Stepping Out (1980 film)

Stepping Out is a 1980 Australian documentary film, created by Chris Noonan, that follows a mentally handicapped theater group in the leadup to their first public performance at the Sydney Opera House. The film screened at the United Nations closing ceremony for the International Year of the Disabled.

Production
Stepping Out was largely filmed in 1979 in Gore Hill in Sydney, following residents of the Lorna Hodgkinson Sunshine Home. It features workshops and rehearsals, led by Aldo Gennaro, for a series of performances of the shows The Prince, and Life, Images and Reflections at Sydney Opera House.

Reception
John Lapsley of the Sydney Morning Herald gave it 4 stars. He states "It's not only an important documentary. It is also a rivetting, superbly made one which has been quite brilliantly filmed by cinematographer Dean Semmler." In his Canberra Times Dougal McDonald touches on the aftermath saying "what happened after the film was completed is not so much crazy as nasty. Aldo Gennaro and the matron were dismissed without notice. Chris and Romayne were separated. These were the consequences of the film's attempt to touch on the question of sexuality in the intellectually handicapped. In this, 'Stepping Out' is significantly more forward-looking than another important documentary in the same field". Julian Lewis in the Australian Jewish News writes "Stepping Out entirely justifies the U.N.'s choice of it as the official film for the 'Year of the Disabled'"

Awards

 * 1981 Australian Film Institute Awards
 * Best Documentary - Chris Noonan - won