Out in the Silence
Gray winter skies hang over abandoned factories, empty streets and rotted oil desricks. Oil City is a dying industrial city in Pennsylvania’s rust belt. This is exactly the kind of place Barrack Obama was referring to when he said that bitter residents of small towns held on to guns and their religions while the rest of the globe passed them by. Oil City native Joe Wilson announces his marriage to another man in local newspaper. Kathy Springer sees the announcement and decides to help her son CJ. CJ is suffering at school for being gay. She is ignored by school officials and has no other options. So she turns to Wilson for help. They begin a long but successful battle to overthrow the school authorities, who have made each day “eight hours pure hell” to CJ. Diane Gramley is the head of her local American Family Association chapter. However, the announcement had a different impact on Gramley. She is furious at the idea of a “homosexual agenda” invading her small town. So she issued an alert urging residents to reject same-sex marriage and any other form of “perversion.” Wilson learns how to be different in small conservative towns over the course of four years. Unexpectedly, he makes a friendship with an evangelical pastor. This is a demonstration of the kind of understanding that happens when people from different perspectives come together and learn to get along. He also helps a lesbian couple to renovate a historic downtown theatre, which could help the area’s economic revival – provided the community accepts them. Wilson realizes the greatest changes are in himself. He is able to see that, while maverick acts like publishing his wedding announcement may make a big splash, lasting change takes local people’s courage and commitment to live freely. –Dean Hamer
Genre: Documentary
Director: Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson
Actors: C.J. Bills, Diane Granley, Linda Henderson, Roxanne Hitchcock
Country: United States
