Don't Ask, Don't Tell - Chapter 1

Don't Ask, Don't Tell - Chapter 1 Synopsis

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Critical acclaim! "...the subject matter and the actor/write Marc Wolf are both magnetic in his film 'Don't Ask Don't Tell.' " -- Minneapolis Star Tribune

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With the official repeal of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy on September 20th, actor Marc Wolf, filmmaker John C. Walsh, and Creative Consultant Mary Harron bring Wolf’s acclaimed one-man Off Broadway show to the screen. The text from Wolf’s Obie Award-winning Off-Broadway show Another American: Asking and Telling was created verbatim from tape-recorded interviews conducted between 1996 and 1999. Like the play, this adaptation, aptly titled Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, uses Wolf's interviews with hundreds of soldiers and veterans, male and female, gay and straight and distills them into a compelling, and deeply humanist, exploration of this highly politicized issue.

Director John C. Walsh, who was drawn to the richness of the play, has remained faithful to its spareness, yet brought a new dimension to the work. Walsh notes: "I didn't want to get in the way of the characters with distracting flourishes. The play was a gem, so it was really about pursuing a restrained visual style." By choosing to film in an actual abandoned Armory, the filmmakers found a real life setting for the characters that is natural, cinematic and, crucially, has great resonance with the film's subject.

Marc Wolf adds “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has always been, and will always be, about Silence. In the late 1990s, I interviewed military personnel who were silenced by our federal government because of their sexual orientation, and my goal is to tell their stories to as many people as possible. With the imminent fall of the policy, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell becomes the story of the struggle to break the Silence.”