Kirby Dick doesn't mind if you start calling him a gadfly, or a corporate scourge, or a filmmaker seeking controversy. He only cares if you listen. Following up his 2006 documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated, which exposed the myriad inconsistencies and hypocrisies at the MPAA, Dick is turning his sense of outrage to Washington in, well, Outrage. The title sounds a little overblown unless you know what it's about-- closeted gay politicians who have dedicated their careers toward protecting their own roles in the closet by passing anti-gay legislation. See, now it's a pun!

I talked to Kirby Dick for a good long while last Friday, after his film had successfully drawn significant buzz at the Tribeca Film Festival (you can read my review here). He told me how a gay rumor about Karl Rove was what got him started on the story (the rumors were never corroborated, probably because Rove secretly killed all witnesses or something equally nefarious), and even how members of George W. Bush's own staff were openly gay. Most of the people interviewed for the film had personal experience with the apparently gigantic Washington closet: "All of them knew people in the closet. Most of them were close to politicians who were in the closet, and at times voted anti-gay to protect the closet."

Not only is Dick convinced that coming out would be the best solution for the politicians featured in the film-- who include Florida governor Charlie Crist, California Representative David Dreier, former RNC Chairman Ken Mehlmann and, yes, Larry Craig-- he thinks it could put us on the road toward a gay president sooner than we ever thought. "It could be a copmletely different political environment," Dick said. "A couple years ago, people asked the question, could an African American win the presidency."

The video below is selected snippets from our interview, which talked about all this as well as the fact that the mainstream media may very easily ignore this incredibly persuasive film. The video is long, but well worth it.

Outrage opens in theaters next Friday; the collective Republican furor will presumably start not long after.