Director: Alden Peters
Running Time: 70 mins
Certificate: NR
Release Date: October 4th 2016 (US)
It’s rare for me to get scared, even by a horror movie, but the documentary Coming Out made me nervous. That’s not because it’s deliberately trying to creep anyone out, but because many gay viewers will be taken back to the fear and trepidation of their own initial coming out process.
In the film, young filmmaker Alden Peters decides it’s time to come out as gay after being affected by the suicide of Tyler Clementi, a young man who killed himself after his roommate secretly filmed him having sex with a guy and then posted it online. Rather unusually, Alden decides to get out his camera and document the entire thing. That involves telling friends, parents and siblings, as well as the wider diaspora of those he knows, while filming everything as he goes. He then goes on to look at what happens next, coming to realise that telling others is only the first part of truly becoming comfortable with being a gay man. [Read more…]
Synopsis: ‘In his directorial debut, young NYC-based filmmaker Alden Peters documents his own coming-out experience, capturing everything on-camera as he plans and boldly captures his disclosures to friends, family, and society. Inspired by social media coming out videos by teens around the world, COMING OUT places viewers directly inside the raw, intimate moments when Alden reveals his true identity to his family and friends, ranging from the painfully awkward to the hilariously honest.