Event

Out in the Silence

A remarkable chain of events results from the newspaper announcement of filmmaker Joe Wilsons wedding to his partner, Dean Hamer. First, the news ignites a firestorm of controversy in Oil City, his rural Pennsylvania hometown. Then Joe receives an unsettling letter from the mother of C.J., a teenage boy being harassed and verbally attacked at school there. Joe decides to leave his home in Washington, D.C., in order to go back and try to defuse the heated situation for C.J. and other youth. In an uphill battle, he pursues common ground with dignity and a willingness to listen. Armed with a video camera and a desire to share the truth, C.J. returns to the high school that ousted him and lets the footage speak for itself in this captivating and award-winning documentary. OUT IN THE SILENCE forcefully illustrates the challenges of being an outsider in a conservative rural community and the change that is possible when courageous people break the silence and seek understanding.