OUT IN THE SILENCE

A documentary by Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer

Supported by the Sundance Institute

57 minutes, HD, 2009

outinthesilence.com

SYNOPSIS

The announcement of filmmaker Joe Wilson’s wedding to another man ignites a firestorm of controversy and a quest for change 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 viewers on an exhilarating journey through love, hate, and understanding in rural America.

THE STORY

A gray winter sky hangs over lonely city streets, rotted oil derricks, and abandoned factories.  This is Oil City, Pennsylvania, a fading industrial town in the heart of the American rustbelt.  It is the sort of town that Barack Obama had in mind when he made his infamous comments about bitter small town residents clinging to their guns and religion as they watch the rest of the world pass them by.

The peace and quiet is shattered when the filmmaker, Oil City native Joe Wilson, places the announcement of his wedding to another man in the local paper.   The announcement 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 no where 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.  He makes an unexpected friendship with an evangelical pastor that demonstrates the understanding that can develop when people on different sides of an issue lay down their swords and get to know one another.  And he helps a lesbian couple renovate an historic downtown theatre that could catalyze the town’s economic revitalization – if the community will accept them.

The greatest change occurs in Wilson himself as he realizes that while maverick acts such as the publication of his wedding announcement can create a splash, creating lasting change in small towns takes the courage and ongoing commitment of local folks to speak out and live openly.

CREATIVE APPROACH

OUT IN THE SILENCE breaks the mold of the traditional documentary.  It is not solely observational, not a memoir, and 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. 

A unique element of the film is the inclusion of footage shot by CJ, the tormented gay teen, which provides a painful glimpse into his very private suffering as well as needed comic relief from the antics he and his friends devise to entertain themselves in a quiet little town.  This verite footage is juxtaposed with images of beautiful pastoral scenes and abandoned factories, old family pictures and home movies, and the hauntingly raw music of transgender singer/songwriter Namoli Brennet to create a dynamic and compelling audio visual landscape of a small town as it struggles with its own identity. 

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

OUT IN THE SILENCE is not a film I set out to make. It’s not a story of the God-hates-fags or the kids-who-get-indoctrinated-at-Jesus-camp type. It’s not about attention-seeking hate mongers, angry protesters, or the extremes of any side.

It’s at once more troubling and more hopeful than that. It emerged out of a firestorm of controversy, and the realization that if I didn’t shine a light on and try to understand and illuminate the basis for the controversy, it would simply pass away into history’s ether … and silence would settle once again over my hometown in the faded hills of northwestern Pennsylvania, affirming and perpetuating the fear and isolation that I knew too well as a young gay boy in a stiflingly anti-gay world.

As filmmaker, I use the camera to empower, to challenge, to confront, and to look beneath the veneer of the fragile balance of order in my small hometown. It is a deeply personal social issue documentary that dramatically illustrates the challenges of being different in small towns and rural communities 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.

Most of the film’s action is based on intimate verite footage of my own interactions with the residents of the town. The camera captures the rawness of emotions that occur when I go face-to-face with those who have used the publication of my wedding announcement to publicly denounce and denigrate gay and lesbian people. I engage these folks in public parks and on city streets, in churches and schools, kitchens and living rooms, at community parades and government hearings to try to get at the core of the misunderstandings. In most cases, there is no room to maneuver, but in a few, something else begins to happen. Hatred’s illogic begins to crumble and transformation occurs. 

Through this experience, I have come to believe that by seeking out, witnessing, and telling the stories of those who break the silence when it is most difficult and perilous to do so, we increase the possibility that others will make their voices heard.  And through this process, we also help to close the gaps that so often divide us. I hope that this film will do the same for all who see it in towns like Oil City, small and large, across the country.

TEAM

JOE WILSON 
Co-Producer/Director
Joe Wilson got involved in documentary filmmaking through his social activism on human rights issues. Frustrated by the limitations of traditional organizing and advocacy and the constraints of his role as a program officer at a private foundation, he picked up a camera with hopes of reaching broader audiences with stories that would inform and compel people to act. 

Wilson's first film OTROS AMORES, which examines other forms of love in Oaxaca, Mexico, won the Videomaker Magazine National Documentary Challenge and started him on his way.  Since then he and Qwaves.com partner Dean Hamer have produced over a dozen pieces for national cable television and won numerous awards including Audience Prize at the One-in-Ten Film Festival, Best Short Film at the Barcelona Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, runner up in the Seeds of Tolerance Competition, and official selection at film festivals in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, London, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Cape Town and Melbourne. 

DEAN HAMER
Co-Producer/Director
Scientist turned filmmaker Dean Hamer became interested in journalism and filmmaking as a result of being a frequent guest on television news shows to discuss his research on AIDS, human sexuality and behavior genetics. Convinced that there was a better way to communicate the complex scientific and social ideas raised by these topics, he decided to try his own hand at turning these stories into compelling documentaries. 

Hamer's debut film THE PREACHER AND THE POET was a winner of the PBS/Independent Lens Online Shorts Festival.  In  collaboration with Qwaves.com partner Joe Wilson he has produced over a dozen pieces for national cable television and won numerous awards.  He has also consulted for many documentary and news productions and written three award-winning nonfiction books including  The Science of Desire, which was a New York Times Book of the Year.

NELS BANGERTER
Editor
Nels Bangerter is a documentary film editor with a keen sense of story and an alert eye for revealing moments.  His most recent feature WAR CHILD, which documents hip hop artist Emmanual Jal's remarkable journey from Sudanese child soldier to international star and activist, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and won the  Audience Award at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.  He has worked with Whoopi Goldberg on a series of short documentaries for MSNBC's MISSISSIPPI RISING after Hurricane Katrina and on numerous other short and long projects for screen and television.  Nels received his MFA in film production from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Art.

JOEL DOUEK
Composer
Award-winning composer and sound designer Joel Douek's work spans from orchestral epics to cutting-edge electronica, and the fusion of both. His music has appeared in hundreds of TV episodes, major documentary specials and films including the winner of the HBO Documentary Feature ROCKS WITH WINGS, the BAFTA-nominated MUNICH: MOSSAD'S REVENGE, and the 2004 Song Of The Year Contest winner KING'S X. He is a member of the Society for Composers and Lyricists, the Game Audio Network Guild, and a Core Member of the Manhattan Producers Alliance. 

NAMOLI BRENNET
Musical Contributor
Transgender singer/songwriter Namoli Brennet is a three-time Out Music award nominee and has been featured in Performing Songwriter Magazine, The Advocate and the Chicago Free Press. Her poetic, genre-breaking music has received airplay in Houston, LA, Philadelphia, NYC, San Francisco, Portland, New Haven and Chicago as well as overseas in Australia and France. 

FILM DETAILS & CONTACT INFORMATION

Running Time:	57 minutes

Formats Avaliable:	HDcam, Digital Beta, Beta SP, DVD

Aspect Ratio:	16:9 

Sound:		Stereo

Premier status:	Pending

Rights available:	all

Contact:		Dean Hamer
			Qwaves Documentaries
			1111 W ST NW #8
			Washington DC 20009
			202 588 5785
			deanhamer@aol.com

Website:		outinthesilence.com