Wind & Sky ProductionsOut of the Closets, Into the Streets
Info
Commissioned by: Culture Victoria
Funded by: Creative Victoria
Produced: 2016
Length: 12.22 minutes
Gay Pride Week 1973. Photograph by Frank Prain. Courtesy of the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives.
Barbara Creed. Photograph by Wind & Sky Productions.
Q&A session with key participants, historians and film-makers, Castlemaine, 2016. Photo by Luke Grimes.
Gay Pride Week Poster 1973. Courtesy of the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives.
The Story
In 1970s Melbourne a group of students made a stand for gay pride at a time when homosexuality was criminalised and discrimination and abuse was widespread. When being gay meant hiding your true self. Where the act of coming out was a radical form of protest.
Out of the Closets, Into the Streets explores the moment Melbourne’s gay and lesbian people found their voice through the Gay Liberation Movement. The story documents the moment gay and lesbian people took to the streets, coming out and proud and challenging the status quo.
Digital Exhibition
The project is a digital exhibition commissioned by Culture Victoria, an online platform that shares the stories held by collecting organisations across the state. The story was produced by Wind & Sky Productions in collaboration with the Australian Queer Archives (AQuA) and is based on the 2015 physical exhibition of the same name curated by the Archives (then known as the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives).
The project features a short documentary film produced by Wind & Sky Productions, an audio interview with Dennis Altman, the father of Gay Liberation in Australia, and a digital gallery curated by ALGA of manifestos, photographs, posters, flyers and newspaper articles from the time.
The Film
The story’s short documentary film features interviews with Melbourne Gay Liberation Front members, archival images from the Australian Queer Archives collection, and original Super 8 footage of 1970s Gay Lib and Women’s Lib activities filmed and edited by Barbara Creed.
Screenings and Events
Nominee, Short Documentary Category, Lonely Wolf London International Film Festival Winter Edition 2021, 16-26 December 2021.
Official Selection, Flickfair OnDemand Film Festival November 2021, 1-31 November 2021.
2020 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival Advanced COVID Safe Virtual Film Festival Screenings June 30-15 July 2020. In cinema screening 10:45am Sunday 23rd May 2021, Shorts Session 1, Cinema Nova, Carlton.
2020 Geelong Pride Film Festival Online from 23 October 2020 to 3 November 2020 as part of the ‘Celebrating Elders’ session.
2018 Revelation Perth International Film Festival screening with feature film ‘Queerama’, 10, 14 and 16 July 2018, Luna Cinema Leederville 155 Oxford Street, Leederville 6007.
2018 Setting Sun Film Festival. FINALIST Best Documentary. FINALIST Best Film Cultural Diversity.
2018 SPE Media Festival. Thursday 1 to Saturday 4 March 2018, Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
2018 Melbourne Women in Film Festival. Shorts Session 1 4pm Saturday 25 February at the RMIT Cinema, 113 Swanston Street Melbourne.
Film Screening & Panel Discussion – LGBTIQ History Month 2017, Yarra Libraries, Monday 9 October 2017, Fitzroy Town Hall Ballroom, 201 Napier St, Fitzroy VIC 3065.
2017 St Kilda Film Festival Australia’s Top 100 Short Films: Where: St Kilda Town Hall, Cnr Carlisle Street and Brighton Road, St Kilda. When: 6:15pm Monday 22 May 2017.
2017 Melbourne Queer Film Festival Special Free Public Screening and Panel Discussion: , 2:30pm Sunday 26 March 2017, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square, Melbourne.
Film Premiere: 2pm Saturday 8 October 2016, Theatre Royal, 30 Hargraves Street, Castlemaine, Castlemaine Local and International Film Festival.
Project Launch: 28 November 2016, 4:30pm, the Daylesford Hotel, Daylesford.
In the News
Annie McLoughlin, ‘Out of the Closets and The Last Extinction‘, Interview with Producer Kathie Mayer, Showreel, 3CR Community Radio, 6 May 2021.
Daniel White & the Outtakes Team, ‘2020 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival with special Guests Posy Dixon & Lucinda Horrocks’, Outtakes, Joy FM, 1 July 2020.
Nathan Senn, ‘Out of the Closets, Into the Streets: Celebrating the Spirited Rise of Melbourne’s Gay Liberation Movement’, Interview with Producer Lucinda Horrocks, Inner Circle Magazine, Issue 4, June 2017, http://innercirclemagazine.com.au/community/out-of-the-closets-into-the-streets-celebrating-the-spirited-rise-of-melbournes-gay-liberation-movement/
What’s On Melbourne blog, ‘Eight things you need to see at Melbourne Queer Film Festival’, 9 March 2017, http://blog.thatsmelbourne.com.au/melbourne_queer_film_festival_2017/
James McKenzie and Yvette Keen, Interview with Lucinda Horrocks and Jary Nemo, In Ya Face, 3CR Melbourne, 855 AM, 4:15pm Friday 10 March 2017
Lynden Nicholls, Interview with Lucinda Horrocks and Jary Nemo, The Arts Program, Voice FM Ballarat, 99.9 FM, 6pm Wednesday 8 March 2017
Lucinda Horrocks, ‘Out of the Closets: A Homosexual History of Melbourne’, Vida blog, Australian Women’s History Network, 14 December 2016, http://www.auswhn.org.au/blog/out-of-the-closets/
Amber Wilson, ‘Doco ode to gay rights’, The Courier, 1 October 2016, http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/4200995/doco-ode-to-gay-rights/
Larissa Romensky, ‘Documentary film explores history of gay liberation movement in Melbourne’, 15 September 2016, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-15/history-of-gay-liberation-movement-in-melbourne/7849516
Credits
- Creative Producers:
- Lucinda Horrocks, Kathie Mayer and Jary Nemo
- Production Company:
- Wind & Sky Productions
- Project Manager and Film Line Producer:
- Jary Nemo
- Digital Content Creative Director:
- Lucinda Horrocks
- Digital Gallery Curation Notes Written by:
- Nick Henderson with Lucinda Horrocks, drawing on the original research of Graham Willett
- Digital Content Assistance and Support:
- Dimity Mapstone
- Story Researchers:
- Lucinda Horrocks and Kathie Mayer
- Research Advisors:
- Nick Henderson and Graham Willett
- Film Written and Produced by:
- Lucinda Horrocks, Kathie Mayer and Jary Nemo
- Film Direction, Camera, Sound, Editing and Post Production:
- Jary Nemo
- Original Super 8 Footage Shot and Edited by:
- Barbara Creed
- Film Second Camera, Scouting and Location Host:
- Kathie Mayer
- Film Interviewer:
- Lucinda Horrocks
- Interview Subjects:
- Professor Dennis Altman, Professor Barbara Creed, Andrew Hansen, Peter McEwan, Jude Munro AO and Dr Graham Willett
- Still Photographs and Artwork Courtesy of:
- Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives, The Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive, Barbara Creed
- Original Creators of Archival Materials:
- Barbara Creed, Julian Desaily, Rennie Ellis, Kirsty McClaren, Peter McEwan, Frank Prain, Unknown Photographers, Unknown Artists
- Film Music by:
- Fire through the Sky, Musicalman, courtesy of PremiumBeat, Sax in the City, RimskyMusic, courtesy of PremiumBeat
- With thanks to:
- Professor Dennis Altman, Dr Marcus Bunyan, Professor Barbara Creed, Manuela Furci, Ponch Hawkes, Peter McEwan, Chris Sanders, Dr Graham Willett, Lotus Ye, the Mayer-Cobb Family, the Melbourne University Student Union, the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives, the Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive.
- Commissioned by:
- Culture Victoria.
- Funded by:
- Creative Victoria.
- In collaboration with:
- The Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives.
- Culture Victoria Commissioning Editors:
- Eleanor Whitworth, Tanya Wolkenberg and Dimity Mapstone
- Acknowledgement:
- Based on the original exhibition of the same name by the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives. Film production and development took place on the traditional lands of the Wadawurrung (Wathaurung), Boon wurrung and Woi wurrung peoples. We would like to acknowledge these traditional owners and pay our respects to their Elders, past and present.
- Copyright with:
- © Wind & Sky Productions 2016 (film and audio), archival contributors (digital gallery).
Out of the Closets: Story of Melbourne’s Gay Liberation now online
By: Lucinda Horrocks, updated 29 November 2016.
A new digital exhibition using archival images, audio and documentary film recounts Melbourne’s gay liberation.
In 1970s Melbourne a group of students made a stand for gay pride at a time when homosexuality was criminalised and discrimination and abuse was widespread. A new digital exhibition Out of the Closets, Into the Streets explores the moment gay and lesbian people found their voice through the Gay Liberation Movement.
Exhibition link: http://www.cv.vic.gov.au/stories/a-diverse-state/out-of-the-closets-into-the-streets/
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