“The closet only exists because it’s not being reported on. ”

~ Kirby Dick

By Robby Stillwagon  |  Send to Friend

Kirby Dick, the controversial director known for his investigative documentary style films such as This film is Not Yet Rated, sat down with 215mag.com to talk about the film industry and the political climate leading up to his newest film, Outrage. Born in Tucson, AZ and graduating from the California Institute of the Arts, the man has worked on a broad range of subjects ranging from personal accounts of teenage abuse by Catholic priests (Twist of Faith) to investigating the straight minded philosophy of the MPAA rating system.

On growing up in Tucson, Arizona and having aspirations of being a filmmaker: Growing up, I had no idea that I would go into the arts. I was actually quite good at math until high school. I remember looking at my fellow students and thinking, “Do I really want to spend the rest of my life in this situation?” I still enjoy math but eventually decided to go to a liberal arts school and working on photography and art. I then moved on to the California institute of the Arts and worked my way into the film community.

On his career and his shift to broader subjects: The shift happened around the filming of Twist of Faith. It was sort of crossover film in which it was very personal and focused on the psychological experience of the one subject. There was a sense of a real societal wrong with what the Catholic Church was doing. After that film, I realized that there was this opportunity to step into the public sphere and alert people to subjects that I didn’t have the expertise to work on earlier in my career. Although my films have recently been more political I strive to always find the psychological element.

On the documentary genre: Making a documentary is so enjoyable because it’s wide open. So many aspects, like the filmmaker/subject relationships, the constant issues on voyeurism, even the issues of truth being brought into question are so interesting. In today’s political climate, investigative reporting has left a whole field wide open for documentaries. There are a lot of stories lost due to this shift in journalism with a lot of reporting departments lacking the staffing to get to stories first. It’s unfortunately horrible for the country but it’s great for documentary makers. A lot of Bush's critics were angered that there wasn’t enough press critiquing him and that’s where filmmakers decided to step in. I personally feel that the medium of dramatic filmmaking is in decline. A lot of energy is being sucked into the Internet with websites like Vimeo and Youube. Documentaries, on the other hand, are very much alive in these venues along with a certain degree of dramatic filmmaking.

On filming in D.C.: Initially, I was surprised at how gay D.C. was. There are perhaps as many gay Republicans as there are Democrats. My producer, Amy Ziering, when contacting these politicians, found that many of them wanted this story told. They knew fairly intimately the type of personal damage to millions of Americans these politicians had caused by voting for anti-gay legislation simply to protect their own closet.

On the controversy of the film after being screened at the Tribeca Film Festival: I guess I’m not that surprised. I felt it was an under-discussed issue and if people disagree with aspects of the film, I’d rather have the discussion happening in the public community. The closet only exists because it’s not being reported on. Some of these young men with old republican families are groomed into a political career before they’re even elected and historically they have simply swept the gay issue under, thinking the press simply won’t cover it.

On the psychology behind closeted politicians: Sometimes, I think it’s just pragmatic. Some of these politicians accept themselves and have made the decision to have gay relationships while still voting for anti-homosexual legislation. They see this as the only way to have the sex life they desire and what they perceive as the only way to have a career. I feel a great deal of empathy for these politicians because they, in spite of their often-horrible voting record, are themselves victims of homophobia.

On Larry Craig: I don’t know for a fact that his wife is aware of this. I personally think she is but I don’t know for a fact. There are a lot of benefits for someone in her position to be the wife of a senator. This isn’t the first time a powerful man has had a pseudo wife to cover his own secrets and in fact has happened throughout modern history.

On the current political climate: The political climate in August of 2006 had the air that this anti-homosexual agenda was going to continue and the Republican party was going to continue to effectively use this. I felt that as a filmmaker I wanted to put a stop to that. I don’t view this as a particularly partisan film, it’s simply wrong for another party or administration to choose to advance its own political ends at the planned expense of a portion of its citizens. Proposition 8 will probably be upheld with the conventional thinking in California that it might still be there for almost twenty years. The truth is California might go down as one of the last states in the history books that allowed same sex marriage.

Read our Outrage review.