Color Magazine Online

Groundbreaking gay/lesbian documentary celebrates 30th anniversary

Thirty-nine years ago, a group of amateur filmmakers in San Francisco set out to make a documentary about gay life in America. Their plan was simple: Interview as many people as they could about their lives; what it was like to grow up gay; what it was like to come out to family and friends and, through the film, the world; and finally, what they think life will be like for them, and for other members of the gay community, as the years progress.

"We had no idea how important the film would become," said Lucy Massie Phenix, one of six filmmakers calling themselves The Mariposa Film Group who made Word is Out: Stories from Some of Our Lives (other members included Peter Adair, Nancy Adair, Andrew Brown, Rob Epstein and Veronica Selver). "At the time we just knew there were stories in the gay community that weren't being told, but that needed to be told. It was a very exciting time, and it's just as exciting all these years later to think people are still watching the movie and finding something they can identify with from these wonderful people. It's thrilling."

The Mariposa Group started out with only a half dozen subjects to be interviewed, but as the stories grew - and as word got out about this exciting new film group that was giving gay people a platform to speak from - the numbers grew. They ended up interviewing 140 people and featuring 26 in the final film.

"Editing the film was the roughest part of the entire project because we didn't want to leave anyone out. Every story was important," Phenix said. "But you have to remember that we were shooting on film and it was very expensive, so we did a lot of pre-interviews with people before deciding on the ones we wanted to actually film. Still, I think the film could be five hours long instead of two hours and still be interesting to watch."

One of the reasons for the timelessness of the stories, Phenix said, was the balance of age and experience that the subjects brought to the piece. Some of the subjects are young people in their 20s who, when the film was being made, were active in the fledgling gay rights movement gaining a foothold in America at the time. Some of them are a few decades older and tell stories about being beaten by police and sent to mental institutions because when they were in their 20s being gay was illegal and considered to be a disease.

"They are all heroes to me," Phenix said of the people who told their stories in Word is Out. "It's important that the really politically involved people are there because it's important to fight for your rights, but the fact there are people in the film who sat down in front of our cameras to talk publicly about being gay for the first time in their lives knowing that was how their family and friends would find out simply amazes me."

Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives DVD is available direct from www.wordisoutmovie.com or by calling (800) 603-1104.