Greetings from Out Here
Encyclopedia
Greetings From Out Here is a 1993 road trip documentary film
which captures the people, places and politics of gay
America in the Deep South
.
It was the first Independent Television Service (ITVS) program to be broadcast nationally. It received an invitation to the Sundance Film Festival
and was acquired for international broadcasts by the BBC
, Channel Four, and the Canadian Broadcasting Company.
, Gay Pride
in Atlanta, the Gay rodeo, Dollywood
, Miss Miller's Eternal Love and Care Pet Cemetery, and the Short Mountain Radical Faerie sanctuary.
Interviews with gay men and lesbians throughout the film demonstrate the wide range of Southern lives, from Rita, a retired military officer, now a drag queen in New Orleans, to Iris, a black lesbian living in a bus in the Ozarks.
The subjects in Greetings From Out Here address the impact of AIDS
in the rural South, the politics of being gay in the South, and the relationship between the gay and civil rights movements.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
which captures the people, places and politics of gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
America in the Deep South
Deep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
.
It was the first Independent Television Service (ITVS) program to be broadcast nationally. It received an invitation to the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
and was acquired for international broadcasts by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, Channel Four, and the Canadian Broadcasting Company.
Synopsis
On her journey, filmmaker Ellen Spiro visits memorable landmarks, events and characters, including Mardi GrasMardi Gras
The terms "Mardi Gras" , "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday...
, Gay Pride
Gay pride
LGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...
in Atlanta, the Gay rodeo, Dollywood
Dollywood
Dollywood is a theme park owned by entertainer Dolly Parton and the Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation. It is located in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Dollywood has 3,000 people on its payroll, making it the largest employer in that community....
, Miss Miller's Eternal Love and Care Pet Cemetery, and the Short Mountain Radical Faerie sanctuary.
Interviews with gay men and lesbians throughout the film demonstrate the wide range of Southern lives, from Rita, a retired military officer, now a drag queen in New Orleans, to Iris, a black lesbian living in a bus in the Ozarks.
The subjects in Greetings From Out Here address the impact of AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
in the rural South, the politics of being gay in the South, and the relationship between the gay and civil rights movements.
Reviews
"A wise-cracking, determinedly anti-mythic video artist with a gift for finding community wherever she turns, Spiro defines the roadmovie on her own terms in an exhilarating new work. Her curious, wry, observant, and admirably uninvasive way of shooting conveys a vital feeling of identification with her subjects."
-Linda Dubler, Video Curator, High Museum of ArtHigh Museum of ArtThe High Museum of Art , located in Atlanta, is the leading art museum in the Southeastern United States and one of the most-visited art museums in the world. Located on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district, the High is a division of the Woodruff Arts Center.-History:The Museum was...
, Atlanta
"Lacing the work with irony, humor, and defiance, and a touch of pain and bitterness, [Spiro] ties together isolated people through their common identity and a strong sense of place that ranks this among the finest road documentaries and ethnographic films."- Rob Nixon, ETC. MAGAZINE
Awards
- Documentary Achievement Award, American Motion Picture Society (1995)
- Jury Award, New York Expo of Film and Video (1995)
- First Prize, Non-fiction, USA Film Festival (1994)
- Golden Gate Award, Best Television Documentary, San Francisco International Film Festival (1994)
- Best Documentary Award, Atlanta Film and Video Festival (1994)
- Paul Clere Humanitarian Award of Excellence, Sinking Creek Film Festival (1994)
- Central Florida Film and Video Festival 3rd Place (1994)
- Best of Festival Award, New England Film and Video Festival (1994)
- Grand Prize, Chicago International Gay Film and Video Festival (1994)