Sanctuaries

Gianni, a gay adoptee, comes of age in a time when adoption and same-sex love are not discussed. He learns he was adopted from two cousins who tell him he’s not their real cousin, and his parents are not his real parents. What Gianni gleans from the shock is that he’s not real. Lies, loss, and a sense of not being real take a toll on the young Gianni. He seeks respite at The Orchard, a revival movie theater in New York’s Lower East where vintage films work their magic, and he seeks relief among the rotting timbers of the Christopher Street Piers––temples to homoeroticism crumbling into the Hudson. An unlikely but deep and seemingly fated friendship develops between Gianni and Raffaella, a middle-aged Jewish-Italian Holocaust survivor who took part in the Italian resistance against Fascism. He and Raffaella find solace at The Orchard. Gianni also befriends Gabriel, an African-American drag queen from Money, Mississippi, and surrogate parent to homeless queer youth. Recognizing sorrow is what draws Gianni to Raffaella and Gabriel, and them to him. Sanctuaries is the tender story of caring and healing, deeply personal and painful stories set against the larger turmoil of the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, Stonewall, and the lingering ashes of the Holocaust. Ultimately, Sanctuaries is about truth telling.