Out of the Past

1998
7.1| 1h37m| R| en
Details

In 1995, Kelli Peterson started a gay and straight club at her Salt Lake City high school. The story of her ensuing battle with school authorities in interspersed with looks back at the diary of Michael Wigglesworth, a 17th-century Puritan cleric, at the 30-year love affair of Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Adams Fields, at Henry Gerber's attempt after World War I to establish a gay-rights organization, at Bayard Rustin's role in the civil rights movement, and at Barbara Gittings' taking on of the American Psychiatric Association's position that homosexuality is illness. One person comments, "To create a place for ourselves in the present, we have to find ourselves in the past."

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Reviews

Konterr Brilliant and touching
Tacticalin An absolute waste of money
Whitech It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.
Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
jzappa In Salt Lake City in 1995, gay high school student Kelli Peterson started a gay and straight club at her school. The story of her proceeding struggle with school administration and powers that be intermingles with brief narrative accounts of noteworthy historical figures whose sexuality has kept those of us in the present from learning from them, such as Michael Wigglesworth, a 17th-century Puritan minister, the 30-year love affair of 1800s novelist and short story writer Sarah Orne Jewett and woman of letters Annie Fields, Henry Gerber, who doesn't even have a page on Wikipedia, and his effort after WW I to found the short-lived Society for Human Rights, Quaker civil rights activist Bayard Rustin's role in the civil rights movement and as principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. He advised Martin Luther King on nonviolent resistance. Then we find Barbara Gittings's maverick crusade against the American Psychiatric Association's stance that homosexuality was an illness.Contained by the concise length of an hour, narrated by revered Hollywood stars like Edward Norton and Gwyneth Paltrow, shot on 16mm film and paced with calm serenity, Jeffrey Dupre and Michelle Ferrari's independent documentary converges upon a reconsideration of American history. To establish a status for ourselves in our day, we have to identify with someone in the past, as this film makes obvious.This somber, maddening and tremendously intelligent picture is a moving record of a momentous subject which, though it concerns gays, affects us all, and makes its statement in an intelligent and moving manner.The wonderful Barbara Giddings is actually featured in an enormously moving climactic moment in which she and Kelli Peterson meet, and it is cloudless that if only Kelli, and other students like her, had merely been taught about people like this woman at whom she's waving in school, she would never have contemplated suicide and never would have needed to form a Gay Straight Alliance. This film, about love, about the nature of humanity, and not to be confused with Jacques Tourneur's overrated film noir, is an first-rate tribute and monument to those who died having lived lives committed to the greater good seeing no sign of their own acceptance by the society for which they fought so passionately.
pyotr-3 A top-notch documentary which beautifully weaves the story of Kelli Peterson, who tried to start a gay-straight alliance at a Salt Lake City high school, with tales of real gay heroes of the past. The wonderful Barbara Giddings is featured in a tremendously moving moment in which Kelli and Barbara meet, and it is clear that if only Kelli - and other students like her - had simply been told the facts about gay people in school she would never have wanted to commit suicide. This film is an excellent testament and memorial to those who died having lived miserable lives totally in the closet.
trekker-6 This movie takes a very non-bias view into the lives of some Utah (where I am from and lived through this) citizens who stood in the face of bigotry and yelled in their ears. The movie was wonderfully put together with some amazing historical facts thrown in. Even with a reporters non-biased viewpoint this movie takes, you can't help but hate the SLC council members as well as many of the citizens of this state for their close mindedness, hatred, blindness, and narrowness. With the theme of the issue and the point of this whole fight, you can't help but see the idiocies of the anti-gay supporters.
petshop A documentary covering two things. One gay and lesbian role models of the past. And two, a young lesbian in Utah who attemts to form a gay-straight alliance in her high school and runs into much resistance. Although the intent is honorable, and makes sense, the two elements never combine well.We are jerked into the past to stories of obscure figures with quotes that often seem like stretches of the imagination. Then thrust into into the quick-paced present day story. Not much detail is shed on either.Ultimately, the film is uplifting and reaffirming. A very good start.