Elliot Teichberg, his mother Sonia (Imelda Staunton) and father Jake (Henry Goodman) head off to the bank to forestall foreclosure on the El Monaco Motel.

During the summer of 1969, the gay rights movement that was born out of the Stonewall Riots and hippie culture reached its apex with Woodstock. But what did the angry gay men storming the streets of Greenwich Village on June 28 and happy hippies flocking to Woodstock seven weeks later have in common? Much more than you might think.

In Taking Woodstock, Elliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin) is a young man whose life during that summer of 1969 straddles the gay movement and hippie culture. He leaves his gay life in Greenwich Village to spend the summer of 1969 helping his parents run the El Monaco, a family motel in the Catskills—and a far cry from the Riviera. One day, he reads a headline in the paper: “Wallkill Pulls Permit on Music Festival—Mayor: ‘Hippies not welcome here.’ ” So, Elliot, seeing an opportunity to help the struggling family business, helps bring the music festival that would be known as Woodstock to his hometown of Bethel, N.Y.