The Sundance Film Festival is underway and in addition to the numerous LGBTQ titles in the lineup, GLAAD will be co-hosting the second “Cheers Queers” event alongside NewFest and Frameline. On January 23, director Matt Wolf had the world premiere of his two-part HBO documentary Pee wee As Himself at the Ray Theater in Park City.
Paul Reubens, who died in 2023, is the subject of Wolf’s doc and with 40 hours of interview footage with Reubens along with his family, friends and those who have worked with him, we see an intimate and complex portrait of the Pee-wee’s Playhouse icon. With never-seen-before footage and pictures, we see his rise from a progressive performance artist who appeared on The Gong Show to a red bow-tied pop culture icon with a signature laugh. All the while, he was a gay man.
“When we started making the documentary, Paul told me that he had decided he was ready to come out,” Wolf said in a statement to GLAAD. “Since he had been extremely private throughout his life, talking about his sexuality was probably the most sensitive thing we had to navigate together.”
Wolf helping tell Reubens’s story is bold and urgent, in a time when the LGBTQ community’s rights are being stripped away. It’s not only an inspiring story of living your life authentically but it’s a preservation of queer history and icons.
“I’m gay and I’ve made several films about queer history, so I empathize with the experiences of artists and entertainers like Paul from different generations,” said Wolf. “I wanted to let Paul discuss his experience as a gay person and as a closeted person on his own terms, and he did so beautifully.”
Pee-wee As Himself continues to play through January 31 at the Sundance Film Festival. The wide-release date is TBD.