Join us tomorrow, Wednesday April 28 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., at Bookmans Phoenix, for a free screening and discussion of "Out in the Silence," a documentary that is a campaign for fairness and equality in rural and small-town America. Following the story of a small town confronting a firestorm of controversy ignited by a same-sex wedding announcement in the local newspaper, this gripping documentary will challenge you to rethink your values and help close the gaps that divide our communities. Sponsored by the ACLU of Arizona, the evening will also feature a special guest musical performance by Namoli Brennet.

Out in the silence breaks the mold of the traditional documentary. It is not solely observational, not a memoir, and not a news piece. As filmmaker, as protagonist, as insider and outsider, Wilson uses the camera to empower, to challenge, to confront, and to look beneath the veneer of the fragile balance of order in his conservative hometown.

A unique element of the film is the inclusion of footage shot by CJ, the tormented gay teen, which provides a painful glimpse into his very private suffering as well as needed comic relief from the antics he and his friends devise to entertain themselves in a quiet little town. This verite footage is juxtaposed with images of beautiful pastoral scenes and abandoned factories, old family pictures and home movies, and the hauntingly raw music of transgender singer/songwriter Namoli Brennet to create a dynamic and compelling audio visual landscape of a small town as it struggles with its own identity.

A gray winter sky hangs over lonely city streets, rotted oil derricks, and abandoned factories. This is Oil City, Pennsylvania, a fading industrial town in the heart of the American rustbelt. It is the sort of town that Barack Obama had in mind when he made his infamous comments about bitter small town residents clinging to their guns and religion as they watch the rest of the world pass them by.

The peace and quiet is shattered when the filmmaker, Oil City native Joe Wilson, places the announcement of his wedding to another man in the local paper. The announcement catches the eye of Kathy Springer, a local woman whose teenage son, CJ, is being brutally tormented at school because he is gay. Ignored by the school authorities and with no where else to turn, she seeks help from Wilson and they begin a difficult but ultimately successful struggle to take on the school authorities who made every day “eight hours of pure hell” for CJ.

The announcement has a very different effect on Diane Gramley, head of the local chapter of the ultra-conservative American Family Association. Infuriated by the prospect of the “homosexual agenda” invading her little town, she issues an action alert calling on townspeople to denounce same sex marriage and all other forms of “perversion”.

Over the next four years Wilson navigates the ins and outs of being different in a conservative small town. He makes an unexpected friendship with an evangelical pastor that demonstrates the understanding that can develop when people on different sides of an issue lay down their swords and get to know one another. And he helps a lesbian couple renovate an historic downtown theatre that could catalyze the town’s economic revitalization – if the community will accept them.

The greatest change occurs in Wilson himself as he realizes that while maverick acts such as the publication of his wedding announcement can create a splash, creating lasting change in small towns takes the courage and ongoing commitment of local folks to speak out and live openly.