"To tell a good story": GMU Visiting Filmmakers Series: Out in the Night at GMU

"To tell a good story": GMU Visiting Filmmakers Series: Out in the Night at GMU

On 29 October 2014, GMU’s Film & Media Studies and Film & Video Studies programs hosted a screening of the documentary Out in the Night, followed by a discussion with filmmaker blair dorosh-walther, film producer and FAVS Director Giovanna Chesler, and film subject Renata Hill. Nearly 200 people attended the event in the Johnson Cinema Center. 

The critically acclaimed and award-winning documentary follows the stories of four lesbian and gender-non-conforming African Americans who were assaulted in New York City's West Village in 2006. As the film recounts, a group of friends (seven altogether) were walking down the street after a night of going out to clubs. A man approached and verbally assaulted them, and then proceeded to assault them physically. Police arrived and, based on the man's account, arrested the women.

Three women took plea deals, but four of them -- Patreese Johnson, Renata Hill, Terrain Dandridge, and Venice Brown -- went on to trial, believing that their innocence would be proved in a court of law. Multiple elements worked against this possibility, including the fact that, even though the assault was caught by nearby security cameras, only select images were made available to jurors.

Another factor was the local press coverage. Filmmaker dorosh-walther remembered that she first learned of the case through sensational New York City newspaper and TV headlines. Out in the Night makes clear the effects of such tabloid media, including TV and newspaper coverage during the trial that labeled the women 'bloodthirsty," “a gang of killer lesbians,” and a “Wolfpack." The film considers the effects of such public hysteria, along with the related legal and penal effects, telling its multiple stories through interviews with the women who were convicted and their family members, defense lawyers, journalists who covered the case (and in one case, added quite consciously to the frenzy), and activists who protested the eventual guilty verdicts and sentences. Conducted over several years, the interviews provide layers of context.

Such layers help to make the film resonate for viewers from diverse backgrounds, as indicated by the range of audience members at GMU. These included local GLBTQ community members, as well as students and faculty from Criminology, Law, and Society, Communication, English, FAMS and FAVS. The discussion was moderated by GMU’s Women & Gender Studies associate director and program coordinator Latashia Harris, who introduced the film with a rousing description of its powerful focus on questions of social inequality, prejudice, and, at last, hope, emerging in the film's soundtrack music, which includes original compositions by Toshi Reagon.


Many audience members directed their questions to Hill, who pled not guilty and was sentenced to eight years in prison for a number of charges, including gang assault and attempted murder. Several questions focused on the case (which involved appeals following the convictions) and also the film's effects on her life. Asked whether, looking back on her experience, she might now make different choices if she had it to do over again, Hill replied, “I wasn’t willing to plead guilty at the time because I defended myself. I have no regrets." She also said that the most difficult parts of her journey included being away from her son, regaining custody of him after she was released, and, when her mother passed while she was incarcerated, not being able to attend her funeral. “I never had closure,” Hill said.

Asked what she hoped her film might achieve, dorosh-walther said her ideas changed over time. “Originally, it was to prove their innocence and it was going to be a movie about self-defense," she said. "Then it became an analysis of media and how they affected the trial.” She was moved as well by differences between mainstream media coverage and the discussions within the LGBTQ community, discussions that overlapped with her own longtime commitments to social justice and activism, the sort of work she'd done with her previous short films. The case raised questions about many types of prejudices and injustice. “If the women had been white, this never would have resulted in the same way," observed dorosh-walther. Asked whether there was "a place" for tabloid journalism, dorosh-walther had a blunt answer: “There is no point in it, it’s just paying people to say things.”

To counter that practice, Chesler explained, “I wanted the project to be a movie about the women who suffered, their individual families, and their struggles. We edited the film for three years," she said, "You’re basically learning how to tell the story as your editing, but I wanted to tell a good story and connect others with how the media portrayed these women.”

When Hill was asked how the film has shaped her life, she said the changes have been positive, that she's met many different people and appreciates their encouraging responses when she shares her experience. She also hopes that as Out in the Night is screening at festivals and on campuses across the country and around the world, it is making a difference for other people’s lives too. 

GMU VIsiting Filmmakers Series: Out in the Night and blair-dorosh-walther was sponsored by Film & Media Studies and Film & Video Studies, co-sponsored by African & African American Studies; Communication; Criminology, Law and Society; Cultural Studies; English; History and Art History: Honors College; LGBTQ Resource Office; Psychology; School of Art; TQ Mason; University Life; and Women & Gender Studies.

Photos: Mike Rose and Chris Franklin. 

For more information, see Out in the Night's website.