Summary
An intimate and tender portrait of a couple that couched their love in platonic euphemisms for over six decades is shared in all of its remarkable ordinariness.
“They just thought we were good friends,” says Pat Henschel of Terry Donahue, her partner of 70 years. “Which we were.”
The coded language that is still partially ingrained in the lives of couple Henschel and Donahue, who spent the first six decades of their relationship closeted even from their families, speaks to the many societal constraints they have faced in their lifelong love.
In A SECRET LOVE, they share that journey with documentarian Chris Bolan. What a story it is too. Donahue was once a catcher for the Peoria Redwings, a team in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League made famous in Penny Marshall’s A League of Their Own (1992). During the 1947 off-season they met and fell in love, and the rest is quite literally the history of the better part of a century.
The power in this documentary is not in any declarative statements: director Bolan knows that the systemic and institutional homophobia they’ve endured in their lives speaks louder than anything he could add now. Set against some judiciously selected footage and interviews from outside the relationship, it functions on one level as an oral history of shifting attitudes to LGBTQI+ rights in America.
The observational approach is quietly emotional, examining the politics of relationship that has spanned several generations. Bolan shows them warts and all as they contemplate moving from their old Chicago house to somewhere that can provide additional aid for Donahue’s ailing health.
The principal conflict comes from Donahue’s niece Diana Bolan, who believes that Henschel’s stubbornness is detrimental to her then-91-year-old aunt’s wellbeing. There’s some incredibly raw moments that Bolan captures of Bolan and Henschel at odds with each other, with the former driven to a point of exasperation.
Yet there’s also all the other highs and lows of any relationship on display here, and it’s unlikely there will be many dry eyes by the time the end credits roll. Bolan captures everything momentary glances to nuptials, never judging or imposing an editorial. He simply lets us watch this dynamic quite literally unpack their lives.
A SECRET LOVE is ultimately the culmination of a story that Bolan clearly felt compelled to share with the world and let audiences find their own connections. (On a personal note, my own partner is originally from Peoria and Chicago, so we loved seeing the vintage footage of Illinois evolving). While a global pandemic has stopped this from hitting the festival circuit, the wonders of 21st century streaming has let Donahue and Henschel into our homes at just the right time.
2020 | US| DIRECTOR: Chris Bolan | WRITER: Chris Bolan, Alexa L. Fogel, Brendan Mason | CAST: Terry Donahue, Diana Bolan, Pat Henschel | DISTRIBUTOR: Netflix (Global) | RUNNING TIME: 83 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 29 April 2020 (Global)
