It’s Dorothy!

It’s Dorothy! 💖, dir. Jeffrey McHale, 2025, USA, 100 min.
Thursday, June 26, 2025, 6:00 pm, Roxie Theater

It’s Dorothy!

The Wizard of Oz, the movie version with Judy Garland, came out in 1939 and has been an enduring classic, working its way deeply into popular culture and spawning new versions on stage and screen ever since. Filmmaker Jeffrey McHale takes a look from many angles at Judy Garland’s portrayal Dorothy Gale, the many others who have taken on that role since, the author L. Frank Baum who started it all, and the ripple effects through culture, especially gay culture. Did gay men love The Wizard of Oz because it starred Judy Garland, or do gay men love Judy because she was in The Wizard of Oz? What role did Judy’s death really play in the Stonewall rebellion, and what role did Stonewall really play in gay liberation? There are more than a few myths to unravel.

I’ve read every one of the L. Frank Baum Oz books, and even a few of the non-canon Oz books by Ruth Plumly Thompson, and my family gathered every year for the CBS broadcast of the 1939 movie, but I knew relatively little about the offshoots, from The Wiz and Wicked (read, but only saw half the movie on a plane) to the muppet version (2005) to less widely known films like Return to Oz (1985). I also learned quite a bit about Baum himself, and a few things about Judy Garland. For anyone who considers themself “a friend of Dorothy,” this film is indisputably a must see.

• IMDb • trailer • official website • Instagram: @DifferentPlaces___ [three underscores _ _ _ at the end] •