“Teddy” train cancelled

“Teddy” looks set to pass into the trainspotter’s history book with the announcement today that a passenger service to the rural Helensville station where the film was shot is to be cancelled, after only a year in operation.

According to Radio New Zealand, the service attracted an average of only 14 passengers per journey.  The bus is apparently preferable because it runs more frequently.

The sparse service – literally only two trains a day, one at 6am and one at 7pm – had a huge impact on our shooting schedule for the film.  The one evening train spent around ten minutes on the platform, during which we successfully managed to shoot our entire opening and closing sequence.

To devise an inconvenient schedule and then cancel a service because the schedule isn’t convenient seems like inane logic to me.  Prior to the service beginning last year, no passenger trains had stopped at Helensville since 1980.  Sadly, it seems like the immaculately-kept and historic Helensville station looks set to become a ghost town once more.

Inside Out 2009: Victim Of Love

While in Toronto, I was interviewed by Xtra.ca as part of their video blog on the festival.  My accent sticks out like a sore thumb:

“Victim Of Love”, the programme in which “Teddy” played at this year’s Inside Out festival in Toronto promised “steamy sex, unhealthy obsession, requited longing and bitter break-ups as hearts get battered and bruised but keep on beating in their search for love.”

Not quite sure where “Teddy” fitted in that scale – I’d like to think obsessions with teddy bears aren’t unhealthy, but I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

As a final chapter in the spate of technical jinxes which plagued us on the “Teddy” shoot, this screening came very close to not happening at all – turns out the dupe house in New Zealand had dubbed the tape in the wrong format and it was purely by chance that the projectionist managed to figure out the mistake otherwise my trip to Toronto could have been rather anti-climactic.

Other film highlights of Inside Out for me included “Make The Yuletide Gay”, a heart-warming crowd favourite which has gone on to be a huge festival hit this year, and “Clapham Junction”, a searing “Crash”-style narrative exploring the darker side of modern gay life in London.

“Teddy” on DVD

This week saw the release of my short film “Teddy” on DVD, along with around 40 minutes worth of special features.

“Teddy” has received such a great reception from audiences that we decided to go into production with a DVD and give people an opportunity to enjoy it again, and hopefully share it with friends and family.  Short films often disappear into the ether after a festival run, and we thought it’d be a shame for that to happen with “Teddy”.

We dragged our three lovely cast members into a recording studio a month or so ago, plied them with beer and recorded a commentary.  Their insights into the characters were original to the say the least, and often hilarious.  There’s a second commentary track with myself and producer Andy Jalfon as well.

Also included are the video diaries we released online prior to the film’s release and during the festival run – these take you from the actor’s first meeting, through the shoot itself and up to the San Francisco premiere of “Teddy” at Frameline33 in the magnificent Castro Theatre.

Do check it out, and if you like what you see, help support independent film by getting a copy.  You’ll also be helping to support Body Positive, a peer support group in New Zealand run by and for people living with HIV and AIDS.

Back from outer space

Well, it looks like this blog has disappeared into a black hole of time – whoops.  Looking back, I see my last entry was two days into the Inside Out LGBT Film & Video Festival in Toronto, where I was attending the Canadian premiere of my gay short film “Teddy”.

A lot has happened in the intervening months, including sold-out festival screenings and a clutch of awards and nominations, so the ol’ trusty blog is long overdue for an update on the goings-on.

I’ll start tomorrow with details of the “Teddy” DVD release, but in the meantime here’s the new teaser trailer, which gives you an idea of some of the warm critical reception we’ve received:

Inside Out 2009: Fame Whore

Our fascination with celebrity seems never-ending, and everyone has their own take on it.  In Saturday’s “Fame Whore” programme at Inside Out, we had a monologue from the red carpet, a satirical look at the homophobic rap genre, a Christopher Guest-style take on stage adaptations of famous films, and a truly unique story about a drag act-turned-make-up-artist extraordinaire.

Trevor Anderson’s “Carpet Diem” is a droll 2-minute slice of life, based on a real-life almost-encounter with Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes on the red carpet of a Hollywood film festival.  Using only two still photographs and some perfectly-pitched narration, Anderson recalls his journey from almost-contemptuous anonymity to the reflected glow of fame in the time it takes for a flash bulb to go off.

“Vapid Lovelies” echoes John Waters’ early work, but adds slick production values and favours clever comic timing over gross-out gags.  It’s the story of two campy gay boys from Salt Lake City, shallower than a puddle, and their white drag queen clairvoyant friend LaVonnqua, who seems to be under the mistaken delusion that she is black.  A straight neighbour is terrorized, instructional flights of fantasy about cock-blocking and a death-defying climb onto a balcony in heels are just some of the adventures in store for the trio in this 20-minute episode, originally based on characters from a radio series.

The story of Mark Payne in “Get Happy” is an extraordinary one.  From the age of twelve, Mark had a budding career as a neighbourhood female impersonator – Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, even Diana Ross.  Somewhat to the horror of his extended family, Mark was always fully encouraged and supported in his flamboyant endeavours by his mother and grandmother, and it paid off. 

From slots in Vegas supporting legends such as Bob Hope and Milton Berle, Mark moved on to a successful career as a make-up artist working with some of the biggest names in the business and winning two Emmys.  As one man said to me in the lobby afterwards, it’s so nice to see films about gay men who grow up feeling different yet still turn out well-adjusted and happy. 

Gone are the days when suicide or death is the inevitable outcome of a gay night out at the movies.

Inside Out 2009: Kidnapped by lesbians from Newfoundland

It’s not often that you get kidnapped by lesbians from Newfoundland and spend the night partying at a shoe museum, but that’s how last night was for me.  The Bloor Cinema was packed last night for the opening of Inside Out, the 19^th annual Toronto LGBT Film and Video Festival. 

Enthusiastic cinemagoers were queued around the block for the opening night films “Patrik 1.5” and “The Island”, a short film by local film-maker Trevor Anderson.  Inspired by an abusive email he received, Anderson reflects wryly on the universal clarion call of homophobic bigots that gays should be dumped on an island somewhere and left to die.  What follows is a delightful and quirky inner monologue, illustrated with a mixture of live action and animation as Anderson imagines just what such an island might look like.

The Swedish ambassador was on hand to introduce “Patrik 1.5”, the opening night feature.  It’s a romantic comedy (albeit with a barbed edge) about a married gay couple’s desire to adopt a child.  A mix-up at social services sees them with a delinquent teenager in their care instead of a baby. 

Every note is pitch-perfect in this bruising but ultimately uplifting story of a very different kind of family. 

Sven and Gören have recently moved from the city to Stockholm’s very own version of Wisteria Lane, a technicolour suburban playground where keeping up appearances and two-faced prejudice are the order of the day.  While the neighbours are perfectly polite to the couple’s faces, their hidden bigotry comes through in the behaviour of their children, who yell “homos” at every opportunity and vandalise the couple’s property.

Things don’t get much better after the arrival of Patrik, a homophobic thug who threatens violence and hurls insults such as “paedophile” at his new parents.  Sven, who already has a daughter from a previous marriage and wasn’t particularly keen on parenting in the first place, is not happy and Patrik’s presence begins to unbalance their previously harmonious relationship.  Gören on the other hand, while mourning for the loss of the child he thinks he’ll never have, perseveres in trying to develop a relationship with the boy.

Thus begins a rollercoaster ride of emotional change which sweeps the viewer along totally in every scene.  The script is beautifully written, a masterclass in plot reversals that constantly defies your expectations of what is coming next – a happy ending is by no means certain.

By now, you may be thinking that “Patrik 1.5” is a downbeat affair – it isn’t.  It’s merely honest.  It’s rich in sentiment, but not in schmaltz, reminding us at every turn of the everyday prejudice that still exists even in a country renowned for its progressiveness. 

However, unlike self-flagellating tragedies like “Brokeback Mountain”, there is a huge sense of hope in “Patrik 1.5”.  Hope for growth, hope for change, and – most empoweringly – gay men who face off against their opponents and win.  A definite crowd-pleaser and a great choice for opening night.

The opening night reception was held at the Bata Shoe Museum along the road, whichi is where I had a great time in the company of the aforementioned Newfoundland lesbians – film-maker Gerry Rogers and her partner Peg Norman.  Gerry’s previous film, “My Left Breast”, was an intimate and acclaimed documentary detailing her battle with breast cancer.  Gerry and Peg are in Toronto this time around for the world premiere of their new film “Ferron: Girl On A Road”, which documents the comeback concert at 60 of the famed lesbian singer/songwriter as she reconnects with her audience and reflects on her life and times.

Also in town is Yair Hochner, director of “Antartica”, a sexy Israeli romance pulling in audiences at festivals worldwide.  Yair splits his time between making films and programming the annual gay film festival in Tel Aviv, where he lives.  He told me his award-winning debut film, “Good Boys”, a violent and uncompromising 48 hours in the life of a pair of rent boys, was a vastly different film both in terms of style and content.  Its raw and real style is something he hopes to revisit with his forthcoming third film.

Lesbians On A Plane

Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls (2009)

Dir: Leanne Pooley

They are an act, says one participant in this documentary, that shouldn’t work on paper: a pair of yodeling lesbian twins who sing country music.  But they do, and have, for nearly three decades now.

This film is about the lives and times of one of New Zealand’s most famous and entertaining acts.  A unique blend of busking, queerified country, broad character comedy, improv, good old-fashioned entertainment and an endearing yarn or three, “Untouchable Girls” reminds us of the fabulous national treasures that are Lynda and Jools Topp.

I’m gushing, I know, but it’s that kind of film.  One reviewer described it as moving, and I expected that this would be in reference to Jools’ recent battle with breast cancer.  While this is referenced and shown, effects of chemotherapy and all, it’s the playing out of politically historic moments of the last twenty years and the duo’s staunch and visible support of various causes that also brings a tear to the eye: Maori land rights, the Springbok tour protests, and homosexual law reform.

I was 8 years old when the Homosexual Law Reform Bill passed in 1986.  The debate leading up to it was divisive and nasty, characterized by MPs such as National’s Norm Jones screaming at gay protesters to get back to the sewers where they belonged. 

In this sort of environment, it is extraordinary that the Topps were not only out and proud, but a successful, mainstream act at the same time.  They sang love songs about women and told lesbian jokes in their acts.  The careers of many other local gay entertainers of the period, such as cooking couple Hudson and Halls, operated strictly on a don’t ask, don’t tell basis – a strategy which some modern personalities and performers continue to employ.

These are country girls, who grew up working on the farm with their dad, and still eschew city life for the rural lifestyle today.  They’ve played gigs all over the world, but they still say nothing beats an A&P show.  They’re born of archetypal New Zild parents – farmer dad, housewife mum.  They also have a gay brother (there goes that gay gene argument again).

“Untouchable Girls” follows the Topps as they perform around the world, around New Zealand, on streets, in theatres and on television, using archive footage from the last twenty years, as well as interviews with those nearest and dearest to them, their parents and partners, as well as admirers such as songwriter Don McGlashan and former Prime Minister Helen Clark. 

Beautifully filmed and edited, it depicts a New Zealand that I’m still not sure actually exists, particularly when recounting a Gypsy Caravan tour they undertook in the 1980s, traveling from small town to small town to play gigs in community halls, traveling in a caravan with a top speed of 15mph on a good day.

This is a New Zealand from the romantic fantasy “Big Eden”, with its inclusiveness and accepting nature in full bloom.  Perhaps it only exists when the Topp Twins come to town, but one can’t help but think that they leave a lot of magic behind after they’re gone.

PS. I viewed this on the plane to Toronto, hence the title.  Thank god for on demand entertainment.  Trailer here.

The Ten

David Wain is so underrated.  In “The Ten”, the gags don’t quite work as well as in 2001’s “Wet Hot American Summer” (also criminally underrated), but he has managed to achieve what many writer/directors before him have not – a feature made up of short stories that actually holds together pretty well.

Just as Woody Allen took inspiration from the chapter titles of “Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid To Ask)” for the segments in his film of the same name, Wain riffs on the Ten Commandments to create ten short stories in “The Ten”.

I’m pretty sure that Wain was thinking of the Allen film when he and his co-writers came up with the idea – one of the segments, “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery”, pastiches a New York-set Allen film, complete with jazz soundtrack and Paul Rudd divorcing Dianne Wiest over the phone. 

But unlike Allen’s film, “The Ten” hangs together a lot better thanks to characters that appear in several segments, albeit with delightfully tenuous links: –

A hotshot lawyer gets fired by a tempestuous judge in one segment, only to take up a job as a tour guide at a nuclear power plant in another. 

A reckless doctor kills a patient when he sews up a pair of scissors inside her “as a goof”, ending up in a prison in a later segment, “Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbour’s Wife”, a prison romance that pushes bad taste right over the cliff.

The nerdy colleague of an uptight librarian finds himself spurned when she goes to Mexico and falls in love with Jesus Christ, in a hilarious parody of European cinema.  The romance doesn’t last and she returns home to marry the nerd, who turns up in the final segment, “Keep Holy The Sabbath”, in which he skips church and invites his male neighbours around to get naked and listen to Roberta Flack.

Although the stories are set firmly in a universe of madcap, some – like “Thou Shalt Have No Gods Before Me”, takes a potshot at today’s ‘famous for being famous’ reality TV culture, in its own inimitably bizarre way: a man who jumps from a plane without a parachute gets stuck in the ground and becomes the star of his own sitcom.

It should be said from the outset that the humour will not be to everyone’s taste – it’s so left field it’s in a parallel universe – but if you loved “Wet Hot American Summer”, his take on American summer camp films of the 1980s, then you’ll know what kind of gags you’re in for with “The Ten”.

You’ll either love it or hate it…let me know what you think.

NZ On Screen

I’m pleased to see that some of my work from “Queer Nation” has been chosen as part of a handful of episodes from the show’s nine-year run to be showcased at NZ On Screen, a great on-demand service for archival New Zealand film and television shows.

The Marilyn Waring episode contains part one or a two-part story I did on the Maxim Institute, a right-wing think tank which at the time was going to extraordinary lengths to conceal its connections with anti-gay groups in the US.  Part two went on to examine the content of some of their submissions to Parliament against the Civil Union Act, revealing that some of their quoted sources didn’t actually exist.

Maxim’s chief researcher, Bruce Logan, retired a few months later after Paul Litterick (the spokesperson for the Rationalists interviewed in my segment) discovered that Logan had been plagiarising chunks of text from various conservative columnists and authors around the world and passing it off as his own in national newspaper columns. 

It was a very embarrassing situation for the newspapers who hadn’t been more stringent with their content checks, and more embarrassing for Maxim.  It was a difficult road to re-establish themselves as a credible and impartial source for media in the wake of the scandal.

Meanwhile, the Civil Union Act passed and the world didn’t end as a result (Australia take note).

My NZ On Screen profile is here.

“Teddy” (gay short film) – US & Canadian Premieres

Well, further events are conspiring to keep me away from this blog, but it’s all good news.

My new film “Teddy” is to have its US & Canadian premieres in May at two major North American festivals, starting with the US Premiere at the Boston LGBT Film and Video Festival on May 15, 6pm, as part of the Men’s Shorts programme.

The Canadian premiere follows at one of the world’s largest GLBT film festivals, the Inside Out Lesbian and Gay Film Festival of Toronto.  Screening dates to be announced later in the month.

At the end of May, “Teddy” heads to Texas for a screening at Q Cinema, Fort Worth’s International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.  The screening is expected to take place on the last weekend of the month, further details to follow as they are announced. 

 In June, “Teddy” will screen at Frameline 33 in San Francisco.  This festival is the oldest and largest GLBT festival in the world, averaging around 80,000 attendees over its ten-day run.  The festival runs this year from June 18-28.  Screening dates to be announced in May. 

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