Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives (1977)
Documentary • 2h 12m
Directors: Rob Epstein & Nancy Adair & Peter Adair & Lucy Massie Phenix & Veronica Selver & Andrew Brown
Cast: Sally M. Gearhart, Pat Bond, John Burnside, Elsa Gidlow, Donald Hackett, Harry Hay, Pam Jackson, Rusty Millington, Trish Nugent, Mark Pinney, Rick Stokes, George Mendenhall, Nadine Armijo, Dennis Chiu, Nathaniel Dorsky, David Gillon, Tom Fitzpatrick, Bernice Fladen, Freddy Gray, Linda Marco, Tede Mathews, Michael Mintz, Achebe Betty Powell, Ann Samsell, Cynthia Gair, Rosa Montoya
About the film
More than two dozen men and women of various backgrounds, ages, and races talk to the camera about being gay or lesbian. Their stories are arranged in loose chronology: early years, fitting in (which for some meant marriage), coming out, establishing adult identities, and reflecting on how things have changed and how things should be.
- Featured Lists
- National Film Registry
Year of Induction: 2022
- Alternative Titles
- Word Is Out
Director: Richard Brooks
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Criterion 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
1991 Orion LaserDisc vs 2024 Arrow 4K Blu-ray
4K restoration from safety preservation elements
Director: Elaine May
Cinématographe 4K Blu-ray > MoC > Olive Films. From nicolas:
The master is good but it’s not that big an upgrade from the Olive Films disc and Vinegar Syndrome’ encode has some blocky highlights. A shame that they didn’t hire David Mackenzie here.
Cinématographe has unnecessary noise gating not present on the previous releases.
Director: Sidney Lumet
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
1.85:1: Kino Lorber 4K / Capelight 4K
1.66:1: Criterion 4K but low pass filtered
Comparison between the 4Ks, Criterion on the AR choice
Other discs have unnecessary filtering and sound worse, the difference isn't substantial but audible
Director: Dennis Hopper
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Flicker Alley 4K confirmed for 2027 https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24404584&postcount=1
MoC audio is better https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=225532&page=3
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the Universal release without the filtering.
DTS:X mix on Universal 4K Blu-ray most closely approximates original surround mix
Criterion DVD and Universal 4K Blu-ray has additional features not found on the Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
WB 4K
Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)
An undeniably significant improvement from the BD yet still severely flawed. See DFIC's review.
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Directors: Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman
Also available on Library of Congress Streaming
Directors: Winsor McCay & J. Stuart Blackton
Director: Winsor McCay
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