#CityOfLove (2XX, Canberra)

By Yen Eriksen, Adelaide Rief and Farz Edraki

In the spirit of the second decade of the twenty-first century, we’ve named our documentary using a ubiquitous marker of our times: the hashtag.

#CityOfLove was trending on Twitter as the ACT government made moves towards making laws to create marriage equality in 2013. As the conversation around marriage equality grew in the media, we wanted to ask: why marriage?

How did marriage become the focal point for queer rights in the Territory (and wider Australia)? Is marriage even a good thing to be fighting for, anyway? Those questions — and many, many more — became both the hardest and most enjoyable part of making this feature.

In an attempt to find some answers, a big part of our documentary became our own conversations around marriage equality. In many ways, the conversations came out of the informal chats (and occasional arguments) we would inevitably fall into during our meet-ups — helped along by cups of tea.

Our late-night discussions over marriage, the politics behind it, the ways that the law shapes us and our interactions with the world invariably led us to talking about love: finding it, having it, recovering from it. And it's those conversations that ended up bringing us each to some revelatory moments: family recognition as a crucial reason as to why marriage is held dear to some; the effect of the law and social structures on how we value relationships; the obvious need for reform.

We wouldn't have made this feature without the insights and erudite conversation of our guests. Or without the amazing mentoring and support from Kevin Klehr, Martin Walters and Giordana Caputo, who guided us through our hiccups and (many) false starts.

And it certainly wouldn't sound as lush without the music of (mostly) local Canberra artists, Pocket Fox,Fossil Rabbit, Oxen, Reuben Ingall and The General Assembly. Oh and John Paul Young for "Love is in the Air".

We hope the interviews and conversations you hear spark discussions in your own life about marriage and movements for change. How has the the law has shaped you in ways you wouldn’t necessarily expect? Perhaps, like us, you’ll be left with more questions than answers. While the status of marriage equality in Australia still hangs in the balance, let us take you on a trip to where it all started: the #CityOfLove.

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