“We’re here, we’re queer, and we’re going to show a film in your library.” Those are the words of a movement in the making.
All over America, local LGBTQI-rights organizations are going into their local libraries, explaining that they have a documentary film about LGBTQI rights in rural America, and saying they would like to hold a showing. All over America, the film Out in the Silence is ending the silence. On Tuesday, February 2, this film will open the 2011 DC Human Rights Watch film festival. And as I am packing my bags for a week in DC, I will be there!
A bit of backstory:
Around the time I started writing No Word for Welcome (that is to say, one long decade ago), a friend of mine began, as he put it, “playing around with a video camera.” Joe Wilson is now (along with his husband, Dean Hamer) the producer-writer-director of Out in the Silence, an enormously important and inspiring documentary film. Joe and Dean have done far more than build a good film, they have honed a powerful tool for social change. And that film is helping to build a movement.
"Libraries are a great bastion of participatory democracy," Joe says. For books. For film. For all of us.
Read more at the film’s website and watch the trailer for the film:
I saw this film recently and loved it -- it's one of those films that is not only engaging and wise but it's important. Everyone should see it.
ReplyDeleteAnd libraries make such wonderful venues for films ... I tend to forget that they're not only about books but about all art and about what's important in their communities.
Thanks for posting this Wendy -- and best wishes to Joe and Dean with this remarkable film!