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An official selection of the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, OUTRAGE investigates the
hidden lives of some of the country's most powerful policymakers - from now-retired
Idaho Senator Larry Craig, to former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevy - and examines how these and other politicians have
inflicted damage on millions of Americans by opposing gay rights. Equally disturbing, the
film explores the mainstream media's complicity in keeping those secrets, despite the
growing efforts to "out" them by gay rights organizations and bloggers.
Through a combination of archival news footage and exclusive interviews with
politicians and members of the media, OUTRAGE probes the psychology of a double
lifestyle, the ethics of outing closeted politicians, and the double standards that the media
upholds in its coverage of the sex lives of gay public figures. As Barney Frank, perhaps
the best-known openly gay member of Congress explains, "There is a right to privacy, but
not a right to hypocrisy. It is very important that the people who make the law be subject
to the law."
The film also spotlights Michael Rogers, a gay activist and founder of blogACTIVE,
a Washington, D.C.-based website dedicated to outing closeted public figures. Rogers
feels it is necessary to expose the hypocrisy of those who may live one way in public and
another way in private, explaining that his work is not about outing people who are gay,
but rather about "reporting on individuals who are working against the community that
they then expect to protect them."
Kirby Dick is an award-winning documentary film director whose last release,
2006's "This Film Is Not Yet Rated," was a breakthrough investigation of the secretive
MPAA film-ratings system. His 2005 HBO film "Twist of Faith" received an Oscar®
nomination for Best Documentary Feature. Dick's other films include "Derrida," a portrait
of the French philosopher, and "Sick: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan,
Supermasochist," which won the Special Jury Prize at Sundance and the Grand Prize at
the LA Film Festival. Among his other HBO/Cinemax credits are 2003's "Showgirls: Glitz
& Angst," 2001's "Chain Camera" and 2004's "The End."
OUTRAGE was written and directed by Kirby Dick; producer, Amy Ziering;
executive producers, Tom Quinn, Jason Janego, Ted Sarandos, Chad H. Griffin, Kimball
Stroud, Bruce Brothers and Tectonic Theater Project; co-producer, Tanner King Barklow;
editors, Doug Blush and Matthew Clarke; music, Peter Golub. For HBO: senior producer,
Nancy Abraham; executive producer, Sheila Nevins.
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