A FEATURE DOCUMENTARY FILM IN PROGRESS
The Peter Adair Rebellion
In the 1970s, filmmaker Peter Adair helped isolated lesbians and gay men recognize one another as a community through Word Is Out, a film that let them speak for themselves. Then AIDS, and his own HIV diagnosis, forced him to confront what mattered most.
Watch this ten-minute work-in-progress reel, drawn from archival material, to see how The Peter Adair Rebellion tells his story and the community’s side by side.
Many of the rights and freedoms LGBTQ people experience today were won by people who risked their jobs, their families, and their safety to be seen. This film conveys that history through the life of someone who helped shape it and lived it. Word Is Out (1977), the film Peter conceived, brought the stories of 26 gay men and lesbians to national television on PBS. It helped isolated people discover a shared identity and begin to build a community. When AIDS threatened both that community and his own life, Peter confronted what mattered most. His personal transformation ultimately mirrors a transformation in the LGBTQ community.
Peter Adair
By presenting this history through Peter’s life, the film lets people who did not live through it experience it for themselves. They can consider what it took to get here, and what it asks of them now in terms of connection and civic participation. That is especially valuable today, as the place of LGBTQ people in public life is again questioned.
Peter Adair, Janet Cole, Veronica Selver
Peter’s story, and the community’s, needs to be told from the perspective of those who knew him. The people who lived it are in their 70s and beyond, and the next step is new interviews with them, which is exactly what your support makes possible.
The vision for the feature documentary is clear and the filmmakers are ready to film key interviews and shape the material into the full narrative. We are seeking $35,000 for two days of key interviews, the foundation for a rough cut that can unlock larger institutional funding. Donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.
The Mariposa Film Group
Haney Armstrong, Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein
The Peter Adair Rebellion is directed by Haney Armstrong and Johnny Symons, and produced by Armstrong’s company, Hidden Story Media. Fiscal sponsorship is provided by Reflective Image, a nonprofit organization led by Academy Award-winning filmmakers Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein.
The film will be an hour-long to maximize the opportunities for PBS broadcasts.