Out in the Silence at Stroudsburg High School

The Stroudsburg High School Student Diversity Council’s Gay-Straight Alliance will screen the PBS documentary Out in the Silence on Thursday, November 12, in the high school auditorium. Out in the Silence (57 minutes) chronicles the controversy that began after the announcement of filmmaker Joe Wilson’s wedding to another man ignited a firestorm of controversy and a quest for change in the small Pennsylvania hometown he had 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 documentary explores the struggle of being a gay teen in a small Pennsylvania town and the bullying, controversy and challenges that he experiences. It challenges viewers to rethink their values and helps close the gaps that divide communities. Read more here.

In addition to the screening of this independent film, SHSD GSA will host a post-screening question and answer session. The panel will include Joe Wilson (co-producer), Steven Glassman (Chairperson of The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and Vice Chairperson of the Governor's Cabinet on Disability Rights), members of our local PFLAG chapter, and others.

The public is invited.

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.

Doors of the auditorium of Stroudsburg High School will open at 6:30 p.m. The film will begin at 7:00 p.m., followed by a post-screening discussion with the panel. The cost of admission is $2.00 per person and the proceeds will benefit the Stroudsburg Area School District Gay-Straight Alliance and the Lehigh Valley Rainbow Youth College Scholarship Fund.

Grace Allentown member Lynn Wentzel is a faculty advisor of the Stroudsburg High School Student Diversity Council’s Gay-Straight Alliance.

Please plan on joining us as we begin to address the key issues in our local community with regard to diversity and start down the path of understanding and acceptance. Please RSVP by November 4 to sgriswol@sburg.org.