Out In the Silence
Directed by Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer
The filmmaker’s same-sex wedding announcement ignites a firestorm of controversy and a quest for change in his rural Pennsylvania hometown.
Out In the Silence captures the remarkable chain of events that unfold when the announcement of filmmaker Joe Wilson’s wedding to another man ignites a firestorm of controversy in the small Pennsylvania hometown he left long ago. Drawn back by a plea for help from the mother of a gay teen being tormented at school, Wilson takes an exhilarating journey through love, hate, and understanding in rural America. The approach to the film is aimed at breaking the mold of the traditional documentary. It is not solely observational. It is not a memoir, and it is not a news piece. As filmmaker, as protagonist, as insider and outsider, Wilson uses the camera to empower, to challenge, to confront, and to look beneath the veneer of the fragile balance of order in his conservative hometown. It is a provocative, entertaining, and deeply personal social issue documentary that dramatically illustrates the challenges of being different in a small town environment and the transformation that is possible when those who have long been constrained by a traditional code of silence summon the courage to break it.
Background
Most media representations of gay people in America today portray comfortable, middle-class, urban gay life. But there is another side of gay America that is rarely seen: It takes place in conservative, often deeply religious small towns and rural communities where those who are different strive to blend in rather than stand out and where those who are found or perceived to be gay are at risk of losing their families, friends, jobs and livelihoods, their safety and sometimes their very lives. OUT IN THE SILENCE is a personal and social issue documentary that shines a light on the challenges of small town and rural life for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals and the change that is possible when people on opposite sides of divisive issues search for what they have in common rather than what sets them apart. It is based on filmmaker Joe Wilson’s return to Oil City, his small hometown in the hills of northwestern Pennsylvania, following the firestorm of controversy that was ignited with the publication of his wedding announcement in the local newspaper.
Suggested Links for further information
Official Website for Out In the Silence
Qwaves