It’s Producer/Director Ryan Levey’s birthday today (NO, that’s not him in the photo above) and we thought we would celebrate by sharing the news about the movie he is trying to finish.
It’s called OUT IN THE RING and it looks at the lives of LGBTQ professional wrestlers past and present, and the history of LGBTQ representation in professional wrestling. Combining stories/interviews of veterans (Susan Green, Pat Patterson, Chris Colt, Scott McEwan, Sandy Parker), current LGBTQ+ talents (Sonny Kiss, Charlie Morgan, Kaitlin Diemond, Mike Parrow, Effy, Reiza Clarke, AC Mack, etc.), prolific historians and community allies (Greg Oliver, Wade Keller, Bertrand Hebert, Vandal Drummond, Lisa Marie Varon, Pat Laprade, SoCal Val, Zack Sabre Jr.) , the documentary aims to showcase the world of these amazing talents to wrestling fans and beyond.
For 4 years, Levey has traveled the US, Canada and the UK on my own interviewing subjects and working with a myriad of outstanding collaborators, hiring acclaimed filmmakers/DOP’s like Michael Galinsky, Ramsey Denison, Adam Sekuler, Justin McConnell, Tom Swindell, etc.
With the exception of a small round of crowdfunding in 2018 and a private equity donation of 10K, this project has been financed out of his personal pocket. A project like this is often looked at as frivolous by many, given the larger public opinion surrounding wrestling. But these amazing people have inspiring and heartbreaking stories; homophobia, transphobia, racism, sexism, mental illness, addiction and more have been among the hurdles, leading to triumphant overcoming to tragic demise.
Levey told Queerguru “The funds raised here will be used to complete the currently in progress editing. I am thrilled to have found the outstanding veteran editor Brad Webb, who has worked on a myriad of documentary projects, including for Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings supplementary doc content. Also on board are veteran documentary editor Doug Blush, who will be consulting on the project, veteran sound wizard George Flores and composer/filmmaker Scooter Mccrae have also been retained to make this an amazing film.”
Dollars are being raised using the crowdfunding platform “Gogetfunding”, and will be used to cover the editing completion plus sound mixing/editing, colour correction, scoring, publicity/marketing, legal expenses and insurance.
They will have amazing merchandise for the film to give as perks, along with signed photos, posters and exclusive/limited memorabilia donated by stars of the documentary and other amazing global talents.
So go to https://gogetfunding.com/lets-rumble-completion-funding-round-for-lgbtq-pro-wrestling-documentary-out-in-the-ring/n if you want to support ….. and at the same time wish Ryan a Happy Birthday
