Word Is Out: A Queer Film Classic

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

In 1977, the Mariposa Film Group produced a groundbreaking documentary that profiled the lives of 26 ordinary gay men and lesbians. Broadcast widely in cinemas and on television, Word is Out appeared soon after Anita Bryant launched her anti-gay 'Save Our Children' campaign, offering an important counter-image to the homophobic images that Bryant and others were promulgating. Interviewees cover a broad spectrum and include writer Elsa Gidlow and civil rights leader Harry Hay. Word is Out provides an essential guide to the significant documentary, still relevant today.

Reviews

Through its reading of this single film, the book advances a compelling and original frame for understanding the political transformations of the late 1970s--showing, quite brilliantly, how movement politics and film aesthetics were inextricably linked. --Film Quarterly

Author Bio

Greg Youmans: Greg Youmans is a scholar, maker, and programmer of queer film and video. His research focuses on gay and lesbian activist and experimental filmmaking of the late 1970s, in the context of the rise of the religious right and the channeling of gay and lesbian politics into a liberal, rights-based agenda. He also creates an ongoing video series with Chris Vargas, entitled Falling in Love...with Chris and Greg.