Oscilloscope

Mile00111

Word is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives

Dir. The Mariposa Film Group

On DVD 04/16/10

• Director Credits DVD features

SYNOPSIS

Word is Out debuted in 1977 as the first feature-length documentary about lesbian and gay identity made by gay filmmakers. The Mariposa Film Group comprising of Peter Adair (Absolutely Positive), Nancy Adair, Andrew Brown, Rob Epstein (The Times of Harvey Milk), Lucy Massie Phenix (Winter Soldier) and Veronica Selver sought to create a film free of political didactics and to simply tell the stories of growing up gay in America. After conducting 140 interviews, the filmmakers selected twenty-six people of various lifestyles, races, ages and backgrounds. What they achieved was a cornerstone in Gay Rights.

Audiences were startled and moved by these stories told by the film's participants. The documentary was released in theaters around the world and shown on prime-time television. It helped untold numbers of people accept themselves, their friends and their families, and had an impact on American culture. Word is Out quickly became a landmark in cinema, but time had taken its toll on the existing prints and the film was rarely seen. The Outfest Legacy Project and UCLA Film & Television Archive restored Word is Out with the generous contribution of the David Bohnett Foundation, creating a high-definition video for this DVD premiere. Ripe for rediscovery, the film is at once a record of past struggles, an occasion for reflecting on how far we still have to go, and a masterpiece of the documentary form. Viewers will be charmed, touched and perhaps galvanized to action by the film's emotionally breathtaking blend of candor, humor, love and humanity.

Credits

DVD Features:

Word is Out: Then and Now (24:37, color, digibeta).
Afterthoughts (09:11 color, digibeta).
Mariposa Film Group, Remembering Peter Adair (09:31, color, digibeta).
A Word from David Bohnett (02:22, color, digibeta).
Word is Out trailer (04:30, color, digibeta).
Outfest PSA (00:30, color, digibeta)