Out of the Past

Name: Out of the Past
Genre: Documentary
Released: 1998-07-31
Duration: 1 h 37 min
Rating: 6.8
Cast: Stephen Spinella, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cherry Jones

19981998
RR
1h 37min

6.8/10

175

Documentary

In 1995, Kelli Peterson started a gay and straight club at her Salt Lake City high school. The story of her ensuing battle with school authorities in interspersed with looks back at the diar... Read allIn 1995, Kelli Peterson started a gay and straight club at her Salt Lake City high school. The story of her ensuing battle with school authorities in interspersed with looks back at the diary of Michael Wigglesworth, a 17th-century Puritan cleric, at the 30-year love affair of Sa... Read allIn 1995, Kelli Peterson started a gay and straight club at her Salt Lake City high school. The story of her ensuing battle with school authorities in interspersed with looks back at the diary of Michael Wigglesworth, a 17th-century Puritan cleric, at the 30-year love affair of Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Adams Fields, at Henry Gerber's attempt after World War I to est... Read all

6.8/10

175

Director
- Jeff Dupre
Writer
- Michelle Ferrari
Stars
- Stephen Spinella(voice)
- Gwyneth Paltrow(voice)
- Cherry Jones(voice)

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Awards
- 3 wins & 1 nomination

8.0

6.8

5.5

7.1

In 1995, Kelli Peterson started a gay and straight club at her Salt Lake City high school. The story of her ensuing battle with school authorities in interspersed with looks back at the diary of Michael Wigglesworth, a 17th-century Puritan cleric, at the 30-year love affair of Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Adams Fields, at Henry Gerber's attempt after World War I to establish a gay-rights organization, at Bayard Rustin's role in the civil rights movement, and at Barbara Gittings' taking on of the American Psychiatric Association's position that homosexuality is illness. One person comments, "To create a place for ourselves in the present, we have to find ourselves in the past." —<jhailey@hotmail.com>

civil rights movement civil rights gay gay rights puritan 20 more

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Features MTV News (1989)

Top review

10/10

Gwyneth Paltrow's best film

A top-notch documentary which beautifully weaves the story of Kelli Peterson, who tried to start a gay-straight alliance at a Salt Lake City high school, with tales of real gay heroes of the past.

The wonderful Barbara Giddings is featured in a tremendously moving moment in which Kelli and Barbara meet, and it is clear that if only Kelli - and other students like her - had simply been told the facts about gay people in school she would never have wanted to commit suicide. This film is an excellent testament and memorial to those who died having lived miserable lives totally in the closet.

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