Subject: RARE GAY FILM FROM BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN NEW ON VIDEO
From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 07:30:44 -0500

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  July 31, 2000

CONTACT:   Keith Stone  
           ICESTORM International, Inc., 
           Northampton, MA 01060
           (413) 587-9334 or [email-masked]

RARE GAY FILM FROM BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN NEW ON VIDEO

Northampton, Mass. - Coming Out, the first and only feature film 
produced in East Germany to deal openly with the subject of 
homosexuality, is now available on video for the first time to 
American audiences. It premiered on November 9, 1989, the exact 
evening of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the following year 
it was awarded the prestigious Silver Bear Prize at the Berlin 
International Film Festival. The new release, due out in video 
rental stores in early September, is a remastered version of 
the original film with brand-new subtitles.

Never Shown in U.S. Theaters
Directed by the late Heiner Carow, Coming Out stars Matthias 
Freihof, Dagmar Manzel and Dirk Kummer. The fact that this film, 
a moving story of a young high school teacher coming to terms with 
his sexuality, was made and released in a suppressive political 
atmosphere is remarkable and was, at the time, groundbreaking. 
Since its premiere, the film has toured virtually all over the 
world, including such disparate locales as Cairo, Copenhagen, 
St. Petersburg, Dublin and Los Angeles (at the Museum of Tolerance), 
yet has never had an official North American theatrical release. 

As an added bonus, the new video release will include a 12-minute 
featurette highlighting the best of East German cinema. In Spring 
2001, the DVD version of the film is scheduled for release and will 
include, among other unique features, French, Spanish and English 
subtitle options.

Hollywood Behind the Wall
ICESTORM International, the leading distributor of films produced 
by DEFA, the state-run studios of the former East Germany, is 
releasing Coming Out. ICESTORM currently holds the world rights 
in all home entertainment media for the entire DEFA collection. 
This "unknown" archive of more than 10,000 films produced between 
1946 and the 1990s includes an eclectic array of genres produced 
behind the Wall and beyond. Included are classic feature films, 
amazing productions of fairy tales by the Brothers
Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, "banned films," documentaries 
and even a series of Westerns made from the Native American 
perspective. ICESTORM works in close association with the DEFA 
Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

"What is truly great about Coming Out," says Gerhard Sieber, 
President of ICESTORM, "is that it is, first and foremost, a 
human story. Any person who has felt the conflicting pangs of 
desire and love can relate to this very honest film."

Attention Press:  Electronic images are available at icestorm-
video.com under "Press Information" or go directly to:
 http://www.icestorm-video.com/com_out_images.cfm. 
Screeners are available upon request.

###
------------------------------------------------------------
Distributed as a public service by GLINN's News Distribution
Service at www.gaydata.com, a division of GLINN.COM, the 
Gay/Lesbian International News Network.