APPENDIX B Script
OPENING SEQUENCE
FADE UP MUSIC (“Aire” by Dennis Milone.) NARRATOR (VOICE-OVER): Do you know what this creature is?
(Sound of a Bear growling.)
NARRATOR (VOICE OVER): Here is a clue. FADE IN to a night sky, moving
from left to right across the screen. FADE IN composite shot of
crowds scenes and nebulas.
NARRATOR (VOICE OVER): This theologian, William Gronbech wrote: The universe is crossed by millions and millions of threads, each one spun by an isolated individual.
Composite shot FADES OUT. Slowly, the stars in the
constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor form in the left-hand corner. The constellations slowly zoom to full screen.
NARRATOR (VOICE OVER): According to primitive experience, the facts arrange themselves into a different pattern. “HE” is of the same soul and every new
FADE IN graphic of a Bear, with the constellation in its belly.
NARRATOR (VOICE OVER): …whether it be no other than that we saw yesterday or the most distant of all among the kin, as we reckon-
FADE OUT the constellation. NARRATOR (VOICE OVER, WITH
EMPHASIS) ...is a new creation from the soul.
MONTAGE of the Bear graphic with picture of a Native American with a Bear claw necklace and a Northern Pacific totem pole. Background of a night sky with a moon traveling in an arch to the right corner.
FADES UP “The Bear Dance Chant.”
NARRATOR (VOICE OVER): His very existence is explained in myths and legends. To some Native Americans tribes he was akin to a god and the father of all men.
FADE OUT the night sky and the Native American images. FADE IN to a background shot of a fire behind the Bear graphic and an Ainu man in the foreground.
FADES OUT “The Bear Dance Chant.”
NARRATOR (VOICE-OVER) To the Ainu, he was the bringer of fire.
CROSS DISSOLVE to a graphic of the god Odin riding an eight- legged horse. Fire continues in the background.
NARRATOR (VOICE-OVER): The Norse would wear his skin into battle, hoping to evoke his power to be victorious
FADE OUT the fire and the Norse image.
FADE IN image of the Edward Curtis photograph, “In the Bear’s Belly.” Fade up in transfer mode, another photograph from that series of two men in Bearskins dancing.
FADE UP “The Bear Dance.”
NARRATOR (VOICE-OVER): He was revered for his ability to be reborn each spring. In some Native American tribes, in initiations rites into manhood, the young men wore his skin and were "slain,’ thus having a rebirth as adults.
FADE IN a series of images of ancient people using Bears or Bear products.
FADES OUT “The Bear Dance Chant.”
NARRATOR (VOICE-OVER): He was food. He was magic. He was medicine.
Behind the Bear graphic,
background changes to one of the Bear Flag. Over the Bear claw in the left side is a “slide show” of gay Bear men.
NARRATOR (VOICE-OVER): At the end of the twentieth century, gay men again, evoked his tenacity, blended his many attributes of nurturing and
tenderness.
FADE OUT the graphic of the Bear, the flag and the “slide show.”
DISSOLVE TO MEDIUM SHOT OF LES
LES WRIGHT (Tape 1, 0:29:52): ...about gay men embracing their masculinities yet embracing those aspects of themselves that are traditionally devalued as feminine. Being nurturing, being tender, like being protective of your brood, or you know, and on and on like that.
DISSOLVE in image of a Bear, manipulated as an animation
NARRATOR (VOICE-OVER): If you guess the Bear, you guessed right. And this is the story of those gay men who have forged community in his honor.
OPENING CREDITS IN a composited montage.
FADE OUT MUSIC (“Aire” by Dennis Milone.) FADE UP MUSIC (“Bears” by Mark Weigle)
Section Title with “What is a Bear?” printed. From the right corner walks Bear animation, eventually blacking out the image when he walks into it.
NARRATOR: Hello folks! This is Barth Cox. I am going to take you on a journey of what we call Beardom. We’re going to take a look at the facts and issues that affect the Bear community. Scritchin’ your head cause you don’t know “Sam-Hell” what a Bear is? Tell us Bill, what makes a man a Bear?
FADE UP MUSIC (“Everything’s Gone Muscoviet” by :Embryofile)
A montage created in After Effects of different Bears. A Bear in the foreground, still and matted with other images of Bears edited together as a background image.
BILL HARGREAVES (VOICE OVER)(Tape 1, 0:01:36): …a bit more of a physical image. A Bear is big. A Bear is cuddly. A Bear is furry. A Bear has facial hair. A Bear is-someone that is…
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Hargreaves
BILL HARGREAVES (Tape 1, 0:22:08) … easy to socialize with. Easy to talk to.
MEDIUM SHOT of Les Wright LES WRIGHT (Tape 2, 0:21:09): Historically there have been two camps.
Montage of nine different Bears images.
LES WRIGHT (VOICE OVER) (Tape 2, 0:21:09):One that says Bear is a state of mind, which is to say, and attitude, i.e. lack of attitude. The other camp says that Bear is a physical type, specific male secondary sexual characteristics, you know. So one is mental, the other is physical. So, mind or appearance.
MICHAEL TOMASZEK (VOICE OVER) (Tape 1, 0:01:56): I guess more along the lines of it's not that plastic surgery looking…
DISSOLVE TO MEDIUM SHOT
of Michael Tomaszek. MICHAEL TOMASZEK (Tape 1, 0:01:56): … heroin chic, skinny, I starved myself, go to the gym six hours a day just average human being.
DISSOLVE TO MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Adams.
BILL ADAMS (Tape 1, 0:27:52): So, I am identified by others as a Bear but I secretly say that I am a wolf hiding in a Bear's body.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Leinenger
BILL LEINENGER (Tape 1, 0:00:48): I'm just kind of carefree and, I don't know, my attitude is just-I love hugging everybody and that's kind of what I've known the Bears to be
MONTAGE of four Bear images. NARRATOR: Still scritching your head? Don’t make much sense, does it? It’s really very simple. All kinds of things can make you identify with being a Bear.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill
Leinenger. BILL LEINENGER (Tape 1, 0:01:29): I just really think it's in here, you know..
MEDIUM SHOT of Les Wright LES WRIGHT (Tape2, 0:24:19): It’s the self-defining process. If you say you're a Bear, you're a Bear.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Leinenger.
BILL LEINENGER (Tape 1, 0:01:29): If you want to be a Bear, you can be a Bear, you know.
MEDIUM SHOT of Les Wright LES WRIGHT (Tape2, 0:24:19): If you're a seven- legged rabbit from the moon and you say you're a Bear, you're a Bear.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill
Leinenger. BILL LEINENGER (Tape 1, 0:01:29):We're not going to-at least in my opinion, I'm not going to ostracize somebody if they think they are a Bear and I don't.
MONTAGE OF seven Bear images.
LES WRIGHT (VOICE OVER) (Tape2, 0:24:19): But that for me gets into the whole idea of self-
determination and people empowering themselves and Bearness being about self-empowerment and self- esteem and accepting who you are and defining who you-taking the power to define who you are and so on and so forth.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Hargreaves.
BILL HARGREAVES (Tape 1, 0:01:36): I'm not blessed with a hairy chest, so therefore I didn't really …
MONTAGE OF four Bear images. BILL HARGREAVES (VOICE OVER) (Tape 1, 0:01:36): …look at myself as being a Bear. (Tape 1, 0:20:11) It's okay. I'm not big, I am-Actually-I consider myself quite thin, but that's okay.
NARRATOR: Being a Bear is so broad based that most anybody can find a trait or two that applies.
MEDIUM SHOT of Les Wright LES WRIGHT (Tape 2, 0:21:09): And my personal definition is a Bear is…
MONTAGE of four Bears images. LES WRIGHT (VOICE OVER) (Tape 2, 0:21:09): …a gay man who is as comfortable being a man as he is being gay
MEDIUM SHOT of Les Wright. LES WRIGHT (Tape 2, 0:21:09): …and has a warm heart.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Leinenger.
BILL LEINENGER (Tape 1, 0:02:10): I think there are just… so many different definitions and we all agree on all of them, I think.
MONTAGE of five Bears images BILL LEINENGER (VOICE OVER) (Tape 1, 0:02:10): There's no formula that makes someone a Bear. There can be a whole bunch of different characteristics
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill
Hargreaves. BILL HARGREAVES (Tape 1, 0:04:46): With being a Bear, it's just being comfortable and being yourself . It doesn’t matter if you’re dressed up all messy.
MONTAGE OF two Bear images. BILL HARGREAVES (VOICE OVER) (Tape 1, 0:04:46): As long as you are warm person. That's all that matters
MEDIUM SHOT of Les Wright. LES WRIGHT (Tape 2, 0:21:09): And a lot of people disagree with that vehemently.
Montage of two Bear images. LES WRIGHT (VOICE OVER) (Tape 2, 0:21:09): But I think that's good, that's not resolved and I hope it remains unresolved cause I think that's where a lot of the life and energy comes from.
MEDIUM SHOT of Les Wright LES WRIGHT (Tape 2, 0:21:09): … one of the things that I often suspect is, when people are out all of these definitions it's either they mean people who look like themselves or they mean people who are look like their sexual ideal, you know.
MEDIUM SHOT of Michael
Tomaszek. MICHAEL TOMASZEK (Tape 1, 0:18:29): The term Bear is just so, a big umbrella thing.
MONTAGE of three Bear images. NARRATOR: I guess you’re asking: How big is that umbrella? How inclusive has the Bear community become?
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill
Leinenger. FADE OUT MUSIC(“Everything’s Gone Muscoviet” by :Embryofile) FADE UP MUSIC (“Topanga” by Van Dyke
Explosion)
BILL LEINENGER (Tape 1, 0:01:29): I guess, even a twinkie can be a Bear.
MONTAGE of multiple twinkie images from print media.
BILL LEINENGER (VOICE OVER) (Tape 1,
0:01:29): But I think we all know what a twinkie kind of is.
NARRATOR: (VOICE OVER): The Twinkie. The name that Bears give to the men who comprise the predominate image in the gay mass media. The perpetual boy, who is usually hairless, usually Beardless, and usually thin, to the point of being too thin. Sometimes he is gym toned.
MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT of Les Wright supered over the montage.
LES WRIGHT (Tape 1, 0:09:41): If you like, your sexual taste or the way you look yourself doesn't conform to this kind of mass media consumer image of what a proper, you know, socially upwardly mobile homosexual man is supposed to look like and desire. And I think there comes that kind of then a lot of people feel rejected or themselves turn away.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill
Hargreaves. BILL HARGREAVES (Tape 1, 0:27:28): I think to be accepted in normal gay community. You have to keep up with the fashions and go to the right places. And do the right things.
MONTAGE of Larger Bears NARRATOR: If you believe what you see in the mass media, then every gay person is young, attractive and skinny. The Bear community has given a place to gay men who don’t fit that narrow mold.
MICHAEL TOMASZEK (VOICE OVER) (Tape 1, 0:03:42): I was never thin, I was never going to be thin. It's not in the genetics. It's not in my family anywhere.
MEDIUM SHOT of Michael
Tomaszek MICHAEL TOMASZEK (Tape 1, 0:03:42): That dreaded word in high school or even earlier elementary school, The Husky Pants. I hated that.
Montage of Larger Bears MICHAEL TOMASZEK (VOICE OVER) (Tape 1, 0:03:42): … The Husky Pants. I hated that.
BILL ADAMS (VOICE OVER) (Tape 1, 0:54:09): I think that there's a lot of unhealthiness …
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Adams BILL ADAMS (Tape 1, 0:54:09): … where people are justifying their weight by, "Oh, I am a Bear."
MEDIUM SHOT of Michael
Tomaszek. MICHAEL TOMASZEK (Tape 1, 0:18:29): Maybe like the groups in Phoenix, thought it was a little more polite than Girth and Mirth.
Montage of Larger Bears and Older Bears
MICHAEL TOMASZEK (VOICE OVER) (Tape 1, 0:18:29): … It's a little bit more inclusive and a lot kinder than some of those.
NARRATOR: And the older guy. Shunned by the mainstream gay community.
BILL HARGREAVES (VOICE OVER) (Tape 1, 0:23:09): And, you know, I thing in the normal gay world if you're-
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Hargreaves
BILL HARGREAVES (Tape 1, 0:23:09): once you become older it's very lonely. Very sad.
Montage of Older Bears BILL HARGREAVES (VOICE OVER) (Tape 1, 0:23:09): …Like no one wants an old queen I think that's very frightening for a lot of people. But I think in the Bear world, old is sexy.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill
Hargreaves BILL HARGREAVES (Tape 1, 0:23:09): …Well, I know as I get older I'll always going to find someone that I like and -yeah,
Montage of Older Bear images BILL HARGREAVES (VOICE OVER) (Tape 1, 0:23:09): …and be cuddly with. I don't have any-I'm not worried about getting older, but a lot of my friends, they think about that and it does scare them to be old and alone. And to be an old queen.
Section title of Bear walking
through a door made of the title. NARRATOR (VOICE OVER); It’s these unreasonable fears of loneliness that permeate the whole gay experience. Even in coming out, Bears have to face the insecurities of a larger gay community.
FADE OUT MUSIC(“Topanga” by Van Dyke Explosion)
After effects montage with changing foreground and background images.
FADE UP MUSIC (“Narcissus” by Martin Stähl) NARRATOR: In simple terms, coming out is the process by which gay people assimilate a positive identity and become part of the larger community…
After effects composite of layers in the colors of the Bear flag and still images.
NARRATOR: …And Bears, like all gay people, have to come to terms with their same sex attraction.
Still images of Bill Hargreaves and Les Wright separate from the rest of the images. Other images fade out. Bill Hargreaves’ image them converts to video image.
BILL HARGREAVES (Tape 1, 0:16:58): But if I really look in it, I've always been attracted to men, from quite and early age.
Bill Hargreaves’ images reverts to a still. Les Wrights’ image reverts to a video image and occupies the greater space on the screen. Still image of Bill Leinenger fades in behind Bill Hargreaves’ image.
LES WRIGHT (Tape 1, 0:09:41): When I can
remember my earliest memory of being like four years old and seeing my ten year old cousins, three of them walking across the backyard, and I just-I now
Bill Leinenger’s image increased to the greater area of the screen. Les Wright’s image fades out. Layers behind composited image re arrange order and size.
BILL LEINENGER (Tape 1, 0:06:55): I think it might have been kindergarten. And I remember telling her one morning I had a dream that I married Robin from Batman and Robin.
Six background layers morphe to puzzle pieces. In a clockwise motion from the left corner, six short high contrast black and white video clips run consecutively, then freeze on the last frame.
NARRATOR: Like most gay people, they go through a number of steps before coming out. They have to face the adversity of being gay place upon them by society, and they usually go through a stage of denying their true selves.
DISSOLVE TO MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Adams.
BILL ADAMS (Tape 1, 0:23:43): I always had an awkwardness, particularly with guys my age.
MEDIUM SHOT of Michael
Tomaszek MICHAEL TOMASZEK (Tape 1, 0:09:16): I buried myself in my work…
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Adams BILL ADAMS (Tape 1, 0:23:43): Got along with adults better than I did with people my age.
MEDIUM SHOT of Michael Tomaszek
MICHAEL TOMASZEK (Tape 1, 0:09:16 From high school-Well in high school, I was going to
conservatory …
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Adams BILL ADAMS (Tape 1, 0:23:43): Excelled at the more feminine things, music …
MEDIUM SHOT of Michael
Tomaszek MICHAEL TOMASZEK (Tape 1, 0:09:16):…opposed to teaching music, I was going to be
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Adams BILL ADAMS (Tape 1, 0:23:43): …mathematics…
MEDIUM SHOT of Michael Tomaszek
MICHAEL TOMASZEK (Tape 1, 0:09:16): …the, you know orchestral player. So, that was easy to fill up my time
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Adams BILL ADAMS (Tape 1, 0:23:43): I just wasn't in the band, I was in the orchestra, you know.
MEDIUM SHOT of Michael
Tomaszek MICHAEL TOMASZEK (Tape 1, 0:09:16): … distract myself from everything else.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Hargreaves
BILL HARGREAVES (Tape 1, 0:32:25): I think that in the beginning, it was…
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Adams BILL ADAMS (Tape 1, 0:23:43): I never was in the athletic group.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Hargreaves
BILL HARGREAVES (Tape 1, 0:32:25): … I don't want to be what we used to call a "poofster” …
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Adams BILL ADAMS (Tape 1, 0:23:43): I always kind of stood out in the class
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Hargreaves
BILL HARGREAVES (Tape 1, 0:32:25): So I have to- I just have to be tough and act tough.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Adams BILL ADAMS (Tape 1, 0:23:43): Second to last picked for teams, for sporting.
MEDIUM SHOT of Michael Tomaszek
MICHAEL TOMASZEK (Tape 1, 0:08:08): I had a much stronger attraction for my phys. ed. teacher I think at that point than I did for any girl I knew.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Adams BILL ADAMS (Tape 1, 0:34:39): I didn't know I was supposed to be attracted to women. I didn't even have a clue.
MEDIUM SHOT of Michael Tomaszek
MICHAEL TOMASZEK (Tape 1, 0:08:08): "Okay," if that's what I'm supposed to be doing.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Leinenger
BILL LEINENGER (Tape 1, 0:09:18): I had a series of girlfriends. Not a whole lot.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Adams BILL ADAMS (Tape 1, 0:34:39): I knew that people dated but it wasn't me dating, you know.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill
Leinenger BILL LEINENGER (Tape 1, 0:09:18): But, you know, I had a few.
MEDIUM SHOT of Michael Tomaszek
MICHAEL TOMASZEK (Tape 1, 0:08:08): Not my thing. You know, you do it because people want you to.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Leinenger
BILL LEINENGER (Tape 1, 0:09:18): And I eventually became engaged and married.
MEDIUM SHOT of Michael
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Leinenger
BILL LEINENGER (Tape 1, 0:09:18): And, that's just how I chose to hide it.
MEDIUM SHOT of Michael Tomaszek
MICHAEL TOMASZEK (Tape 1, 0:09:16): …scared to death of losing my job.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Leinenger
BILL LEINENGER (Tape 1, 0:09:18): I think I just did what I thought they wanted me to do
MEDIUM SHOT of Michael Tomaszek
MICHAEL TOMASZEK (Tape 1, 0:09:16): I was amongst the first where they started fingerprinting for people employed in any kind of school district in any way, shape or form.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill
Leinenger BILL LEINENGER (Tape 1, 0:09:18): …what society wanted me to do.
MEDIUM SHOT of Michael Tomaszek
MICHAEL TOMASZEK (Tape 1, 0:14:17): Scared to death that some reason the school board was following me.
MEDIUM SHOT of Bill Leinenger
BILL LEINENGER (Tape 1, 0:09:18): And while I married, I was becoming really, really unhappy