Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786302375749 Format: Color ISBN: 6302375746 Label: New Yorker Films Video Manufacturer: New Yorker Films Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: New Yorker Films Video Release Date: 1996-09-24 Running Time: 130 Studio: New Yorker Films Video Theatrical Release Date: 1977
It begins with a woman sitting on a bed with her dog, saying nothing, barely moving, and ends with a raucous gay pride parade. In between: candid opinions, hesitations, tears, songs, chainsaws, a lot of cigarettes, and a meal or two. And we learn that Barbie and Ken wear the same size.
Funny, articulate, and occasionally troubling, the testimonies offered by the 26 subjects of Word Is Out entertain, inform, and inspire for the duration of its 130 minutes. Made in 1977 by the Mariposa Film Group, the documentary--a montage of interviews in which the crew often foregrounds its own participation (by responding verbally, retaining mistakes, and shooting into mirrors, for example)--divides into three parts. The first focuses on the closet, and various attempts to pry open the door; the second on coming-out experiences--initial physical contact and emotional involvement; and the third on present and future concerns, including the consequences of visibility, which, as several of these people make clear, could be more dire then than now. Likewise, the film is definitely a period piece, wide lapels, frizzy perms, handlebar mustaches, overstuffed furniture, towering table lamps, pot plants, and all. But it also remains an important artifact of its time, in terms of these individuals, such as Radical Faerie Harry Hay and his partner, Bob, as well as the history of gay liberation. From the comical (one woman's psychiatrist attempts to treat her lesbianism with a diet of green salads) to the painful (one man's parents consider castrating him, while more than one interviewee had to witness or undergo shock treatment in mental institutions), and ethnically varied, Word Is Out offers telling tales of the city, town, and country: an act of remembrance on par with Coming Out Under Fire and The Celluloid Closet. --Robert Burns Neveldine
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: The Originial Producers are trying to fund a DVD.... Comment: Quoted from the Word is Out Website (http://www.wordisoutmovie.com/project.htm):
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of WORD IS OUT, the Mariposa Film Group has begun production of a DVD.
Thirty years ago, in 1977, Word is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives startled audiences across the country when it appeared in movie theaters and on television. The first feature-length documentary about lesbian and gay identity made by gay filmmakers, the film had a huge impact when it was released and became an icon of the emerging gay rights movement of the 1970s.
In honor of its place in our collective history, Word Is Out has been selected for the Legacy Project for GLBT Film Preservation by Outfest and the UCLA Film & Television Archive. The original film negative will be restored this year, and the re-mastered 35 mm print will be shown at public events in Los Angeles and San Francisco. It will then be available for international exhibition through Word Is Out's longtime distributor, New Yorker Films.
The 30th anniversary DVD will include the original theatrical version of the film, exclusive updates on the cast and the filmmakers and an homage to Peter Adair, originator and inspired producer of Word is Out who died of AIDS in 1996.
Quoted from the Word is Out Website: http://www.wordisoutmovie.com/project.htm
Donate to the effort if you can....
Customer Rating: Summary: DVD coming in 2008 Comment: UPDATE: In February 2008 I once again got in touch with the makers/distributors of "Word is Out" to check on what the latest information was with regard to the intended "special DVD" release. I was informed that while they are still working on the material, it is hoped the DVD will be available in the second half of the year. Customer Rating: Summary: One Of the All-Time Best "Gay" Documentaries Comment: I first saw this documentary on PBS in the late 1970's, when it was first broadcast. Its wonderful - both as a bit of pre-AIDS LGBT history, and as a 1970's slice of life. (Especially for those in San Francisco, where many of the participants apparently resided).
It was finally released on VHS in the 1990's, and periodically I check back on Amazon in search of a DVD edition.
The physical quality and video clarity of this work are really showing their age...lets hope there's enough of an audience to justify a first-quality new edition (perhaps with footage that didnt make the first one from 1977 ?). ...in the meantime, buy this VHS...its apparently out-of-production, and available at fire sale prices. Customer Rating: Summary: What we've come to know and love from Epstein. Comment: This documentary is a great one. It carries the same feel as Epstein's other documentaries, COMMON THREADS: STORIES FROM THE QUILT, THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK, and THE CELLULOID CLOSET to name a few. The film is comprised of many gay, lesbian, and transgendered people basically talking about all aspects of their life. Epstein and his codirectors did a good job presenting a variety of lifestyles: Black, white, mothers and fathers, the very young to the quite old. This truly encompasses much of the GLBT experience, in an entirely unbiased way, with people simply speaking for themselves. I recommend this to all people, but especially to gays and lesbians. Customer Rating: Summary: GLBT living history Comment: This is probably the best GLBT documentary ever made. It is poignant, funny, and provocative. While somewhat dated since so much has changed in the past 20+ years, the stories hold up and still speak to the human condition in a touching way. Also, it's probably just as necessary to give people a historical context of how far the community has come, not only since the film was made, but throughout the lives of the participants, including The Pioneer Harry Hay, who just died recently.
Anyone who has ever felt like an outsider or knows any GLBT people should appreciate this film. And any member of the GLBT community should consider this mandatory viewing as an obligation to their own history, and those who came before.
