FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 6, 2007
OUTFEST LEGACY PROJECT ANNOUNCES UPCOMING FILM RESTORATION PROJECTS
Inaugural work, a restored version of PARTING GLANCES, premieres in Los Angeles and New York to sold-out crowds
[HIGH-RESOLUTION PHOTOS FROM BOTH THE LA AND NEW YORK EVENTS ARE AVAILABLE BY REQUEST]
Media contact:
Cathy Renna: 917.757.6123, cathy@rennacommunications.com
New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA— After successful premiere screenings of PARTING GLANCES (1986) in Los Angeles and New York, the Outfest Legacy Project, a collaboration between Outfest and the UCLA Film & Television Archive, today announced plans to restore two additional seminal films portraying lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and issues: QUEENS AT HEART (mid-1960’s) and CHOOSING CHILDREN (1984).
“There is an urgency to our work with these films, as the original materials are lost or have been destroyed,” said Stephen Gutwillig, Executive Director of Outfest. “Only a few prints of QUEENS AT HEART and CHOOSING CHILDREN exist. Our role is simple and important – we will create new elements and pristine prints from the little material that exists – ensuring that these significant independent films are saved from extinction,” said Gutwillig. “Our task - to raise funds for these two films - is an important one that we hope to complete by the close of 2008,” Gutwillig concluded.
“These groundbreaking restorations are a milestone for the Outfest Legacy Project,” said Robert Rosen, Dean, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. “We continue working on the monumental task of rescuing endangered LGBT works and making them available to audiences and scholars worldwide.”
“It may be hard to remember the time when it was nearly unheard of for lesbians to have children by choice,” said Debra Chasnoff and Kim Klausner, directors/producers, CHOOSING CHILDREN. “But before 1980, if you came out, you assumed that the possibility of becoming a parent was nearly non-existent. We made CHOOSING CHILDREN to challenge that prevailing societal assumption, and look what happened in the past 25 years!” continued Chasnoff and Klausner. “We are extremely honored that the Legacy Project has selected CHOOSING CHILDREN for restoration. The film lab where the negative was housed went out of business and the negative was destroyed. Without this support from Legacy, the film, and a crucial part of LGBT history, would be lost completely to future generations,” they concluded.
On Monday night, October 29, 2007, Outfest had the east coast premiere of the recently restored landmark film PARTING GLANCES to a sold-out audience at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City. In July, at Outfest’s 25th anniversary festival, the film received tremendous response when it premiered before a packed audience at the Directors Guild of America. Bill Sherwood’s only feature film, PARTING GLANCES portrays urban gay life in the 1980’s and was one of the first films to address the AIDS epidemic.
Work on the Legacy Project’s next feature film restoration—WORD IS OUT: STORIES OF SOME OF OUR LIVES (1977)—has already begun. WORD IS OUT was created by the Mariposa Film Group and is the first documentary feature by gays and lesbians about their own lives. The restored WORD IS OUT will have its world premiere in the summer of 2008.
The next films slated for restoration are:
QUEENS AT HEART (mid-1960’s)
The Southeastern Pictures Corporation originally released QUEENS AT HEART in 1967 with SHE-MAN (1967). The date of production is unknown. The film is a rare and surprisingly poignant glimpse into pre-Stonewall transsexual life, as four NYC pre-ops are interviewed for a six-month psychological project. The film includes rare footage of the pre-Stonewall club scene.
CHOOSING CHILDREN (1984)
CHOOSING CHILDREN, 1984, produced, directed and edited by Debra Chasnoff and Kim Klausner, features six sets of lesbian mothers speaking about life in lesbian households, about the decision to have children and about the various means by which their children were conceived. Chasnoff, an Academy-Award winning director (DEADLY DECEPTION) is Executive Director at GroundSpark, where she created numerous other renowned LGBT documentaries including THAT’S A FAMILY! and IT’S ELEMENTARY.
For clips from QUEENS AT HEART and CHOOSING CHILDREN, please see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-VjR6AcfYk&feature=PlayList&p=01F9AD25A82A241C&index=2
UCLA Film & Television Archive
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is internationally renowned for its pioneering efforts to rescue, preserve and showcase moving image media, and is dedicated to insuring that the collective visual memory of our time is explored and enjoyed for generations to come. A unique resource for media study, the Archive holds one of the largest collections of media materials in the United States—second only to the Library of the Congress in Washington, D.C.—and the largest of any university in the world.
For more information about the Outfest Legacy Project for LGBT Film Preservation, please visit:
http://www.outfest.org/legacy.html
YouTube
For more information about the UCLA Film & Television Archive, please visit:
http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/index.html
For more information about NewFest, New York City's premier LGBT film organization, please visit:
http://www.newfest.org
