras) and I are filmmakers, who were colleagues, and we were having lunch and I mentioned that experience to her.…

Laura Poitras: … Linda was actually in my apartment (in Harlem) and I said, “Look at my apartment.” I lived in an apartment (building) where most of the residents were elderly blacks and women and everyone moving in was young, white, and gay and lesbian. We both thought about it and then we got together a few days later…. We thought it would make a really interesting documentary. The question that we wanted to explore was how two groups that are both marginalized in larger society will try and live together in this neighborhood.

GLT: Linda, you mentioned that your parents live in the neighborhood. Are they at all in the film?

LGB: Yes, but they are not identified as my parents.

LGB: Not that we’ve observed, no. We finished the film the first week of March (2003) and we screened it the third week of March at the Wexner Center in Columbus. There were three screenings and Q&A periods after each one, as well as a panel that was held on that Saturday where the characters from the film walked off the screen, essentially, and became the panel…. I’d have to say that even through all of that, there was no bonding, no.

LP: When Linda and I started making the film in 1999, we began by doing a series of interviews with people who we thought were important to be in the film. For instance, Nina the real estate agent and Baba. We told them what we were interested in; a neighborhood that was going through changes and how these two groups, the black community and the white gay community, coexist. Everyone agreed to participate and people were very forthcoming and incredibly honest….

LGB: I don’t share the perception that you have in terms of Linda and the way that she dealt with her situation. I think that what the film reveals and what we learned in working with her is that she had made a commitment to her father, before he died, that she would not lose the house, and that included the two cars and the camper.

LGB: That was her primary responsibility. She was not going to lose the house on her wake. Given the resources that she had, she did everything that the she could do to keep her promise to her father. I look at it from that perspective….

LP: When Linda and I set out to do the piece we did some research, and it is a trend that is going on in urban areas where largely white gays and lesbians are moving into neighborhoods that have been economically depressed and usually have a nice Victorian housing stock available at low costs. You can see it in Chicago, Atlanta, Asbury Park, New Jersey. There are many reasons for it. The gay community, unlike straight whites, has a real interest at stake in finding a community where they can establish themselves and be among other gays and lesbians. I think the fact that gay couples often don’t have children makes these neighborhoods attractive. And I think the housing stock, being able to go in and renovate these houses, is another factor that comes into play.

GLT: Personally, the most frightening aspect of Flag Wars was the sub-story of the fundamentalist Christian preacher, Chuck Spingola, and his anti-rainbow flag and anti-gay crusade. The film’s focus shifted from being about the longtime residents and the gays who were moving into the neighborhood to this man who appeared to be a part of Fred Phelps’s army.

LP: We were filming about the neighborhood and the gay residents of the neighborhood participated in the gay pride parade in 1999 and we followed them. We were on the float and we were filming them in the parade and there was the protest from the Christian right minister. We were struck by the two young boys who were protesting. We happened to spend some time filming them and then continued on with the day. We heard later that he had shimmied up the flagpole at the State House where they had hung a rainbow flag in conjunction with the parade and taken the flag down and burned it, and he was arrested. Here we were making this film and it was called Flag Wars. There were the rainbow flags in the neighborhood and the Black Nationalist flags that were being hung by the black residents of the neighborhood. It seemed like even though he wasn’t from the neighborhood, he inserted himself into our story….