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Word Is Out (1977) was directed by Nancy Adair, Andrew Brown, and Rob Epstein. This film is an outstanding documentary about the lives and experiences of LGBT people, who look back on their past and look ahead to their future. The directors chose to show us interviews with about two dozen "ordinary" people, all of whose lives were greatly affected by their sexual orientation.

The film was made less than ten years after the Stonewall Rebellion, and equal rights for the lesbian and gay community appeared then to be moving forward in a linear fashion. This belief in progress to come gave the film a hopeful quality. The movie also has a poignant quality, because so many of the people interviewed had suffered terrible discrimination, especially those who had been in the military.

Now, over 30 years later, we know that LGBT rights have moved ahead at a two-steps-forward-one-step-back pace, and almost all LGBT people are still facing discrimination, especially, of course, in the military.

Word is Out can stand on its own as an excellent documentary. If you care about the rights of LGBT people, it's a must-see film.

We saw the movie at the Dryden Theatre, as part of the splendid ImageOut: Rochester Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. The festival had obtained a newly restored 35mm print. Word is Out will work well on DVD and, apparently, the DVD version of the restored film is now available. Be sure to find it and watch it--it's an excellent film.

Far from a "clunker," "Word Is Out" is a beautifully edited collective portrait of a moment in gay and lesbian history in the US. The film captures the optimism of the late 1970s after the early headiness of the g/l movement and before the horrors of HIV/AIDS. Most documentaries focus on a small number of subjects, but "Word" manages to weave together the stories of 26 men and women of different ages and backgrounds, primarily from the SF Bay Area and the Northeast, but with some reference to the Southwest and the South. The effect is to demonstrate that no single narrative of g/l life is adequate.

Displaying humor, tact and candor, the film is a "must see" for younger g/l/b/t people for whom 1977 is ancient history. Rumor has it that the film will be released on DVD with updates on most of the participants this fall.

I remember seeing "Word is Out" when I was in college in the suburbs of Chicago. The film was shown on the PBS station there (WTTW, Channel 11) and I watched it secretly with one of the few gay men I knew at the small Catholic college I attended. When it was rerun six months later, we celebrated watching it again, reacquainting ourselves with the men and women on the screen that we thought of as friends.

As a documentary film, there is a very nice flow between the stories, the generations, and the personalities. What shocks me now is how the film-making team was so skillful at getting the interview subjects to open up so much, to dig so deeply into their psyches, and to share their feelings with the audience. This is more than a fascinating view of LGBTQ people in 1977; it is a historical document on our lived experience in the second half of the 20th Century.

As much as I fell in love with the people who shared their stories, I also came to better terms with myself. Due to the film, I became real. I became a real person. I finally shared an experience with other people --even in far away, exotic places like San Francisco-- and I was a little bit less alone in the world than I had been before I saw the film.

I have thought about the film all my life since I first saw it. I have thought about how daring and powerful the people were who allowed themselves to appear in the film back in 1977. I have wondered if everyone has been able to find satisfaction and a measure of happiness in their lives after the film was made, and the anniversary edition of the DVD does a very nice follow up on the original cast.

Commendable documentary that makes the very cogent (and, for 1977, revolutionary) point that the only meaningful difference between a gay person and a straight person is that the former is sexually attracted to members of his or her own sex and persecuted for it while the later is physically turned on to members of the opposite sex and is pretty much left alone. Apart from that a random homosexual is likely to be every bit as quirky, neurotic, boring, gifted, physically strong and mentally weak as your average hetero.

If this doc had gotten the above point across at half the length with half the interviewees it would have been more hard hitting and interesting. As it is, with twenty six people talking at me for nearly two and a half hours, I began to suffer from Talking Head Syndrome somewhere in the middle. Give it a B.

PS...Has America progressed very far on this issue? Depends on whether you think Andy Cohen is a greater or lesser force in American life than Tucker. And of course trans is the new 70s gay. So color me pessimistic.

I remember when "Word Is Out" came out in 1978. Acquaintances kept stopping me on the street to ask if I'd seen 'the movie.' As if there were no other. As soon as I saw it, I started asking people the same question.

It wasn't until I saw this film that I realized my whole life I had been trying to relate to straight romances, conflicts, comedies, and life experiences in general on the screen. When the film was done I wanted to see it all over again—immediately—to memorize the people and their stories. Every one of them said something that spoke to me very directly and strongly. I cannot explain or express my feelings after I watched, for the first time in my life, gay people—honestly and beautifully—tell what it's like to live in this country. I finally knew I belonged to a culture. I didn't feel as though I had to hide. I was not sick. I was not alone.

My story is not an anomaly. It is impossible to count the number of lives this film has changed by publicizing positive images of gay Americans for the first time ever. For thousands of people—gay and straight—it broke down stereotypes. It makes gay people identifiable even for those buried in the heartland of homophobic America because it's really about the universality of love and discovering who we really are. Everyone should see this movie.