'Outrage''s points left out by 'liberal media': a talk with director Kirby Dick

Here is the full version of my Monday  May 24 Chicago Sun-Times and suntimes.com feature on and interview with Kirby Dick, director of the new documentary Outrage. 

MOVIES 

Media plays it safe on 'Outrage'

Filmmaker flummoxed by coverage of documentary about gay pols

BY ANDREW PATNER

Kirby Dick is mystified.

Dick is a documentary filmmaker with an interest in inconsistencies.

Filmmaker Kirby Dick. 
(AP)

His Derrida (2002), made with Amy Ziering Kofman, tried to make sense out of the life and teaching of French philosopher Jacques Derrida, the father of "deconstructionism."  His Twist of Faith"(2004), about a man confronting the Roman Catholic priest who had abused him as a boy, garnered an Oscar nomination for best documentary.

And three years ago, Dick took on the vagaries and biases of the movie industry's MPAA rating system in This Film Is Not Yet Rated, which initially received an NC-17 rating before he successfully appealed (on camera) to have the film released without a rating.

The films have given him a following on the independent circuit and among the National Public Radio-listening, alternative weekly-reading "indie" crowd.

Yet here's his new film, Outrage (a Magnolia Pictures release, now showing at the Music Box), on the double lives of (mostly) right-wing politicians who attack gays for work but seek sex with men for play, getting its reviews and coverage censored by NPR and at least one major alternative paper.  Earlier this month, NPR made deep cuts to its review of the film by its own online critic, Nathan Lee, refusing to post the subjects of Dick's well-documented film.  And when Lee protested with an online comment, the network deleted his comment as well.  

When Dick appeared on NPR's Fresh Air, host Terry Gross explained that she was not comfortable with talking about the senators and congressmen shown in Outrage because she had not vetted all of the research herself.  Gross then also gave “equal time” to former GOP operative Dan Gurley to talk about how he had been outed while running an anti-gay mailing campaign for the Republican Party.

And Chicago Reader reviewer J.R. Jones wrote at the start of his review that he "can't condone outing people for private, consensual behavior under any circumstance," skirted discussion of the the film's subjects, and questioned Dick's ethics.

"It doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?" Dick wondered over the phone.  "The New York Times [review here] and the Los Angeles Times [review here] didn't have problems writing about and discussing the film fairly, even when they had some criticisms of it.  Why can't they?  (The Chicago Sun-Times [my review here] also printed the names of those individuals whose behavior is clearly documented in the film.)

"They say that the issue here is outing, naming the names of people who are in the closet," Dick said.

"But that's not what the film is about.  It's about hypocrisy.  And the actions of some segments of the media certainly make you wonder what their general attitude toward hypocrisy is, given that NPR has run stories and essays on such 'pressing issues' as to what the sexuality of Adam Lambert or Queen Latifah might be, but they won't print the names of elected public officials who blatantly lead double lives and deny equality to other people."

In justifying its position, NPR said hat it has "a long-held policy of trying to respect the privacy of public figures and of not airing or publishing rumors, allegations and reports about their private lives unless there is a compelling reason to do so."

“That just so misses the point,” says Dick, who has outed himself -- as a heterosexual.  “These are people who choose to spend major parts of their careers campaigning and passing laws against millions of other Americans, but then, shielded by power, money, and, as this situation makes clear, the media, the so-called ‘liberal media,’ engage in sex with other men in bathrooms, with prostitutes, with younger staffers, with people who admire them.”

The New York Times critic A.O. Scott suggested in his positive review, "Secret Lives in the Age of Gay Rights," that the country may have already moved past Dick’s concerns as it becomes more accepting of gay people.  

“I think he’s got things a bit accelerated,” Dick responds.  “One of the goals here is to have the mainstream media examine its various policies and not see hypocrisy about politicians’ personal lives as a sort of ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card.

“I do agree that many things are changing.  I heard from a young Democrat who had thought he would not run for local office as he felt he could not do so if he came out and yet did not feel that he could run while keeping his being gay a secret.

“He saw the film and called to say that he is now going to run eventually, and he’ll do so as an out candidate.

“The film is about the psychology of powerful, closeted people.  And by showing it as we do, maybe we can change the general psychology out there about openness, equality, and honesty.”