Word is out movie

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Word Is Out
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mariposa Film Group Peter Adair Nancy Adair Andrew Brown Rob Epstein Lucy Massie Phenix Veronica Selver
Produced by	Peter Adair Peter Adair Andrew Brown Rob Epstein Lucy Massie Phenix Veronica Selver
Cinematography	Nancy Adair Peter Adair Andrew Brown Rob Epstein Lucy Massie Phenix Veronica Selver
Edited by	Nancy Adair Peter Adair Andrew Brown Rob Epstein Lucy Massie Phenix Veronica Selver
Music by	Trish Nugent Buena Vista Band
Distributed by	New Yorker Films
Release date	November 1977
Running time	124 minutes (original) 133 minutes (2008 restored version)
Language	English

Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives is a 1977 documentary film featuring interviews with 26 gay men and women. It was directed by six people collectively known as the Mariposa Film Group. Peter Adair conceived and produced the film, and was one of the directors. The film premiered in November 1977 at the Castro Theater in San Francisco and went into limited national release in 1978. It also aired on many PBS stations in 1978.^[1][2]

The interviews from the film were transcribed into a book of the same title, which was published in October 1978.

In 2022, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being «culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant».^[3]

Film description[edit]

Word Is Out intercuts interviews with 26 people, who speak about their experiences as gay men and lesbians. The interviewees range in age from 18 to 77, in locations from San Francisco to New Mexico to Boston, in types from a bee-hived housewife to student to conservative businessman to sultry drag queen, and in race from Caucasian to Hispanic, African-American, and Asian. Writer Elsa Gidlow, professor Sally Gearhart, inventor John Burnside, civil rights leader Harry Hay, actress Pat Bond, and avant-garde filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky are among the people interviewed.

The interviewees describe their experiences of coming out; falling in and out of love; and struggling against prejudice, stereotypes, and discriminatory laws.

Production[edit]

Word Is Out took five years, over 200 interviews, and six co-directors to make.^[4] Documentary filmmaker Peter Adair came up with the idea for the film. According to Adair:^[5]

In the 1970s when the modern gay movement was just beginning, our biggest problem was invisibility. Who homosexuals were was largely determined by straight people. It was bad enough that the public image of gay men and lesbians was defined largely by stereotypes — after all, I want other people to have an accurate picture of who I am. But these stereotypes created by outsiders largely defined our perceptions of who we thought we were. What a state of affairs. One’s reference for «What was Gay?» was a few nasty images, and, if you were lucky, your immediate circle of queer friends.

Word Is Out, finished in 1977, was on its surface a very simple idea answering the simple question, «Who Are We?» For the film, I, and the five other principle [sic] people I worked with spent a year doing research interviews on videotape of 250 lesbians and gay men all across the country. In the end, twenty-two were chosen to tell their stories in the film.

The directors of the film, collectively known as the Mariposa Film Group, were Peter Adair, Nancy Adair, Andrew Brown, Rob Epstein, Lucy Massie Phenix, and Veronica Selver. An initial investment of $30,000 was raised from people who believed in the idea and wanted to see the film made, and assistants were hired and production began. The original number of interviewees was only eight people, but when the trial film was screened to test audiences, the response and interest generated indicated that a much larger and more diverse cross-section of interviewees was desirable. Several more years were then spent in filming the rest of the interviews, and intercutting them with each other to create the final product.^[5]

Impact[edit]

«In 1978, Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives startled audiences across the country when it appeared in movie theaters and on PBS television. It was the first feature-length documentary about lesbian and gay identity made by gay filmmakers, and had a large and pioneering impact when it was released. The film became an icon of the emerging gay rights movement of the 1970s.»^[5][6] «The silence of gay people on the screen has been broken,» Vito Russo declared in The Advocate, a national gay magazine.^[4]

«When audiences saw the film, thousands wrote to the Mariposa Film Group’s post office box number listed in the end credits to express how much the film meant to them — and many of them related how viewing the film saved their lives.» «People who were alone and hopeless in Idaho, Utah and Kansas for the first time saw realistic and positive images of gay people on screen,» said production assistant Janet Cole.^[5]

In the New York Times, David Dunlop wrote in 1996: «Understated though it was, Word Is Out had a remarkable impact, coming at a time when images of homosexuals as everyday people, as opposed to psychopaths or eccentrics, were rare.»^[4]

In 2011, a book examining the film’s impact was published, titled Word Is Out: A Queer Film Classic by Greg Youmans.^[7]

In 2022, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being «culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant».^[3]

Book[edit]

In 1978, a book containing transcripts of the interviews was published, under the same title.^[8] The book also details how the film and book were created by the successful collective.

Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives was one of the first gay-focused nonfiction books sympathetic to gays published in the U.S. The book reached many people who were unable to view the film, and remained a popular gay nonfiction text for many years, helping many gays and lesbians realize that they were not alone.

The book also helped members of the heterosexual community to relate to the normalcy of homosexual lives, and to also understand gay persons’ struggles, pain, marginalization, ostracism, professional concerns, and frustrating need for secrecy when in a climate of homophobia and illegality.

Restoration of the film and DVD release[edit]

For the 30th anniversary, a restored and remastered 133-minute version of the film, which had no viable print remaining, was produced by Outfest and the UCLA Film and Television Archive,^[9] and premiered on 26 June 2008, at the Frameline Film Festival at the Castro Theater in San Francisco.

The DVD edition of the documentary, featuring the restored and remastered digital print of the original film, was released in June 2010 by Milestone Films.^[10] As special features, the DVD includes exclusive updates on the cast and the filmmakers plus an homage to Peter Adair, the originator and producer of Word Is Out, who died of AIDS in 1996.

Both the restoration and the DVD release were funded by gay activist and philanthropist David Bohnett, via his David Bohnett Foundation.^[11] On the DVD’s special features, Bohnett speaks briefly about the film’s impact.^[12][13][14]

See also[edit]

• List of LGBT-related films

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Word Is Out – Official website
• Word Is Out at AllMovie
• Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives at IMDb
• Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives at the TCM Movie Database
• Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Word Is Out – informational PDF

Слово отсутствует
Афиша театрального релиза
Режиссер	Mariposa Film Group Питер Адэр Нэнси Адэр Эндрю Браун Роб Эпштейн Люси Мэсси Феникс Вероника Селвер
Произведено	Питер Адэр
Музыка от	Триш Ньюджент Buena Vista Band
Распространяется	New Yorker Films
Дата выхода	Ноябрь 1977 г.
Продолжительность	124 мин. (оригинал) 133 минуты (Восстановленная версия 2008 г.)
Язык	английский

Слух нет: рассказы о некоторых из наших жизней 1977 год документальный фильм с интервью с 26 гей мужчина и женщина. Его поставили шесть человек, известных под общим названием Mariposa Film Group. Питер Адэр задумал и продюсировал фильм, был одним из режиссеров. Премьера фильма состоялась в ноябре 1977 г. Театр Кастро в Сан-Франциско, и вышел в ограниченный национальный выпуск в 1978 году. Он также транслировался на многих PBS станций в 1978 г.^[1][2]

Интервью из фильма были записаны в одноименную книгу, вышедшую в октябре 1978 года.

Описание фильма

Слово отсутствует интервьюирует 26 человек, которые рассказывают о своем опыте как гей мужчины и лесбиянки. Возраст респондентов от 18 до 77 лет, от Сан-Франциско до Нью-Мексико и Бостона, от домохозяйки-пчелы до студента, консервативного бизнесмена и знойной трансвеститы, а также от европеоидной расы до латиноамериканцев, афроамериканцев, и азиатский. Писатель Эльза Гидлоу, профессор Салли Гирхарт, изобретатель Джон Бернсайд, лидер гражданских прав Гарри Хэй, актриса Пэт Бонд, авангардный режиссер Натаниэль Дорски находятся среди опрошенных.

Респонденты описывают свой опыт откровения; влюбиться и разлюбить; и борьба с предрассудками, стереотипами и дискриминационными законами.

Производство

Слово отсутствует потребовалось пять лет, более 200 интервью и шесть содиректоров.^[3] Документальный кинорежиссер Питер Адэр пришла идея фильма. По словам Адаира:

В 1970-х, когда современное гей-движение только зарождалось, нашей самой большой проблемой была невидимость. Кто такие гомосексуалисты, во многом определяли натуралы. Достаточно плохо, что общественный имидж геев и лесбиянок определялся в основном стереотипами — в конце концов, я хочу, чтобы у других людей было точное представление о том, кто я. Но эти стереотипы, созданные посторонними, во многом определили наше восприятие того, кем мы себя считали. Какое положение дел. Одна ссылка на «Что было Гей?» было несколько неприятных образов и, если повезет, ваш ближайший круг странных друзей.

Слово отсутствует, законченный в 1977 году, на поверхности был очень простой ответ на простой вопрос: «Кто мы?» Что касается фильма, я и пять других главных людей, с которыми я работал, провели год, давая исследовательские интервью на видеозаписи 250 лесбиянок и геев по всей стране. В итоге было выбрано двадцать два человека, которые рассказали свои истории в фильме.^[4]

Режиссеры фильма, известные под общим названием Mariposa Film Group, были Питер Адэр, Нэнси Адэр, Эндрю Браун, Роб Эпштейн, Люси Мэсси Феникс и Вероника Селвер. Первоначальные инвестиции в размере 30 000 долларов были получены от людей, которые верили в идею и хотели посмотреть фильм, были наняты помощники и началось производство. Первоначальное количество интервьюируемых составляло всего восемь человек, но когда пробный фильм был показан для тестирования аудитории, отклик и вызванный интерес показали, что желательно гораздо большее и более разнообразное сечение интервьюируемых. Затем было потрачено еще несколько лет на то, чтобы снимать остальные интервью и перерезать их друг с другом для создания конечного продукта.^[4]

Влияние

В 1978 г. Слух нет: рассказы о некоторых из наших жизней поразил публику по всей стране, когда он появился в кинотеатрах и на телевидении PBS. Это был первый полнометражный документальный фильм о лесбиянках и геях, созданный кинематографистами-геями, и оказал большое новаторское влияние, когда был выпущен. Фильм стал иконой зарождающегося движения за права геев 1970-х годов.^[4][5] «Молчание геев на экране нарушено», Вито Руссо заявлено в Адвокат, национальный гей-журнал.^[3]

Когда зрители смотрели фильм, тысячи писали на номер почтового ящика Mariposa Film Group, указанный в конце титров, чтобы выразить, насколько фильм значил для них, и многие из них рассказали, как просмотр фильма спас им жизнь. «Одинокие и безнадежные люди в Айдахо, Юте и Канзасе впервые увидели реалистичные и позитивные изображения геев на экране», — сказала помощник режиссера Джанет Коул.^[4]

в Нью-Йорк ТаймсДэвид Данлоп писал в 1996 году: «Хотя это и было занижено, Слово отсутствует оказали заметное влияние, пришедшее в то время, когда изображения гомосексуалистов как обычных людей, в отличие от психопатов или эксцентриков, были редкостью ».^[3]

В 2011 году была опубликована книга, посвященная влиянию фильма. Word Is Out: Классический странный фильм пользователя Greg Youmans.^[6]

Книга

В 1978 году под тем же названием была опубликована книга, содержащая стенограммы интервью.^[7] В книге также рассказывается, как успешный коллектив создавал фильм и книгу.

Слух нет: рассказы о некоторых из наших жизней была одной из первых научно-популярных книг, ориентированных на геев и сочувствующих геям, опубликованных в США. Книга достигла многих людей, которые не могли смотреть фильм, и долгие годы оставалась популярной научно-популярной книгой о геях, помогая многим геям и лесбиянкам осознать, что они не один.

Книга также помогла членам гетеросексуального сообщества понять нормальность гомосексуальной жизни, а также понять борьбу, боль, маргинализацию, остракизм, профессиональные проблемы и разочаровывающую потребность в секретности геев, когда они находятся в атмосфере недовольства. гомофобия и незаконность.

Реставрация фильма и выпуск DVD

К 30-летнему юбилею отреставрированная и переработанная 133-минутная версия фильма, от которой не осталось жизнеспособных экземпляров, была изготовлена ​​компанией Outfest и Архив кино и телевидения Калифорнийского университета в Лос-Анджелесе,^[8] Премьера состоялась 26 июня 2008 г. в Кинофестиваль Frameline в Театре Кастро в Сан-Франциско.

DVD-издание документального фильма с восстановленным и переработанным цифровым отпечатком оригинального фильма было выпущено в июне 2010 г. Milestone Films.^[9] В качестве специальных функций DVD также включает эксклюзивные обновления об актерском составе и создателях фильма, а также дань уважения Питер Адэр, создатель и производитель Слово отсутствует, который умер от СПИД в 1996 г.

Реставрация и выпуск DVD финансировались гей-активистом и филантропом. Дэвид Бонетт через его Фонд Дэвида Бонетта.^[10] Говоря об особенностях DVD, Бонетт кратко рассказывает о влиянии фильма.^[11][12][13]

Смотрите также

• Список фильмов о ЛГБТ
• Список фильмов о ЛГБТ по годам

Рекомендации

внешняя ссылка

• Слово отсутствует — Официальный веб-сайт
• Слово отсутствует обзор из архива кино и телевидения UCLA
• Слово отсутствует статья в фильме о TCM
• Слово отсутствует в AllMovie
• Слух нет: рассказы о некоторых из наших жизней на IMDb
• Слово отсутствует — информационный PDF

The ’70s: Between the Stonewall riots and the emergence of AIDS, it was one of the last moments in mainstream American society when homosexuality was still «the love that dare not speak its name.» Yet one pioneering movie managed not just to investigate the lives of more than two dozen «out» gay men and lesbians, but to allow them to tell their own stories in their own ways.

The documentary, called Word is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives, is widely appreciated among film scholars, but it’s been relatively inaccessible to the general public since its theatrical release in 1978. That changed this winter, when a newly restored print from the UCLA Film and Television Archives hit theaters; a DVD release is set to follow soon.

One of the first films made by gay people about gay people, Word is Out documented 26 very different lives — from the early activist Harry Hay to a young black Princeton undergraduate to a white corporate executive and a working-class Latina couple — talking about their experiences. And the key word was «their.»

«Even as a black lesbian, I wouldn’t want to be seen as [saying], ‘This is how black lesbians are,» begins one young woman named Betty (now Achebe) Powell, at pains not to speak for an entire group.

But the film’s diversity is mostly emotional. The subjects reflect frankly on their relationships with families and with lovers, and the film takes on an earnest, gentle tone that initially irritated some gay activists.

«I remember thinking, ‘Why isn’t it sexier?'» recalls Jeff Weinstein, a former arts editor for The Village Voice. «And I remember thinking of it as spinach. I’ve changed my mind. It’s only grown in its importance. I think people have to see this, to see how difficult it was, how brave people were.»

He’s referring, in part, to the interviews with a woman identified in the film only as «Whitey,» who spent most of her teenage years institutionalized because of her lesbianism. Her psychiatrist advised eating green salads as part of her «cure.»

But Whitey was relatively lucky compared to one mild-mannered man, who could not even recall how many shock treatments he’d received.

«It would be between 10 and 50,» he says, voice tight.

The people interviewed in Word is Out tell their stories quietly in living rooms, offices and backyards. In one interview, David Gillon sits in a sunny meadow and says that for the longest time, he thought perhaps he was just a cold person who could never love anybody.

«And when I fell in love with this guy, it meant so much to me,» he says. «It meant I was a real person.»

Gillon was a young man when he agreed to be part of the film, but not as young as filmmaker Rob Epstein, who was still a teenager when he started working on the documentary.

«It was my film school,» Epstein says now, on the phone from the Sundance Film Festival. Epstein, who went on to direct the acclaimed documentaries The Celluloid Closet and The Times of Harvey Milk, was screening his new drama, Howl — based on the life of beat poet Allen Ginsberg — to the Park City crowd.

And the young man he spoke with so many years ago? David Gillon is now 57 years old, and says he’s still friends with the man who was his first love.

«Being in the movie made me squirm,» he confesses today. It was overwhelming, he says, to be sharing screen time with gay-rights activists like Harry Hay and Sally Gearhart.

But after the film’s release, Gillon got hundreds of letters from people telling him he’d given them hope of finding love too. He says he saw it as his duty to answer every letter in a friendly, upbeat tone.

«And I’d say, ‘If you’re in the neighborhood, stop in,'» he recalls. «I didn’t think that was going to happen, but it seemed that everyone … showed up practically the next day.»

Gillon says that’s evidence of how isolated so many gay men and lesbians felt, and what a relief it was to see people talking honestly and without shame about their lives.

When the Word is Out DVD comes out in June, it will include a short follow-up documentary about the film’s subjects. The update tells of the death of about half the men from HIV-related illnesses, but it also revisits one of the women who now identifies as straight. Two of the other women are still together; they have nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Those great-grandchildren might have a hard time understanding how differently gay people lived in the 1970s, and for that Jeff Weinstein partially credits Word is Out. Back in the film’s day, he says, «other people were always defining who gay people were.»

Word is Out, by contrast, gave gay people a chance to change the conversation, and discuss the sometimes banal, sometimes brutal, sometimes beautiful realities of their lives.