‘Fairyland’ – a moving true story about a gay single dad and his daughter

the 1970s and ’80s in “Fairyland,” a deeply moving memoir piece about a gay dad’s relationship with his spunky daughter. It’s a true story, based on Alysia Abbott’s 2013 memoir, “Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father.”

The film may struggle to find an audience. Shown at film festivals in 2023, it is only now being released, and, at least for its San Francisco run, will only be playing in a handful of smaller theaters (The Balboa, The Roxie.) It is definitely a film worthy of discovery.

“Fairyland” opens in 1974, as fledgling midwestern poet Steve Abbott (Scoot McNairy) takes a late-night phone call, only to be told that his wife has been killed in a car crash. He takes his young daughter Alysia (Nessa Dougherty) and moves to San Francisco, to a flat with three roommates. The Summer of Love may be seven years past, but in this Haight Ashbury abode Abbott works on his poetry and practices free love. He has a series of affairs with a variety of men, as Alysia learns about make-up from the flat’s crossdressing member.

“Who says you can’t be both a boy and a girl?” he tells the young girl.

Alysia is exposed to quite a bit more than just drag as her father continues to bring home a variety of boyfriends and attends Pride parades, then called Gay Freedom Day. (One of his paramours is played by singer/actor Adam Lambert, who is given too little screen time.)

Pieces of local history are heard on the radio, as a newscaster announces that Board of Supervisors candidate Harvey Milk has called for a boycott of Florida orange juice after Miami-based beauty queen Anita Bryant, who famously waged a war against gay rights in the ’70s, had endorsed Proposition 6, a ballot measure that would ban gays and lesbians, and anyone else who supported gay rights, from teaching in California schools.

A few years later, then Supervisor Dianne Feinstein announces the murders of Supervisor Milk and Mayor George Moscone.

McNairy and Dougherty give heartfelt performances as a father and daughter who love each other but don’t always understand each other. Meanwhile, Steve’s mother-in-law, inexplicably referred to as “Munca,” (Oscar winner Geena Davis in a small role) is back in the midwest, worried about what Alysia is being exposed to in bawdy San Francisco. One of the things Alysia is exposed to is the homophobia of her classmates.

As the ’70s gives way to the ’80s, Alysia, now beautifully played by Emilia Jones, is in high school, going through a rebellious stage as her father’s writing career takes off. But in the ’80s, the AIDS pandemic decimated the gay male community, and after a few years Steve finds himself stricken with the virus. Alysia, who had been attending college in Paris, flies home to take care of her dad.

Throughout the film, the San Francisco of the past comes back to life, first the exciting and fun times of the ’70s when people came to the city to live freely as themselves, as well as the tragic and horrifying plague years. The film will most likely resonate loudest with older gay audiences who remember those days, though younger people should also see it for the important history they will be exposed to.

But mostly, “Fairyland” is a bittersweet story of a father and daughter who loved each other deeply in spite of their differences. It’s the story of an alternative family and how they come to terms with each other.

‘Fairyland’ (Willa/American Zoetrope/Lionsgate) opens October 10 at the Balboa Theater, 3630 Balboa St., and on October 17 at the Roxie Theater, 3117 16th Street.
https://willa.org/film/fairyland/
https://www.instagram.com/fairylandfilm/
https://www.balboamovies.com/
https://roxie.com/