A FEATURE DOCUMENTARY FILM IN PROGRESS
The Peter Adair Rebellion
This is the story of a filmmaker who helps shape history by helping people who live in isolation see themselves as a community. He then confronts what matters most when both the community and his own life are threatened. His personal transformation ultimately mirrors a transformation in the queer community.
Watch the sample reel below, drawn from existing archival material:
Queer equality faces its most serious threat in a generation. The response has not been equal to that threat. The problem for many is not a lack of awareness, but the difficulty of moving beyond fear, distraction, and individual concerns to become part of something larger.
WHY THIS FILM NOW
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The Peter Adair Rebellion tells the story of how that kind of engagement once transformed the lives of queer people. Through Peter's filmmaking, we see isolated people recognize themselves in one another, discover a shared identity, and build a community that would become a lifeline when AIDS struck. For younger generations especially, this history is a reminder that the freedoms they may take for granted were created by people who chose to engage with one another.
But the film also reveals how difficult engagement can be for an individual. Peter was a powerful and deeply sympathetic artist who wanted to change the world while retaining tight control over his own life. His filmmaking gave him a way to remain an observer even as he helped other people connect. When his own life was threatened, he could no longer remain at a distance.
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Peter’s transformation gives the history an intimate human dimension. By bringing Peter's personal struggle together with the history of the community he helped shape, the film allows viewers to see what becomes possible when people overcome the barriers that keep them apart and move toward deeper engagement with one another.
The people who created the freedoms we have today chose to engage with one another. The Peter Adair Rebellion brings that history to a new generation and invites viewers to consider what might become possible when we do the same.
The Peter Adair Rebellion is a production of Hidden Story Media, a sole proprietorship of Haney Armstrong. Fiscal sponsorship is provided by Reflective Image, a nonprofit organization led by Academy Award-winning filmmakers Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein.
The film will be an hour-long to maximize the opportunities for PBS broadcasts.
THE FILM IN PROGRESS
The vision for the feature documentary is clear and the filmmakers are ready to film key interviews and shape the material into the full narrative.
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