At the Coolidge Corner Theatre, October 19th

Ten intergenerational community collaborators from Boston and Brookline*(see below) are joining forces to sponsor an exclusive screening of the documentary Reel in the Closet with filmmaker Stu Maddux at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. Tickets are available at www.coolidge.org This special evening also includes a pre-screening reception with Stu Maddux from 5-6 pm at the Brookline Senior Center, 93 Winchester Street. Please RSVP to 617-730-2770 to attend. Space is limited.

This unique film chronicles 80 years of LGBT history through home movies and rare archival footage. It also offers dialogue between young adults and the older adults around the events and climate of times that shaped their experience and history. The footage, recorded on celluloid film that cannot be preserved for more than a few years, inspired Maddux to chronicle history recorded by everyday people as they lived it and as it's never been viewed before - before it's lost. Together, they all make up the "home movie of an entire people", states Maddux.

Maddux reports that through the film-making process, he discovered that "watching these people documenting their lives made me rethink what it was like to be LGBT before Stonewall. For many people, it was much happier and open than we have been led to believe."
Depicted throughout the film, are young LGBT adults of today interviewing their elder counterparts to learn about and preserve their legacy. "Younger people have been deeply moved by the film", reports Maddux. "We are thrilled that the Brookline screening will be an intergenerational event."

Stu Maddux is an award-winning film-maker, best known for his ground-breaking film, Gen-Silent, that chronicles the challenges that the current generation of LGBT seniors faces as they age and need more care. Filmed in Boston, Gen Silent, today, sets the standard for LGBT sensitivity in eldercare and is screened throughout the United States. A young staffer at the Massachusetts Statehouse let us know that she had seen Gen Silent as part of her human resource training there this summer, noting that the film "made me more aware of the needs of LGBT seniors in ways I can apply directly to my work with constituents." She added, "It may be the most inspiring documentary I've ever seen."

Sponsored by: Goddard House Assisted Living, BrooklineCAN, ETHOS, Brookline Council on Aging, Brookline High School Gender Sexuality Alliance, Center Communities of Brookline/Hebrew Senior Life, Good Shepherd Community Care, Keshet, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Brookline Commission for Diversity Inclusion & Community Relations