Buy Word Is Out: Stories from Some of Our Lives on DVD

Word Is Out: Stories from Some of Our Lives

DVD
30th Anniv

More Info

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$26.99 (10% off)
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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, Nancy Adair, Andrew Brown, Rob Epstein (The Times of Harvey Milk), Lucy Massie Phenix 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 the stories told by the film’s participants.

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.

Review

Originally conceived as a documentary titled Who Are We?, this fascinating exploration of gay culture and history is made up of interviews with 26 lesbians and gay men. Ranging in age from 18 to 77, and representing many divergent types -- from a beehived housewife to a sultry drag queen -- the film captures their vivid experiences of growing up gay in America and at the same time, helps destroy decades of accumulated stereotypes. A moving and important gay document. "An electric piece of living history." -- Vito Russo

Product Format Information

DVD : $26.99 (30th Anniversary)

Availability: Usually ships in
5-10 days
Region Code: 1
UPC: 784148011141

Studio : Milestone, Oscilloscope Pictures

Languages: English (Primary)
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen, 1.85
Features:
Documentaries: Word Is Out – Then and Now: Thirty Years Later
Featurette: Afterthoughts
Featurette: History of The Mariposa Group
Featurette: Homage to Peter Adair – Originator and producer of Word Is Out
Outfest Legacy Project PSA

Keywords

Classics, Coming Out, Documentary/Documentaries, Gay Male, Gay/Lesbian, History, Lesbian, Politics, Sexuality: Gay Male, Sexuality: Lesbian

Genres

Documentary, Lesbian

Customer Reviews

26 Men and Women

Amos Lassen wrote on 04/13/2010:

"Word is Out"
26 Men and Women
Amos Lassen
First released in 1978, less than ten years after Stonewall, "Word is Out" has taken its place as a ground breaking documentary about the way we lived. The film has now been restored and all of us are able to see what gay life was back in "the day". Here is the story of 26 men and women from ages 18 to 77 who were determined to tell their stories. What we get is a valuable piece of filmmaking. AIDS had not yet hit the community and gay liberation was taking baby steps. Harvey Milk had just begun to make some progress as an out politico and there were problems. But it is what was to come that makes this film so important. Back then there were places of peace but there was also brutality.
This was a moment in our history and the film captures the optimism that we shared in the 70's before AIDS was to take so many of us. The film manages to bring together the stories of 26 members of the GLBT community in the San Francisco bay Area and the Northeast and there is no single narrative. There is humor but more important there is candor. We see the decades when coming out was risky but we see the joy faced by those that did. I can't emphasize how important this film is for all of us. We really can't go forward if we do not know where we have been.