Hating Peter Tatchell is the powerful and inspiring true story of Australian born controversial human rights campaigner whose provocative acts of civil disobedience rocked the British establishment, revolutionised attitudes to homosexuality, and exposed world tyrants. In an intimate interview with Peter, celebrated film actor and fellow gay rights activist Ian McKellen probes what inspired, motiva
ted, and fuelled the activists six-decade assault on prejudices and injustices across the globe. A story that encompasses Peter’s first protest in the anti-Vietnam War movement in Australia as a teenager to across the sea in London where he helped organise UK’s first pride parade. His bid for the Bermondsey seat against the most vicious and notorious homophobic smear campaign in British electoral history – to his founding of radical, non-violent gay rights direct action group OutRage!. News, historical, and previously unseen archives, and evocative key interviews with the likes of former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, activist Angela Mason, and actor Stephen Fry provide further distinguished insight into Peter’s provocative stunts, wicked humour, and theatrical forms of protest that earned Peter the full wrath of the church, state, and media, and his infamous title ‘the most hated man in Britain’ as he confronted everyone from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Zimbabwean Tyrant Robert Mugabe to Boxing Champion Mike Tyson. Overtime as social attitudes changed and history vindicated Peter’s stance on gay rights, his David versus Goliath battle gradually won him, first, grudging approval, then status as a national treasure. Now Peter embarks on his riskiest crusade yet: a solo protest at the FIFA World Cup in Moscow to draw attention to the persecution of LGBT+ people in Russia and Chechnya. From Executive Producers Elton John and David Furnish, WildBear Entertainment and Chrysaor Productions, with principal support from Screen Australia along with additional funding from Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund and Screen Queensland, Hating Peter Tatchell is a timely film on human rights activism that gives a raw insight into Peter’s personal and professional life’s work defending human rights.
