Originally we planned to see the documentary shorts program between Underworld and Out Late. It was just about a minute into Underworld‘s Q&A when a fire alarm forced everybody out of the theatre. I don’t know what exactly happened. Did somebody try to smoke in a bathroom? Did a film projector start to burn after that marathon of the last few days? Did the Tapas Teatro burn some food? Nobody knows — but thankfully, there was no fire at the Charles. Two fire trucks showed up and left again after a while so the festival could resume.
All screenings including the documentary shorts program would now begin late after this incident, and we would have had to leave early to ride to the UB Student Center and be in time for Out Late. So we decided to give ourselves a break after two long movie-days and skip the documentary shorts, although we both were very interested in watching them. Sometimes you just can’t have it all.
Out Late was a great companion to Bi The Way we saw earlier on Saturday. Bi The Way highlighted the “whatever” generation, young people who find themselves equally attracted to both sexes, and alternately maintain either heterosexual or homosexual relationships. Out Late focused on the older generation who lived in heterosexual relationships, hid their sexual identity for most of their lives before they decided to come out very late as senior citizens.
There is no doubt that today’s society is still not as accepting and tolerant as it should be, but I was wondering: If these seniors had grown up in today’s age, in which same sex relationships are much more, and much more widely accepted than 50 or 60 years ago — would they have defined themselves as a “whatever-generation”, too, or would they have come out as gay or lesbian early in adolescence? Or vice versa: if today’s “whatever-generation” had grown up 50 or 60 years ago, would they have lived in a straight relationship for their whole life and come out today, to openly live an identity they suppressed and hid for so long?
There are so many questions I could think of. Both documentaries leave a lot of room for discussion and illustrate how complex and individual everybody’s journey really is. Out Late was an excellent and thought-provoking portrait of a fascinating group of seniors who took the risk, managed to turn their entire lives around and redefine themselves so late in life. It presented facets of human life I was very unfamiliar with before.
Homophobia still looms large in our society, causing many gay and lesbian individuals to remain in the closet into college or beyond. But this documentary follows five individuals who waited until they were senior citizens to openly declare their sexuality to family, friends, coworkers and neighbors — and paints a vivid, sometimes painful portrait of these people and the many factors that caused them to wait this long.
Their stories are nothing less than extraordinary: many lived straight lives complete with marriage and children, and now face the challenge of beginning again late in life — often losing some love and support in the process, but infusing their lives with new levels of honesty and pride. Perhaps most dramatically we meet Elaine, who came out of the closet at 79, and finds herself decades older than the other senior lesbians in her support group; LeAnna, a former military man who became a woman at age 60; and Cathy, who didn’t see the need to come out until spotting an anti-gay political sign in the lawn of her neighbors and best friends.
Out Late tells these stories in unflinching detail, asking all the right questions: why wait so long? Why now? And… what now? Just as importantly, with stories captured across North America, it forces society at large to ask the question: why are we still making this so hard for so many people? (Eric Allen Hatch) (from the filmfest-guide)
