Tower Theatre :: 12:00pm :: Saturday, September 18
Out In the Silence
- $10.00
- Directors: Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson
- 65m 2010, USA
Struggling with the fallout from his impending marriage, filmmaker Joe Wilson is inundated with cries of help from others struggling in his small town of Oil City, Pennsylvania.
Joe places a wedding announcement in the local paper, which catches the eye of Kathy Springer, a local woman whose teenage son, CJ, is being brutally tormented at school because he is gay. Ignored by the school authorities and with nowhere else to turn, she seeks help from Wilson and they begin a difficult but ultimately successful struggle to take on the school authorities who made every day "eight hours of pure hell" for CJ.
The announcement has a very different effect on Diane Gramley, head of the local chapter of the ultra-conservative American Family Association. Infuriated by the prospect of the "homosexual agenda" invading her little town, she issues an action alert calling on townspeople to denounce same sex marriage and all other forms of "perversion". Over the next four years Wilson navigates the ins and outs of being different in a conservative small town, capturing the people and new friends he meets in this award-winning documentary film.
Short Film
Always My Son
- Director: Vivian Kleiman
- 16m 2009, USA
Always My Son chronicles the transformation of Ed from a self-described “macho Mexican” to co-founder of his town’s first LGBT youth support group after his son came out. Director Vivian Kleiman lets a straightforward story speak for itself in this touching and inspiring short documentary of a Central Valley family. You may even recognize the faces of some Reel Pride fans included in the footage!