Ithaca College

The ninth annual "Out of the Closet and Onto the Screen" film series will begin on Wednesday, August 31, with a showing of Out for the Long Run. The film follows several openly gay and lesbian high school athletes through their senior year in high school and beyond.  Filmed over an entire senior year, the student athletes navigate the uncertain waters of high school life while still holding true to their passion for sports and remaining true to who they are as individuals.  The screening will begin at 7:00 p.m. in Textor 103.

Sponsored by the Ithaca College Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Education, Outreach, and Services, the film series this year will explore the theme "LGBT People and Sport."  The series will present a total of four films during the fall semester. Additional screenings will take place during the spring. All are free and open to the public. All showings begin at 7:00 p.m. and will be held in Textor 103.

The additional fall offerings are:

Wednesday October 5 Training Rules
Rene Portland had three training rules during her 26 years coaching basketball at Pennsylvania State University - no drinking, no drugs and no lesbians. Training Rules, examines how an athletic department and a complacent university allowed talented athletes, thought to be gay, to be dismissed from their college team. The film follows the lawsuit filed in 2006 against Portland and Penn State by student athlete Jennifer Harris and examines how women's collegiate sports, caught in a web of homophobic practices, collude in the destruction of the lives and dreams of many of its most talented athletes.

Wednesday November 2 Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story
A look back at a moment in American sports history, March, 1962, when Emile Griffith fought Benny "Kid" Paret for the world welterweight title boxing championship. At the weigh-in, Paret taunted Griffith with an anti-gay epithet. Later, Griffith pummeled Paret into a fatal coma as a nationwide TV audience watched. Griffith speaks of that night, of the night three decades later when he was almost killed on a New York City street after leaving a gay bar, and later of meeting Paret's son, who was a toddler when his father died.

Thursday December 1 Rock the Boat
Screening in observance of World AIDS Day
In an epic adventure on the high seas, a crew of HIV+ sailors enter the Trans-Pacific Yacht Race from California to Hawaii, one of the most hazardous and fastest boat races in the world. They reveal how the disease affected their lives and loved ones, and how their determination fuels their drive to finish this race despite the growing strife on board and the unyielding, ferocious weather.

Support for this series provided by the Jack Dembow Charitable Foundation

For more information on the series, contact Lis Maurer, LGBT Center program director (607-274-7394, lmaurer@ithaca.edu), or visit the LGBT Center website.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Lis Maurer at lmaurer@ithaca.edu or 607-274-7394. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.