A FEATURE DOCUMENTARY FILM IN PROGRESS
The Peter Adair Rebellion
A filmmaker helps people living in isolation see themselves as a community and then confronts what matters most when both the community and his own life are threatened.
Peter Adair spent his career making other people visible. The filmmaker behind Word Is Out and Absolutely Positive believed that people pushed to the margins of mainstream culture deserved to be seen on their own terms, without apology or explanation. His films helped reshape how queer Americans saw themselves and how they were seen by others.
Watch the sample reel below, drawn from existing archival material:
The Peter Adair Rebellion tells the story of how a hidden community came to embrace a shared identity, and then drew on that identity to confront the devastation of AIDS. It reveals how Peter's films helped shape this history, and how his own personal struggles give that history an intimate human dimension. His personal transformation ultimately mirrors a transformation in the queer community.
WHY THIS STORY MATTERS NOW
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This new feature-length documentary will reveal how this community was created through struggle and then survived because people choose connection, responsibility, and solidarity. We are making this film to use this history to inspire viewers to consider their own role in the continuing struggle for queer freedom, as the rights Peter's generation fought to secure face renewed challenges.
The vision for the hour-long documentary is clear and the filmmakers are ready to film key interviews and shape the material into the full narrative.
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THE FILM IN PROGRESS