Meet Me at the Club
About the Film — Double Your Impact — Back This Project — Aging with Pride 2024 — Eternal Legacy Tribute
We were honored to host a special San Francisco Pride conversation that celebrated and honored the lives and experiences of our LGBTQIA+ seniors.
Hosts
J. Andrew
Liz Troshane
With Special Introductory Remarks from
Billy Lemon
Featured Panelists
Lee Hewitt
Lynn Riordan
Dr. Harold Cottman, MD
Meet Me at the Club
the inspiring story of one of the nation’s oldest LGBTQIA+ sober community centers—San Francisco’s Castro Country Club—as told by the folks whose lives were saved.
Help Us raise Finishing Funds
This important film is truly a bottom-up, community-led project. With nearly 200 small-dollar donors, we have been able to fund our production efforts. While we are working to identify and apply for grant funding, we need to continue raising money from the community so that we can finish the film in time for a Summer 2025 premiere.
This film is a vibrant celebration of the lives and stories that have intersected at our beloved Club, showcasing the strength and resilience of the LGBTQIA+ recovery community. We need to raise $50,000 by September 30, 2024 to cover essential post-production expenses. Will you join us in bringing this film to the big screen?
Event Gallery
Photography by Michael Kerner.
About The Event
The team behind the upcoming feature-length documentary, Meet Me at the Club: The Castro Country Club Story, were honored to host a special pride event at Manny’s: a conversation on aging within the LGBTQIA+ community.
Aging with Pride will centered the lives and experiences of our LGBTQIA+ seniors. Their stories of hope, perseverance and triumph over adversity across the decades—from the early queer liberation movements through AIDS and the Covid-19 pandemic to today—is nothing short of inspiring.
This event was recorded for inclusion in the documentary premiering in 2025.
About The Hosts
J. Andrew
J (he/him) is the award-winning writer, director and producer, and the creative force behind the upcoming feature-length documentary Meet Me at the Club, an LGBTQIA+ historical documentary about the Castro Country Club. In addition to his documentary work, J’s written and directed a number of award-winning short films, including the acclaimed Here For Now which tells the story of a young woman who confronts her drug-addicted best friend for the path of destruction he leaves in his wake. For J, telling stories that resonate and have an impact are what drive him to create truly independent cinema.
J identifies as a gay man, whose own story of recovery and resilience is captured in the film, has been sober since 2019. He is a member of AA and other 12-step fellowships. Beyond filmmaking and recovery, J is known for his cooking prowess, and he opens his home to fellows for his annual Christmas Day celebration so that no one goes without love, a gift, and a full belly on Christmas.
Liz Troshane
Liz (she/her), is an accomplished, multi-faceted individual, with multiple years of experience in kitchen, bath and room design, space planning, visual merchandising, interior design, logo and marketing design, graphic and web design and fiber arts, weaving and jewelry design. She has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education, media and design, certification as a personal fitness trainer and certification in Addiction Studies and Drug and Alcohol Counseling.
An actively involved member of the LGBTQIA+ and AA/Recovery communities, Liz has been sober since 1992 and a continuous volunteer in the recovery community. She is currently the Chair of the 2024 Western Roundup Living Sober conference, an annual event supporting individual sobriety and maintaining unity, connecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual or LGBTQIA+ members within the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon since 1976.
About the Panelists
Lee Hewitt
Lee (she/her) is a retired licensed clinical social worker with a rich background in behavioral health and substance use treatment programs across San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and New York. Earning a Master of Social Work from Boston University, Lee initially ran her own private practice in New York, focusing on emotionally disturbed children and substance use disorders. Since getting sober herself in 1990, Lee has been an active member of the AA community. After moving to San Francisco in 1993, her focus shifted from children to adults with substance use disorders, HIV/AIDS and mental illness. Lee has volunteered with the Castro Country Club for the past decade and has been a dedicated volunteer for the Western Roundup Living Sober since 2010. Her work continues to have a lasting impact, particularly among vulnerable communities.
Dr. Harold Cottman, MD
Harold (he/him), born and raised in Philadelphia, recognized his differences early in life, embracing his identity as a gay man during his medical school years in North Carolina.
After earning his degree, Harold specialized in Psychiatry, training in Torrance, California. His career has been marked by a commitment to public psychiatry, working in various programs and currently serving the community in Marina, CA.
Harold's life goal is to be a servant to people, finding profound joy in helping and healing others as a dedicated public health psychiatrist.
Lynn Riordan
Lynn (she/her) is a Navy veteran who moved to San Francisco in 1981 at the age of 23. She has been clean and sober since 1982.
After getting fired from her programming job in 1999 for coming out as a transgender woman, Lynn became an outspoken advocate for Transgender medical rights. Testifying in Sacramento, she successfully lobbied for California's implementation of the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") to explicitly include Transgender Californians. Lynn pressured the massive Kaiser Permanente managed care consortium to do the same. She even succeeded in getting the City of Berkeley to cover Transgender treatments for its employees.
Participating Organizations
About Manny’s
Manny’s is a town hall, a village square, the place where anyone can meet and engage with civic leaders, elected officials, artists, activists, change-makers, and each other.
Our hope is that what happens here will be the spark for you to get more involved.
On any given day you can pop in and grab a hot cup of coffee, an ice cold beer, pile on to a comfy couch to watch a presidential debate or the results of an election, or to meet your local elected official, or to engage in a discussion on one of the major topics of the day.
Manny’s is a place of learning, but also a place to roll up your sleeves and do the work. We host fundraisers, weekly trash pickups to beautify the neighborhood, activist fairs, phone banking, and everything in between.
Learn more at WelcomeToMannys.com
About the film
Meet Me at the Club: The Castro Country Club Story is a feature-length LGBTQIA+ historical documentary about one of the nation’s oldest sober community centers as told through the stories of the folks whose lives were saved.
Award-winning writer, director, producer and photographer, J. Andrew, is the creative force behind this film which began production in 2021 and recently entered its final post-production phase. The film is scheduled for a Summer 2025 premiere.
Over the course of the last four years, J and his team have captured the incredible stories and history of a place very close to his heart, the Castro Country Club. This story centers trans voices, BIPOC voices, senior voices, drag voices, and the voices of the many addicts and alcoholics who have found joy in recovery.
Learn more at MeetMeAtTheClubFilm.com
About the CCC
The Castro Country Club is a safe and sober community center for all people and a refuge for the LGBTQIA+ recovery community. The CCC—often lovingly referred to simply as “The Club” by regular visitors—provides a range programs and services that help people change their lives by supporting personal growth.
Since first opening its doors on April 1st 1983, the CCC has evolved into the dynamic nonprofit organization that exists today. The club is open seven days a week, 365 days a year. There’s a coffee shop open to everyone serving Peet’s Coffee, and staffed by volunteers. In partnership with PRC and the city, they provide workforce development training programs that help folks transition into new career paths. The Club also hosts dozens of meetings and events for folks in recovery. It truly is a refuge and uniquely supportive community in the heart of The Castro.
Learn more at CastroCountryClub.org