Sally!

Famed political activist and long-time Willits resident Sally Gearhart is featured in a documentary film “Sally!” directed by Deborah Craig and showing at the Willits Community Theatre on Sunday, Dec. 1 at 2 p.m. Known for her warm wit and fierce advocacy, Gearhart became an inspiration in the women’s rights and gay rights movement in the 1970s.

The film traces her early roots in Virginia to her teaching in Texas, and ultimately to her major role in Bay Area politics as a lesbian activist, teacher and writer alongside luminaries like former San Francisco Mayor Harvey Milk.

In the mid-1970s Gearhart and several close friends bought property in Brooktrails, which eventually became a gathering place for her community. She later retired to Willits in the early 90s and become a familiar figure around town.

Director Craig says she interviewed Gearhart extensively toward the end of her life for the film, which took six years to make. “She was a charismatic and complex person, welcoming everybody she encountered,” Craig says. “She wasn’t someone you could easily peg. She lived in the woods and worshipped the trees and the animals, and she ate bacon and Twinkies. She embraced people who were different than her and she counted many men among her friends.”

The film is presently on a festival run, with showings in San Francisco, Chicago, Winston Salem, Pittsburgh, Albuquerque, Rochester New York, Vienna Austria, and Geneva Switzerland. The 1.5-hour film is Craig’s first feature-length effort.

Craig will be on hand at the Dec. 1, 2 p.m. showing at the WCT playhouse, and will host an open audience dialogue afterward. Tickets are $20 and available online at: www.wctperformingartscenter.org or at the door. Season sponsors for Willits Community Theatre are the Community Foundation of Mendocino County, NC Financial Group, Sparetime Supply, KZYX Radio and Jerry Drew Painting.