Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement
Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement
Susan Muska, Greta Olafsdottir / USA / 2009 / 61 min.
Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer met in New York in 1966. They started going out with one another and have been a couple ever since. Thea is the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Netherlands who fled to England in 1939 before the Holocaust. Thea has no memories of her mother, because she died when she was still a child. As an adult, Thea finished her studies in psychology, while Edie began a promising career at IBM. Since meeting at a friend's place they have loved one another, travelled together, and campaigned for the rights of lesbians and gays. They have also been united by the pain of having their families fail to understand their sexual orientation. Susan Muska and Gréta Olafsdóttir's film captures the couple's long journey to gaining legal recognition of a relationship that began as an informal engagement. After 27 years, they were able to enter a registered partnership in 1993. Fourteen years later, Edie and Thea have finally been able to make their vows in Canada, where same-sex marriage is legal. They had been waiting for that moment for 41 years.