Trans Filmmaker Claims David France Stole Research for Netflix Marsha P. Johnson Documentary

This Friday, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson premiered on Netflix, but not without controversy. The documentary, directed by David France, in under fire from trans filmmaker and activist Reina Gossett, who claimed in an Instagram post that France stole her research and used it to sign a deal with Netflix and make his film.

Related | Power to the People: Exploring Marsha P. Johnson's Queer Liberation

The Instagram post details Gossett's accusations:

#deepshare #realtruth this week while I'm borrowing money to pay rent, david france is releasing his multimillion dollar netflix deal on marsha p johnson. i'm still lost in the music trying to #pay_it_no_mind and reeling on how this movie came to be and make so much $ off of our lives and ideas. david got inspired to make this film from a grant application video that @sashawortzel & I made and sent to Kalamazoo/Arcus Foundation social justice center while he was visiting. He told the people who worked there -i shit you not- that he should be the one to do this film, got a grant from Sundance/Arcus using my language and research about STAR, got Vimeo to remove my video of Sylvia's critical "y'all better quiet down" speech, ripped off decades of my archival research that i experienced so much violence to get, had his staff call Sasha up at work to get our contacts then hired my and Sasha's *ADVISOR* to our Marsha film Kimberly Reed to be his producer. And that's just the shit I have the spoons to name. TRUST THERE'S SO MUCH MORE. This kind of extraction/excavation of black life, disabled life, poor life, trans life is so old and so deeply connected to the violence Marsha had to deal with throughout her life. So I feel so much rage and grief over all of this & STAR must have some serious level plan on moving through many---and clearly by any means necessary---to get the message out... So tonight I'm channeling high priestess energy to show me the honey throne cuz this storm queen is

A post shared by Reina Gossett (@reinaxgossett) on Oct 6, 2017 at 6:39pm PDT

When fellow trans activist Janet Mock shared Gossett's claims on Twitter, France responded.

Mock's response seems to suggest that, even if France had been working on his film long before he was aware of Gossett's work, he should have used his influence to have her film produced and distributed rather than his own.