Queer Screams Film Festival (2025, Part One) | Episode #477 - Victims and Villains

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are the Lies the short.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
You are Lord name to me.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Hey, welcome to the podcast extension of the multimedia nonprofit
Victims and Villain's.

Speaker 4 (00:34):
My name is Josh and Over this past weekend, this.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Last couple of days, I've had the privilege to cover
the Quick Streams Film Festival out of Portland, Oregon, and
all my reviews for the twenty six elections of this
year's festival are currently live on our website. Provide a
link in the show notes below. But I also have
the chance to sit down with some of the filmmakers

(00:59):
that made up this year's festival to talk about the films, projects,
the difficulties, the challenges, the mental health behind everything, and
that's what this is. This is gonna be the first
of a two part coverage series interviewing the directors, the writers,
the actresses, the talent making up some of this year's

(01:19):
selections from Queer Screams. First, the director behind it the
slasher musical. Yes you heard that right, Slasher musical prom
Party Massacre. This is the director, mister Jordan Gustuson. Hope
you enjoyed this well, Thank you for taking time today
to talk about this movie.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
I am really.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Excited to talk about the to talk about prom party massacre,
because as a theater kid and horror film, you don't
have too many of those roles that orles that kind
of collide. Yeah, And I feel like musicals as in
and of themselves don't really exist in in the independent

(02:01):
film sphere, and I'm kind of curious, can you talk
about the challenges of arranging, choreographing, and planning something like
this on a micro budget.

Speaker 5 (02:14):
A Nightmare, I would say, is probably like the easiest
distillation of everything. Obviously, I think like first and foremost,
like we had just like such an amazing crew and
casts so that we're willing to go like above and
beyond just to make everything happen. But kind of like
from the beginning, so just like the whole processes, like
we knew we wanted to do a musical, and basically

(02:38):
from there just the process was like demos where we
had like the writer and the musician do demos with
them doing every actor, and then we brought on actors
to do that, and then it was like a process
of funding and getting all that stuff. So we had
the demos done for a while and then we brought
on our choreographer who's like a good friend, and we
just kind of over the course of I would say,

(03:00):
like a month like just choreography, both like in the
place and not, and then we only had four days
in the house to shoot everything. So it was just
really tight, long days and I think just for me
as also like a musical theater like Horror Lover, it
was like both making sure that we got everything we
needed from making sure that like the musical itself stayed

(03:24):
like the central part of it, you know what I mean,
like making sure that everything was theatrical, that the choreography
was like actually seen, because I feel like, for me,
so much of musicals nowadays it's just like a lot
of quick cutting and like you don't actually see the dance,
and so a big part of this was just making
sure that we could actually show like our talent singing
and our talent moving through the motions of everything.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
You know, there are some like really awesome shots where
you kind of get to see like the crowd kind
of dancing and kind of how the party moves, like
the fluidity of it. I gotta imagine that as a director,
it's really hard to kind of capture something as elegant

(04:05):
as that. And you know, aside from budget, what were
some of the other things that you guys had in
terms of challenges.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
You know, I gotta assume if casting was was a
big one.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah, meding the right Lee's chemistry, especially given the fact
that this is also a love story on top of
the slasher.

Speaker 5 (04:27):
Yes, we're like seven different genres and one which is
easy and fun. I would say like the shooting itself, obviously,
like on set making sure because you know, in my
mind from the minute, like we had the script and songs,
I knew when I wanted and so then it's like,
how can you translate what's in your brain to the screen,
Like as you're talking about with those oh big crowdshots

(04:49):
like ideal world is I can rig the camera like
twenty feet up, you know what I mean, and then
smooth we swooped down. But like with the constraints that
we have, it's how can we make it feel as
emotional and dynamic as we can with the like tight
space and pack everyone in. And I think like another
I wouldn't say it's a I think like obviously everything
is difficult in the indie space having things made, but

(05:13):
like finding the right talent was definitely a process, but
I think we netted out with such strong performers and talent,
like Ashley Campbell's Ruby is just like incredible and she
just brings like such a tenacity to everything. And then
we just also because of the humor in the story
and like the camp element of it, had to make

(05:34):
sure that everyone could do the humor bit as well.
You know, so like knew how to be tongue in
cheek a bit but also not be too campy to
then like the emotional through line of the romance fell through.
So it's just making sure that we could all walk
that tight rope as much as possible.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
So the film revolves around this guy that essentially has
this like unacquired love that he's longing for and it's
kind of just like taboo. But on the opposite side
of that, you have this this this friendship.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
Like, you know, I.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Gotta imagine what was it like to kind of find
the right person that had the chemistry with with our
female lead as well as the romantic lead, because I mean,
I think you've nailed both. I would kind of almost
equate the platonic relationship to Janice and Damien from Mean Girls.

(06:33):
It kind of has that same vibe to it. Can
you talk about like how important was that to the
story and how challenging was it to find the right
person that could balance both.

Speaker 5 (06:44):
It was actually the easiest thing to find because the
star was like the writer and like a just close
personal friend of mine, and so like we had just
been working together on it, and when envisioning the character,
everything just kept being like, wait, like let's do a
little bit of this for you, you know, and it just
kind of kept in viewing it with Phil, like his

(07:05):
sensibility and like hit how he talks and how he
kind of moves through the world, and like our own
we put like a lot of our own high school
experiences buried in there, you know, and like when rehearsing
and talking about everything, talking about like what did we.

Speaker 6 (07:18):
Personally go through.

Speaker 5 (07:19):
So then once we started to do chemistry reads and
you know, got into everything, everything just felt so natural.
We reached a point in casting where we were basically
casting everyone and then we were like, okay, so we
need Scott and we had some Scott's come in and everything,
and I was like, Phil, I really think like, let's
have you read for Scott like like, let's just have
you see it, let's play it, and he just crushes

(07:41):
it because it's just a part of him on screen,
you know. And I think that then we found THEO
and Ashley and just they had just inherent chemistry between
them to make everything work. And I think with Phil
what's fun is you know, he's so tall and is
like the opposite of what you think when you think
of like an nerdy, you know, very like insecure kid

(08:03):
in high school who's just like pining after someone. And
I think like there is that inherent tens in the
script and throughout the whole movie of like what you
expect and what is not and also just showing them
like anyone can kind of go through this thing having,
you know, perhaps like someone trying to kill them. So yeah,

(08:24):
if I think that answers.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
The question, yeah, I so like kind of getting away
from a little bit more of the technical aspects, this
movie feels very reminiscent of the the slasher renaissance of
the nineties. When you guys are started kind of plotting
this out and thinking about it, are there kind of

(08:46):
curious like what influences you guys kind of pulled from.

Speaker 5 (08:50):
Yeah, one hundred percent on the slasher front, like Scream
and those like ninety Slashes were huge for me growing up,
huge for us and obviously like a huge touchdown and
we have like a feature version of this that is
like very indebted to those movies. However, we were also
in like really heavily as you'll see, like the lighting

(09:10):
and everything, like Italian Gallo movies were huge for us,
Like our Gento was like all over my room basically
in terms of like how we wanted to light this,
but then like in terms of music, it was like
Little Shop of Horrors, Heather's the musical, and I think
Heather's in general in terms of that tone was a
really big movie for us because it's so fun, but

(09:31):
it's also so dark and it captures sort of like
that teenage angst in such a fun way. So we
kind of were pulling from so many different sources. But
just the key slasher through line was very indebted to
like a Scream, you know, I know you did last summer,
just something where there's just a killer, we don't know
who it is, but bodies are dropping and then we're

(09:51):
gonna find out in the third act.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
It also has this light airiness to it as well,
with the musical element and kind of this like like
rom com element of it too, to where it feels
like those late nineties or early two thousands, Uh rom
com Uh, Like She's all that kind of comes to
mind a little bit.

Speaker 4 (10:14):
What I guess, like all the flips.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Side that, what were kind of the getting away from
the horror what we're kind of like the more comedic
influences that you guys were kind of hoping to pay
homage to.

Speaker 5 (10:25):
Yeah, that's so interesting because like with the romance, I
think honestly, like a lot of the conversations were like
Audrey and Seymour and Little Shop of Horrors and sort
of like they're tortured and like doomed romance in a way. However,
I think for us it was so important to have
the romance be great in the end and like wholesome
and like they actually win together and like come out

(10:47):
and they book get what they need. But I think,
like comedically, John Waters is very big for us, so
like let's see that Hairspray cry Baby. You know, he
just captures can and queerness in a way that is
just so beautiful and like this movie would be nothing
without hairspray, both versions of hairspray, honestly, and like our

(11:10):
Johnny Cross character is very much modeled after like the Dentist,
but also like cry Baby, you know, that sort of
greaser grease. Also in terms of humor and romance for us,
you know, like those fifties slash eighties musicals, and we
kind of set this world in what we call like
nineteen fifty eighty seven because it's like the fifties, but
it's also the eighties, and our music progresses through time,

(11:34):
so in terms of stylization, you know, all those movies
hit what we were also going for.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
I was also very surprised by the big reveal of
who the killer actually is, and I will spoil it
for people that haven't had a chance to see it yet.
But how important was it to for you guys when
because I feel like, you know, obviously, when you're doing
a slasher, there are two thing, two kind of thoughts

(12:01):
on the process where you have you know, this like
Michael Myers type of ordeal where you don't have any
motivation at all. He literally is the boogeyman, and then
you have the kind of like this that scream approach
where we talked about. You talked about the influence there
of there is a motivation, there is a reason, there

(12:23):
is a driving force behind it. And again I was
like really surprised by where the script went, and I
was actually, I'm delighted to hear that there's a feature version.

Speaker 4 (12:36):
Of this that could be in the works.

Speaker 3 (12:39):
But when you guys are from a from a narrative
perspective and even from a directing perspective, can you talk
about the challenges of creating a slasher that's going to
keep people guessing and also kind of balancing that that
waters camp that you talked about.

Speaker 5 (12:58):
Yeah, I think a big part of it was when
you're in like such a locker room setting, you know,
one location, we thought that it would be way more
fun to keep people guessing the whole time of like
who could it be, because you're introducing kind of all
these characters who come in who are kind of smutsy.
They're all berating Scott for who he is, and basically
throughout the whole thing, Scott needs to kind of build

(13:19):
up the confidence for himself to kind of stand up
for himself and to kind of become one. And so
we were just trying to think of like who would
be the best killer and like how do you place
a killer in this that also then also has character
tension in dynamics and explores the theme in a more
rich way, And it kind of just boiled down to
I think it needs to be that't spoiling and like

(13:41):
this person because it both forces Scott to confront what
is inside him and like what he thinks about himself
and also recontextualize like what matters the most for him,
because like, while these people weren't the best to him,
what does he really want in his life? And like
how far is he willing to go to defend, you know,
someone that he really loves? And so I was like,

(14:04):
we're further exploring that. Obviously in the future there's a
lot more that we're doing, and there might be like
some twists and more turns with the killer. But I
think for us having the audience, because it's also a
short film, so having people guess for sixteen minutes is
a lot easier than if it's like, you know, a
whole feature length where you're really wondering the whole time.

(14:25):
So I think like we had the constraints, which actually
benefited us of keeping the killer guarded, you know, in a.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
Way, I think this is also probably you know, I
think about, in my opinion, one of the more underrated
rom comms in the last ten years that we've gotten is,
in my opinion, Love Simon.

Speaker 4 (14:43):
Yeah, and I love the.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
Way that that kind of showcases the journey of essentially
kind of breaking these cultural taboos and you know, really
being happy within yourself and in your sexuality and your
sexual identity and that process of you know, coming out.

(15:06):
I think this film also does a really good job
at kind of the tension that exists. You know, we
talked about the camp we talked about the fun kills,
and kind of the the atmosphere that exists within this
these sixteen minutes, but there is like this like tension

(15:27):
and this depth where you have this almost Romeo and Juliet.
But then on the flip side of that, you have
this character that hasn't quite come to grips with his
sexuality yet. Can you talk about also kind of bringing
that mental health journey to the forefront of this world
that is campy.

Speaker 5 (15:48):
Yeah, I think that's really hard because I think camp
can be really silly for people, and I think it
can make audiences just not be able to emotionally relate
to something thing, And for me, as just like a filmmaker,
I think the most important thing is like wearing my
heart on my sleeve and making people care about the
end like emotional earnestness and honesty, and just like I

(16:11):
think it's kind of like cool to be like very sincere,
and I think like walking that line in camp is
very tough, but I think like the biggest thing for
us was just like the romance between the two of
them is, at least for me, the central driving force
of everything. Like my favorite sequence in the whole movie

(16:32):
is basically like the love song between the two of
them upstairs, and then as we cut downstairs, there's like
sort of like a romantic dance playing out between everyone,
and I think that sort of encapsulates the push and
pull between these two points of view on queerness. And
also like these two individuals of like one of them
is so comfortable in their sexuality but hasn't necessarily made

(16:53):
the leap to be out yet, and one is a
little bit more closeted, a little bit more nervous about
like being true to who they are and when you're
in a relationship, it's all about like the push and
pull of how do we make this work, you know,
and eventually, like by the end the two are able
to like sort of let their walls down and go
through this maybe traumatic event, but come out the other

(17:15):
side to be able.

Speaker 6 (17:15):
To be together and make that step for each other.

Speaker 5 (17:20):
And so like for mental health, I think like a
lot of it was just about like showing just like
how do you work through something that is so daunting
and crushing to you? And especially like for me, I
didn't come out until after high school and college, and
it was weighing on me constantly, like Scott, you know,
but I think like what helps is that like you

(17:41):
know that you have someone there to like comfort you,
and you will be like happier in yourself if you
are able to be who you are fully, you know,
like you will reach that internal nirvana if you can
just accept yourself and move forward through the world like that.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
That's one of the most important things too, because you know,
from someone that chased after you know, fads and other things,
you know, my throughout high school to where I got
to kind of just get to a point where you're
just like I just don't really care anymore about this,
you know, that kind of becomes this like breaking point
and it's emerges. And that's kind of what's so valuable

(18:19):
about Scott's art throughout the course of this movie is
getting to kind of see that comfort all while also
experiencing this like really goofy trauma at the same time
and kind of experiencing that rebirth at the end. I
think this movie has one of the best closing shots

(18:40):
that I've I've ever seen for a story like this,
and I gotta imagine, like, you know, as a filmmaker,
especially as a director, what are some of the challenges
in creating such a definitive closing shot, Because I think

(19:02):
this movie has the potential to really stay with audiences
that are lucky enough to experience it because it's so unique.
It's it like I said, it's a musical, it's a
slash shirt, it's a romance. It feels like this like
eighties movie feels like something that's out of time.

Speaker 4 (19:20):
It can't be.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
It's a lot of fun, but then you do have
these very serious things like the process of coming out,
the mental health of that, and you have these really gorgeous,
like technical shots as well. Can you talk about the
challenges of kind of like leaving an impression on the
audience and what you hope people gain from it.

Speaker 5 (19:42):
Yeah, I think Actually, it's so funny. The end shot
I kind of had from the beginning. It was sort
of something like I knew when storyboarding and just like
envisioning the whole short, I just knew that I wanted
to end on the two of them outside putting the
code on, and then we just pull back and we
see like the cops are coming whatever. But like, regardless

(20:03):
of everything that has happened, as you see like the
lights on the house, the most important thing is like
the two of them are together and they're sharing this
comfort in this world. And I just really wanted to
have that mirroring to the beginning of the movie, where
like we all have two Matt paintings basically, where like
we're pushing in on the house and then we're pulling
out on the house, uh in the beginning and the

(20:24):
end of the movie, and so on that flip side
of it at the end of basically just like reflecting
through all this trauma, like the house in the porch
was empty in the beginning, you know, the light was on,
but like no one was actually like outside and there
wasn't like a sense of.

Speaker 4 (20:37):
Like love there.

Speaker 5 (20:39):
And now on the end, it's like the two of
them are together. They have survived all this and we're
pulling back and like the whole context of the town
has completely changed and like everything traumatic has transpired, but
the two of them are together and they're like facing
forward into like whatever the future is for them now,
like they're comfortable being who they are and so like
no matter who comes, no matter what happens next, they

(21:00):
are together. And so the last shot was actually the
last shot we shot of the whole short. We were
everyone was wrapping out, it was hectic, et cetera. But
we threw up the camera on a huge like ladder,
rig had my DP up there. We ran it like
three times because like we were truly running out of time,
and it just like we were able to get it

(21:21):
on that last take and it just felt so natural
and right with the pullout, and so then we fade
into the matte painting and it just all felt cohesive.

Speaker 4 (21:29):
You know.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
I I'm really glad you brought up the how this
film was bookended.

Speaker 4 (21:35):
Where did the idea for animation come from I.

Speaker 5 (21:39):
Think we're I'm a huge Gremlins two slash Gremlins fan,
and that movie has just gorgeous matte paintings and also
like the sound of music Mary Poppins, like all these
just classic like fifties movies have like these matte paintings
that I really wanted to go for, And I just
think like it also helps the audience walk in on
the fact that it's not a reality, Like we're looking

(22:00):
at a painting to start the movie instead of just
a real town, and I think that helps people instantly
separate and put us basically like saying like a long
time ago in a galaxy par par way, or like
it's a fairy tale, you know. So people were able
to understand that it's not our reality necessarily.

Speaker 4 (22:17):
That's awesome.

Speaker 3 (22:18):
Well, currently, right now, if this is Party Massacre is
an official selection of Queer Screams Film Festival, which we
are covering in depth this year. And I'm kind of curious,
where can people find you online?

Speaker 5 (22:35):
Yeah, you can find the film on Instagram. We're at
pro Party Massacre can find me. I'm at Jordan Gustafson there,
and then we're on Letterbox as well at pro party massacre,
So should go find this sonatch that part.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
Well, but a link for you guys in the show
that's below. Jordan, thank you so much for your time.
If you were someone you know is listening to this
podcast right now and you're struggling with suicide, addiction, self harm,
or depression, we encourage you guys to please reach out.
This is the heartbeat or why we do what we do.
Suicide is currently the tenth leading cause of death in

(23:14):
the United States, and as of this recording, there are
one hundred and thirty two suicides that take place each
and every day on American soil, and when you scale
back internationally, there are eight hundred thousand successful suicides. That
is one death roughly every forty seconds. So if you
were someone you know is struggling, you guys can go
to Victims and Villains and dot net ford slash hope.

(23:37):
That resource is going to be right in the description
wherever you guys are currently listening or streaming this. There
you'll find resources that include the National Suicide Lifeline, which
is one eight hundred two seven three eighty two fifty five.

Speaker 4 (23:51):
You can also text help to seven seven four to one.

Speaker 3 (23:55):
You LUs have a plethora of other resources, including churches,
getting connected with counselors, LGBT resources like the Trevor Project,
and also a veteran hotline as well.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
Please, if you.

Speaker 3 (24:11):
Hear nothing else in the show, understand that you yes,
you listening to.

Speaker 4 (24:15):
This right now. Of value and worth, we get it. Suicide, depression,
mental health.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
These are hard topics and this stigma around them doesn't
make it any easier. But please consider the resources right
in the descriptions below wherever you guys are listening, because
once again, you have value and you have worth, so please.

Speaker 4 (24:38):
Stay with us. Thank you again, Jordan.

Speaker 3 (24:41):
If you get a chance to see Prompt Party Massacre,
I highly recommend it. It's a lot of fun and
speaking of fun and something that is a little bit
sinister but also a little bit familiar for you. I
also have the chance to sit down with the radio
director behind the short film Demontwink, mister Stephen George.

Speaker 4 (25:03):
Hope you enjoy so.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
I really think one of the things that is really
striking about this film is the visuals of it and
has a very distinct style in terms of its aesthetic.
Can you talk about the challenges of capturing a pretty
fairly traditional story alongside striking visuals.

Speaker 7 (25:26):
I'm glad you noticed that, because I wanted it to
be noticed. First of all, obviously queer horror film, So
to me, that just streams the need of color, and
you know, each color kind of has its own meeting,
so it does kind of coincide with the emotions that
the characters and the audience are supposed to be feeling

(25:48):
at different parts of the film. But beyond that, I
strive to literally incorporate every color of the rainbow in
the film somehow, just to make it.

Speaker 6 (25:59):
Over we're all queer visually.

Speaker 7 (26:04):
But the mentality behind that was kind of me feeling
like a lot of content these days is a little drab,
a little desaturated, which to me makes me lose energy,
momentum interest at times. I just prefer things that are
loud and colorful and in your face, unapologetically. It was

(26:30):
also kind of inspired by the original Suspiria and everything
Urgento does, just because I just love how he just
throws color and everything for like no particular reason, but
it's there and it's overt So I definitely wash China
channel that a bit. But yeah, I'm glad you noticed

(26:51):
the color that was definitely something I wanted people to notice.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
Again, you mentioned something that I'm kind of curious about
where you almost kind of describe how the film it
changes palettes with how the audience should be feeling kind
of almost like a mood ring. Can you kind of
explain that a little bit more and kind of peel
that apart to what, like I guess, like the symbolism
behind each of the colors, or you can also do

(27:17):
a David Lynch on me.

Speaker 4 (27:18):
That's that's cool too.

Speaker 7 (27:19):
I'll try to explain it might sound a little less enteric,
but it is kind of I guess rooted in like
the Chakras, getting a little you know, New age spirituality
into it.

Speaker 4 (27:31):
Sure.

Speaker 7 (27:32):
And for example, like red is used during this really
pivotal surrealist bar scene that was actually shot at the
Abbey in West Hollywood, where the main character, Dante walks
into a bar filled with a bunch of queer youths
and they all just stop and stare at him. The
music stops in this very surreal moment that's supposed to

(27:54):
be like a visual representation of his insecurities within himself,
in his physical appearance, in his place in life, and
so for that scene, I chose red because it's just
supposed to be super visceral. Red kind of relates to
the body and like our sense of safety too. So

(28:16):
that's why I chose red, because it's kind of like,
you know, eliciting this danger in his identity and his
being in that moment where he feels completely ostracized and
like these people are almost like, you know, their eyes
are like daggers to him. So he does feel like
he's in a state of danger in that moment. And

(28:38):
then in other scenes, let me think, I mean again.

Speaker 6 (28:44):
Like I love Ourgento.

Speaker 7 (28:46):
So there's this really fun first kill scene in a
bedroom that is very like red mixed with blue and
you know, those colors are at a lot of contrast,
which in that scene, in that moment, Dante's feeling extremely
you know, conflicted in his state of being because he's

(29:10):
constantly going from wanting love something more versus wanting lust
and choosing you know, the path of kind of putting
a band aid on these deeper issues and then I
won't ruin it. But in that scene it does get
a little wild, and there is this kind of moment
of like spiritual transformation where he has to make this

(29:33):
decision that will kind of, you know, take him forward
in life down a path. Maybe he was regretting, so
everything kind of turned purple in that moment. To me, purple,
it's very transformative energy. It's almost like spiritual represents the
third eye. So in that moment, he was kind of
making this like sole decision which path he was going

(29:55):
to go down, you know, the path of destruction.

Speaker 6 (29:59):
Or the latter, and you know, of course he chooses destruction.

Speaker 3 (30:04):
I'm kind of curious too, Like, you know, we talk
about the visuals being striking, and I feel like traditionally
when you see this movie is basically about like this
guy like doesn't exchange with the demon that grants him
internal life, and obviously with it being a demon, it
comes with consequences. But the design of the demon, I'm

(30:25):
very kind of curious to hear kind of the story
how that came to be because I think traditionally when
we see demons, they are either this like super Bottel
level esque or you have like the traditional like very
bright red hue, almost very equivalent to tim Korean legend.

(30:48):
This one is very green, kind of almost has this
like swampy shade to him, like he still embodies a
lot of that traditional demonic look, but a lot of
the colors are kind of feel almost like a juxposition
to a lot of the colors that you're seeing as

(31:09):
the audience member throughout the character journey. Can you talk
about designing that that that version of the demon.

Speaker 7 (31:18):
Yeah, so it's actually designed by a good friend of
mine who knows illustration, and I kind of just told her.
I just threw a bunch of things out at her,
and actually what you see is exactly what she came
up with, and I kind of just fell in love immediately.
But I did try one alternate look specifically with the skin.
I was thinking of doing this like rainbow wash like

(31:41):
iridescence over these like dragon scales, like kind of you know,
getting very reptilian with it. But the green just contrasted
so well with the pink, I thought, and you hear demon,
your mind goes to red immediately. But to separate this
horror film, you know, compared to others and put it

(32:04):
in a queer heart space, pink just made more sense
to me. And I think that's what my friend was
kind of intuiting as well. And then I just love
the contrast of pink and green, but there is like
a reptilian element to it, and you know, reptiles snakes
have been associated with the Devil for a while, so

(32:24):
there's that kind of connection with it. But from the
beginning I thought I was gonna go way more frightening
with it in a way, way more monstrous, and then
it morphed into something extremely campy and even beyond the
look of the demon. The energy that the actor gave

(32:45):
their name is ben Cohen. They just gave this like fun,
campy energy just so naturally with all these like influences
just intertwined effortlessly with every take, every performance was different.
It's very much in the flow with it, and they
just became They became this character and a lot of it,

(33:09):
like I can't even take too much credit for because
it's just their raw energy. And they were like one
of the only actors that as soon as I saw
their self tape, I was like, yes, you and that
character specifically, like lots of people resonate with and I
do think is like the foundation of the entertainment value

(33:31):
of the film and what really sets it apart beyond
a bunch of others and you know, normal depictions of
demons because it just represents camp. And I think that's
what kind of differentiates this film from a lot of
other horror films, is that that camp element, because what
we're really trying to do with this is popularize the

(33:52):
queer horror genre and really cement it. And to me,
it's necessary to have that elements of camp intertwined to
set it apart.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
I'm really glad you brought up Ben as a writer
when you were writing the demon character. Did you have
a idea in mind of how you wanted them to
be played and how did Ben? Did Ben kind of
step in line with a lot of those visions that

(34:23):
you had, because he is They are very much did
like they steal steal every scene they're in, Like their
performance is so electric and part of the reason that
I'm just so floored by the quality of the short.

Speaker 6 (34:41):
Thank you.

Speaker 7 (34:43):
You know, I think they are heed them just for reference,
and uh yeah, I'm so glad you think that it
really shines. But when we first met, I told them
two specific influences that I wanted them to kind of
immerse in and have their own with, and one was
the character him from Powerpuff Girls, like weird non binary

(35:06):
demon with like heavy reverb on their their voice. I
was just always obsessed with that character and specifically the voice,
Like I actually was like from the get planning on
having that like heavy deep reverb, like heavily inspired by
by him. We ended up going with like way less

(35:26):
reverb because it just became a little a lot ends.
We kind of had to deviate a bit just to
like make people fall, you know, as much in love
with the demon as they can. And then besides that,
I told I told ben uh Yuke from death note, Okay,
just as like this demon that hey main character kind

(35:48):
of energy, you know, and they kind of do pop
in and out of reality too, Like they're not like
always like spatially in line with like our laws of
you know, physics, Like they just pop it in out
so they can deliver whatever line needs to be delivered.
In all the dialogue was delivered exactly how I wrote

(36:11):
it actually, but then really brought it to life, like seriously,
like you would think that they're ad libbing, but they're not.

Speaker 6 (36:19):
That's just how good they are.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
I can definitely see the influence of both for you
and him here, and I really love how do I
feel like it gives me a little bit of a
finer appreciation for that. And I talked about this earlier,
but the idea of someone either looking for the fountain
of youth or you know, wanting to acquire the fountain

(36:42):
of youth, it's pretty traditional like story element. I feel
like we've seen it done a lot of times, and
I think for what Demontweenk without spoilers is able to
do with that element is really surprising because I think
whether you are gauge straight, you know, not binary, wherever

(37:04):
your walk of life is, I think there's a lot
of relating to Dante's journey in the beginning, and I
really liked that what you were able to do there.
Can you talk about kind of reinventing the familiar with
that element?

Speaker 7 (37:23):
Yeah, you're right, it's like a classic Faustian bargain. It's
definitely inspired by you know, that classic tale little mix
of picture of Dorian Gray too. And yeah, we've seen
it a lot at different times, in a lot of
different ways. But it's different with you know, with clearness,
specifically clear male energy, because we deal with it in

(37:49):
our own specific, unique way. And what this film does
is show us an entirely queer world with all queer characters,
so we can actually hone in on like how we
deal this specifically and how it manifests in our community.
But it's something that everyone can relate to, and I

(38:09):
really think nowadays there is more of a focus on
youth more so than ever. Like with my parents' generation,
the boomers, you know, the way I look at it
is that generation when they were you know, in the
early twenties and their twenties, the focus was to get

(38:29):
the job, get the family, you know, be a professional
and kind of have that nuclear family, and that was
like the picture of success. But I think now the
pedestal is on having fun, being youthful, and that doesn't
just relate to clear people. I think it kind of
affects everyone. Like we can kind of see it in

(38:51):
like kids fashion now, Like how I looked when I
was a middle school is way different how they look now.
So there's just this you know, it's like almost a
psych homogenization in a way. But it does feel like
there's just more of a like push to youth now
more so than ever. So it is it's always universal

(39:12):
and it's always going to work. It just depends, like
the kind of lens that you show it through.

Speaker 4 (39:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
I I'm also kind of curious about the you know, obviously,
with this being a di y, you guys, we look
at like, you know, bigger budget films that are being
released by like you know, these giant, giant conglomerates where
it's really easy to uh you know, use uh de

(39:39):
aging techniques. But our our character Dante is played by
two different actors in this uh younger is played by
Jonathan Tyser and side of this Cave plays our cade
plays our older Dante. What were some of the challenges
I guess, like what, I'm kind of curious like what first,

(40:01):
uh did you guys have the older one, the older
version of Dante asked for as the younger version, and
kind of like how did that impact moving into the
I guess the casting process for the whichever one came
sick at.

Speaker 7 (40:17):
Yeah, it's definitely one of the biggest challenges of making
this because they have to look alike obviously. So it
started with younger Dante. I thought that was a good,
you know, place to start from and then go older
and older with it. Because there are three stages of
Dante in this film. I call them like younger Dante,

(40:39):
older Dante, and then elder Dante. Okay, And so that
was one of the biggest challenges because they all had
to look similar. We did get away with some I
guess effects makeup, like uh, older Dante, Middle Dante had
to get aged up a bit. But there was a
lot of back and forth in the early stages of

(41:00):
casting with specifically younger Dante and this other character, Younger Verge,
because there is a little romance going on in the
film at some point with like a specific anecdotal kind
of hookup with this character Verge, and it kind of
came from, like you know, it was performance first, and

(41:22):
Jonathan Tysour has been acting since he was very young,
extremely passionate, extremely devoted, very experienced, and it was like
undeniable to me that we had to cast him. But
the character that played younger Verge, John Botchen is his name.
He was also amazing for the role, and it was

(41:44):
a lot of it was based on chemistry too, so
that was another aspect that needed to be nailed down,
which added even more complexity to finalizing the casting. But
a lot of times we went back and forth, like
who should be Dante, who should be verge, you know,
and like have all these like lineages lined up for
these potential bull so cashting was like one of the
hardest parts about this, you know, And so flashed forward

(42:06):
to Elder Dante. His name is Charles and I'm gonna
butcher his last name. I think it's Karaphotus, and he
was just jazz from the from the get. He actually
is a you know, he's on the older side, and
he plays Santa a lot during the holidays, and he
just had the perfect look because he had this like

(42:28):
orange ness to his hair. Jonathan Tysor, who plays younger
Dante as a you know, super ginger, like his hair
is just like beautifully orange, and that was kind of
an element we carried throughout uh.

Speaker 6 (42:42):
Older Dante played by Silas Kade. Actually that was the
last person we casted.

Speaker 7 (42:50):
It was just difficult to match someone to Jonathan who
was that specific age bracket and also had that ginger
hair we were looking for because I just thought, you know,
ginger is such a striking unique image visually for a character,
and they're always gonna ostracize, you know, it.

Speaker 6 (43:07):
Kind of goes with the whole energy.

Speaker 7 (43:08):
But Silas is actually the partner of one of my producers,
Liviy and Sefear, and she was always pushing for them
for Silas, and it kind of became like a last
minute cast in the way because Silas is on the
younger side. Again, we had to age them up, and
I had some other potentials for older Dante, but we
ended up going with Silas just because again, their performative

(43:33):
energy just matched the role so well. And they also
had a personal stake in the film, like they were
pretty close with Livia during the development process and everything.
So yeah, but I will say that the most difficult
cast was casting elder Verge, which is the later stage
of the romantic interest character Verge, and it was just

(43:56):
really hard to find an older black man who was
willing to play gay. I got a lot of nose,
a lot of harsh nose, but eventually we got the
the only yes from this amazing man, amazing gentleman, Maurice Warfields,
and he's known for a lot of stuff and he.

Speaker 6 (44:16):
Did this movie.

Speaker 7 (44:17):
I'm totally forgetting the name, and I should have done
my research before this, but we can look it up later.

Speaker 6 (44:21):
This like gay.

Speaker 7 (44:22):
Biker gang movie, and apparently that was like the first
depiction of black clearness apparently, but he was the only
straight identifying actor in the entire main cast. Everyone else
is clear identifying, which is another interesting aspect.

Speaker 6 (44:39):
But yeah, sorry, that answer was kind of long.

Speaker 4 (44:41):
Ah, you're fine. I think I think one of the
things that's not to like.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
I don't want to necessarily spoil it, but you know,
when we do. When the film that does open up,
Dante is in his older form. He's you know, early forties,
and he's just recently come out, but he also has
a lot of regrets about coming out so late in life.

(45:06):
And I think it's probably one of the more interesting
aspects of this movie because I think traditionally, when you
come across in any medium, whether it's literature, television, or film,
it's traditionally people that are coming out in maybe their late.

Speaker 4 (45:26):
Teenage years or the adulthood.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
I'm kind of curious where the idea to progress in
it's kind of break that taboo or that stereotype kind
of came from.

Speaker 4 (45:38):
For you.

Speaker 7 (45:40):
I guess it's all kind of connected to the main
reason why I made this film is because as a
clear male, a gay male, youth and beauty are put
on a huge pedestal and so the elder gays, some
of them might have not come out because at the

(46:01):
time it was social suicide or it was dangerous with
the AIDS crisis, so we even express that. So a
lot of them hid in the closet, and so a
lot of them have to come out later in life,
and they don't really get the you know, they don't
get what we have now, how we're able to come
out so early and live this life that was you know,

(46:22):
paved before us by the suffering of all these older
queer men. And this is just an anecdotal story of
one of them who wants to express their sexuality, but
it feels like they have to in these sort of nefarious,
devious ways. And I wanted to showcase that because I

(46:44):
feel like we kind of sympathize with characters most when
we see them go through some sort of pain or struggle.
And because we open with this and you know, show
an older man trying to procure a younger boy for sex,
you know, and cruising culture back in the day, we
kind of sympathize with him and a lot of us

(47:04):
can relate to that still and will, I think for
a long time. But it kind of sets the tone
for the film and sets Dante's want and need because
he thinks he wants sex and you know, beauty and
youth and that the image of that, but really what
he wants is like a true deeper connection, which he

(47:25):
does tell the demon, but that's not what the Demon's offering.

Speaker 4 (47:30):
Because I think it's one of the.

Speaker 3 (47:32):
Most I think probably I'm always say necessarily twists, but
like story elements I think really worked for me to
where when the Verge character was introduced and you could
kind of see, like by that point in the film,
you had kind.

Speaker 4 (47:47):
Of seen.

Speaker 3 (47:50):
The relationship between both the demon and are a protagonist,
and you can kind of see how the relationship worked,
how it was driven i you know, pleasure and not
necessarily that more intimate connection.

Speaker 4 (48:05):
And it happens at this.

Speaker 3 (48:07):
Like most like random way that were the characters bond
over no speratu, which I think is uh. I think
it's kind of comical just because we uh, you know,
just having the Robert Eggers last year and everyone kind
of talking about you know, uh, I guess like being

(48:28):
thirsty over yeah mustache.

Speaker 4 (48:34):
I thought it was kind of such a such an
interesting element.

Speaker 3 (48:37):
I'm kind of curious is like, had that not happened
for No Saratu last year? Had you guys always kind
of envisioned about that kind of being the point where
those two characters would kind of like have that birth
of a bond.

Speaker 7 (48:53):
Yeah, it's never planned to be specifically know Spara Tu.
I think the momentum of it's definitely gonna help help
get some laughs in the theater. But we basically try
to incorporate like every public domain horror movie possible, especially
ones made by like, you know, notoriously clear filmmakers like
James Bill and everything.

Speaker 4 (49:15):
And so.

Speaker 7 (49:17):
The dialogue changed so much like right until like the
first moment we started filming, and yeah, that was kind
of that was another difficulty filming this because we had
to make sure we could use all these movies and everything.

Speaker 6 (49:31):
But no, we didn't.

Speaker 7 (49:32):
We did not plan that, and we had to change
a dialogue a lot and make sure we're okay to
say these things and use these images.

Speaker 6 (49:41):
But yeah, we just tried to use all the ones
that have like.

Speaker 7 (49:43):
Queer undertones or overtones you know however you might want
to look at it.

Speaker 3 (49:49):
That's awesome, and so I guess, like you know, this
one is traditionally, I would say what I find short
films are typically classified anywhere between five to fifteen minutes,
whereas your guys are twenty five to thirty. And I'm
kind of curious, you know, with with creating something that

(50:11):
is a longer format short film, what were some of
the what were some of the things that you really
wanted to include it felt like were vital to the
story or some of the challenges even for creating something
that is also unconventional a little bit.

Speaker 7 (50:30):
Right, Yeah, I think it ties in with your previous
question a little because going off the monster movie obsession
that both these main characters have, that's what ultimately brings
this romantic element into the film, which a lot of
people aren't expecting, and it takes sort of a tonal shift,
but it's important to the story because you know, a
lot of old Hollywood filmmakers were queer, weren't allowed to

(50:53):
express themselves, and they had to express their deeper yearnings
or deeper you know, moral quandaries with society through these undertones.
So these characters, since they're older, they did, ah, that's
kind of that was their that was their window into
cinema in a way, and queerness.

Speaker 6 (51:14):
And this queer people.

Speaker 7 (51:15):
We've always kind of identified with the monsters more so
than you know, any of the protagonists, and these characters
do feel like monsters themselves, so it was important that
we connect that together through this romantic element. But I
did not think it was going to be twenty five
minutes for the record as a first time filmmaker. Everyone

(51:37):
was like, yeah, scripts are one page a minute. I'm like,
all right, great, fifteen page scripts.

Speaker 6 (51:42):
We're good to go.

Speaker 7 (51:43):
We're gonna be able to submit to everything. But like, nope,
Like once we started filming, my mind was not you know,
in the realm of like trying to hit a run time.
It was trying to like get the best performance possible,
make sure everyone's comfortable, and like being able to feel

(52:04):
emotions from the performances like that was key to me.
And even if we went above that run time, like
I would still be happy with what we got because
the performances all shine so.

Speaker 6 (52:15):
Much, and that is like the heart of the film.

Speaker 7 (52:18):
All these actors were so so devoted to their performances
and their characters and what this film means for us.

Speaker 6 (52:25):
That was the most important thing.

Speaker 7 (52:27):
But I will say the first cut was thirty five minutes,
so we did shop ten minutes. Even though it's already
pretty lengthy, it was even lengthier, you know. But hopefully
people can see the ambition in that because we did
crunch a lot into twenty five minutes, and the next
step is the feature.

Speaker 6 (52:42):
So I think that'll actually work in our favor.

Speaker 4 (52:46):
I yeah, I was gonna say.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
I was like, there is a lot that you guys
do here, and I feel like for a first time filmmaker,
you can definitely see the ambition.

Speaker 4 (52:54):
You can most.

Speaker 3 (52:55):
Certainly feel, you know, the ideas that you're playing with.
And that's the idea that I always love about short films,
Like there are some short films you watch and you're like,
I really really just want to see what this is
like on a like a more epic cinematic feature scale,
and sometimes you're restrained by budgets, and sometimes it's restrained

(53:17):
by you know, oh, this is what I have. But
I think one of the more refreshing things that I hear,
especially from a first time filmmaker, is wanting to make
sure that the performances were good. Performances here are are
very solid, So I think you did a great job
in that, thank you.

Speaker 4 (53:36):
So where can people if I jell line?

Speaker 7 (53:38):
So, we have our Instagram at Demontwing Film. We have
a little website demonswingfilm dot com and that's mostly where
you can really keep up with the projects.

Speaker 3 (53:53):
How would you guys like to help us get mental
health resources into schools, conventions and other events. Well, now
you can simply go to Patreon dot com Ford Sage,
Victims and Villains. For as little as one dollar a month,
you guys can help us get mental health resources into
current and upcoming generations, educate and break down stigma surrounding

(54:17):
mental health, suicide.

Speaker 4 (54:18):
And depression, and to get exclusive.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
Content that you can't get anywhere else.

Speaker 4 (54:24):
And you guys can.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
Tell us which Nicholas Cage movie you want us to
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(54:47):
want and help us get hope into the hands of
the depressed and the suicidal today. Think you once again
to Stephen for his time and just the crazy ride
the Demon Twink was again. My full thoughts are on
our website. My next guests Floral, Yes, that is right,

(55:08):
My next guests are ones. That is a story that
you don't really hear too often, and it's a special
type of movie that you don't really get to see
a lot in the wild. Typically, movies like Minister Chucky
are reserved for private collections. This is essentially a weddy

(55:29):
wedding tape that you guys are getting ready to hear
us discuss. And I sit down with the filmmakers behind
this and also now husbands Graham Colbeans and Jonathan Andre cullitzon.
I hope you enjoyed this conversation on Chucky, politics, marriage
and more.

Speaker 4 (55:50):
Hello, how are both of you today?

Speaker 2 (55:53):
Wonderful? It's a beautiful day and British Columbia.

Speaker 4 (55:59):
It is hot down here in Virginia. Damn spine.

Speaker 3 (56:07):
I'm an ac so I can't complain too much and
that's why I have a hoodie on. But you guys
are the the filmmakers behind the micro documentary called Minister Chucky,
and I before we even jump into it, I am
so curious to hear where the idea for this film

(56:28):
came along, because I know it's pretty common for couples
as they're you know, kind of going through that process
of tying the knot to the you know, want to
keep those memory sakes. You guys did something a little
bit differently here in this documentary. This documentary is vulnerable,

(56:48):
it's political, it's oddly funny in certain parts of it,
and it feels like it's also a love letter to
the horror genre, all within the span of like eleven minutes.

Speaker 4 (56:58):
So where did the idea do it come from? For
this movie?

Speaker 2 (57:03):
Sure? Do you want to?

Speaker 4 (57:06):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (57:06):
I think it kind of evolved organically out of just
wanting to document our wedding and our journey to both
get married and leave the United States.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
So we thought that we were just.

Speaker 8 (57:22):
Making a wedding video like for our friends and family.
But as we started to show it to people, they
told us it could be a short documentary, and we
decided to edit it down and add some voiceover and
just present it in a way that people who don't

(57:44):
know us could maybe enjoy it as well.

Speaker 9 (57:47):
Yeah, I think that, you know, getting married is a
queer couple in that span of time, especially as like
inherently political, you know, So we were just making our
wedding video, but then it was super political. It was
funny because we have such a goofy mutual sense of
humor that very naturally led us to have a chucky minister.

(58:11):
So these things are just sort of a reflection of
what was happening naturally in our lives and the natural
response for us as always to make a film, you know.
So that's that's sort of how how it came about.

Speaker 4 (58:26):
I'm curious about the editing process of this.

Speaker 3 (58:30):
What would you guys kind of decided to officially kind
of like move on and move forward and kind of
take the ideas of friends and colleagues that it were
provisioned enough to see like this and like it's like
rawless form. How did you guys cut aside what ultimately
you would stay and what would ultimately go to become
the film that you guys are screening at your screen

(58:51):
most week.

Speaker 9 (58:53):
Well, the wedding video was thirty minutes long, so and
that was like egregious just as a wedding video to
like send to our family and can you please just
sit down and enjoy every last thing that we enjoyed
about this wedding. But Graham did that edit basically, and

(59:14):
Graham is a documentarian, has done you know, feature length documentary,
extremely talented, cut that down. I love to do comedy
and I direct comedy that I edit, so I sort
of came in after that and just took a took
a bit of a hatchet to it. Was trying to

(59:36):
just dedicate every shot that you saw to the narrative
that we were crafting, which was that we were just
normal people that wanted to you know, get married at
this crazy time and celebrate in a way that showcased
the pugnacity that the actual act was taking for us

(59:57):
to accomplish. So that's what that's sort of the editing
process was just like what do you need to know
a lot of a lot of things that we really
love hit the cutting room floor, but people who saw
the thirty minute and the ten minute versions were like,
I can't remember what was cut. So that's that's when

(01:00:18):
we knew we did a successful job at crafting it nice.

Speaker 4 (01:00:24):
I am kind of curious. I was talking about with
this with JT.

Speaker 3 (01:00:30):
The showrunner programmer of the Festival, and obviously this year.
Don Mancini is the guest of honor. You guys got
married by someone dressed in Chucky and actually like there
are parts in there where they're doing like the he's

(01:00:51):
doing the chance and like kind of like weaving that
into like his like normal routine. I am kind of curious,
like before we even jump into that week for both
of you guys, what is your favorite entry into the
Child's Place like Chucky franchise.

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
Wow, that's a good question.

Speaker 8 (01:01:14):
I feel like I've been a Child's Play fan since
I was a kid and somehow convinced my dad to
rent the VHS tape of the original Child's Place, So
that's probably where I tell people to start. But I
do think you could jump right into Bride of Chucky
as another entry point.

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
Yeah, I think I like Seed.

Speaker 9 (01:01:40):
For the opening and for you know, Glenn, g Linda
and all of that. But we we have watched all
of them now in the span of three months to
obviously dust up and everything.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
The fact is they're all good.

Speaker 9 (01:01:56):
I think we all know that there's like a week
in entry may be in there a little bit on
the third one, but but they're all really good. You know,
it's a it's a franchise that doesn't really fuck up,
which I think is one of the reasons we love

(01:02:17):
it so much.

Speaker 3 (01:02:18):
Yeah, I get I have to agree with you. I
will agree with Graham and say that Bride is probably
my favorite, but also this that grew with you. Josted
that three is definitely the lowest point of the franchise.

Speaker 4 (01:02:32):
Controversial decision, but I'm glad of not.

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
I talked to Don about it when I see him
put a jackass.

Speaker 3 (01:02:44):
But obviously it's it's really unique for both of you
guys to get married by someone in Chucky Get Up.
Can you kind of explain the process of how that
came to be? And it really seemed like the minister
was into it, So I'm also kind of curious, like
what the challenges were and finding a minister they would

(01:03:05):
also be willing to do it.

Speaker 9 (01:03:07):
Well, the challenge was pretty much non existent because we
were well, first we were looking at different price points
on the different chapels. We looked at the Kiss Chapel
because they had the best list of people like that.
I mean, they had horror villains all kinds of like

(01:03:29):
rock stars. So at first we were like, we want Chucky,
but we might also want Share to do it, to
do a co ministering with Chuckie.

Speaker 8 (01:03:41):
Yeah, I had a vision of Share and Chucky doing
a duet of I Got You Babe, But I think
it was like a little bit too elaborate.

Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
It's way too expensive. That was crazy. But then once
we we were like we knew.

Speaker 9 (01:03:57):
It, we felt it that this was like the right
decision for us to have the Chucky minister. And then
when they got into it with us asking like what
did we want, we specifically asked them to do the spell.

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
So I don't think that wasn't his normal thing.

Speaker 9 (01:04:14):
But the reason that he did, like the whole you know,
Adumbala and all of that, is because we wanted it
to be like a piece of the movie sort of.
We wanted to feel like it was actually Chucky. I
feel cursed. Yeah, and honestly like that guy.

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
Yeah, he was brilliant.

Speaker 9 (01:04:38):
His costume is really scary too, because there's like these
little like slits in the mask where he's looking out
with his realize. So the actual like to be in
that thing presence was really really disconcerting and crazy, just
like the killer it all in the movies.

Speaker 2 (01:04:59):
You know, we shouldn't be around it.

Speaker 8 (01:05:02):
Yeah, some of our wedding guests were like when Chuck
you was doing his crowd work.

Speaker 9 (01:05:11):
Yeah, I don't think you pick it up as much
in the documentary, but since we know what's happening, we know, well,
we won't We're not going to call out our friend,
but she is terrified.

Speaker 4 (01:05:24):
I don't even know how to respond to that next question,
I think kind of I'm kind of curious also too
for you guys.

Speaker 3 (01:05:34):
At what point in the filming of the documentary did
you guys kind of format the narrative around it like
you mentioned originally, Jonathan.

Speaker 8 (01:05:47):
Yeah, I think that was after we did the initial cut,
which was more just like raw footage of the wedding
and the events around it. We decided to expect and
the framework into this more political context and show you know,
what we were responding to and our plans for leaving

(01:06:12):
and going to Canada.

Speaker 9 (01:06:13):
And also our producer Felix mac shout out to him.
He and his husband were the ones that got us
the chucky bong, and so when they did that, because
it wasn't on our registry, so the chucky bong that
appears at the end, he was like, you know, it
could be the end of a documentary, like it could

(01:06:34):
be a nice button. And so once I started to
see that part, like I was like, Okay, so we
want to end up here and kind of like show
maybe even the things that we haven't thought about of
why we chose Chucky. You mentioned, you know, it's so
inherently queer. I think that's something that it was like

(01:06:54):
inevitable because of that, and because we're such you know,
queer potheads, it was inevitable that one of our queer
pot head friends gave us a tucky bong, you know.
So I think it all kind of tied together just
because we're living our genuine best lives. I suppose.

Speaker 3 (01:07:14):
I am kind of curious for you, both of you guys,
in creating the political undertones that this film has. What
type of effect that kind of had on both of
you guys as mental health? I know, in having interviewed
other documentarians before, and you know, when you find a

(01:07:35):
subject that you're really in passionate about, a lot of
it is I had to, I you know, have to
kind of put breaks or have to create spots for
me so that you know, I don't get too pissed
off or too in depth to this, Can you guys
talk about the the effect that had on the mental
health but also the if there was balance, what did

(01:07:57):
that look like for you?

Speaker 2 (01:08:00):
Sure?

Speaker 8 (01:08:00):
Yeah, I think for the most part, it was pretty
joyful editing this documentary because it has so many moments
of pure joy that we got to experience. But at
the same time, there's like footage of Trump that we
had to watch over and over again, so it does
take a toll on the mental health to just hear

(01:08:22):
his voice. That's why we decided to like tweak his
voice and had a filter that made him sound all squeaky,
because it's just like, we don't even want the audience
to have to suffer with.

Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
Yeah, yeah, I think, you know.

Speaker 9 (01:08:39):
We were also just both mentally struggling. I remember when
we were at a film festival at the end of
October and we were celebrating our anniversary, and I was
just like, we don't know what's going to happen in
a few days, you know, in the election, and you know,

(01:09:01):
but if things turn out bad, like do.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
You want to get married?

Speaker 9 (01:09:07):
You know, and you know, Graham being Canadian and everything,
just in a romantic sentence, just my mind was like
I wish that it wasn't in this context where I'm
asking my partner like this, you know question, and it's like,
but you know, I didn't want them to feel like, hey,

(01:09:28):
you're Canadian, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
So that's also there.

Speaker 9 (01:09:32):
I obviously wanted to marry Graham, you know, but this
political climate forced this sort of situation. So I think
we were both just like hell bent on making the wedding,
like it says in the documentary, all our own, you know,
just really putting our personal spin on it so that
we could you know, not have that kind of overhang

(01:09:54):
of like this is because of you know, it's not
because of Trump. It's because of everything, you know, the
ripple effect that his influence has had, and the way
that our country has obviously let us down, you know,
as citizens. So I still still feel like that kind

(01:10:14):
of stress. You know, it's just somebody who has like
a trans masque sibling that's still in the States. All
our friends are there, so we have this like very
real anxiety that's never left us.

Speaker 3 (01:10:28):
Uh.

Speaker 9 (01:10:28):
And I think, you know, this moment in this documentary
that it captures is that kind of like happiness that
we are able to feel because we're so happy together
in a terrible, terrible time.

Speaker 4 (01:10:43):
Yeah, but me a community is.

Speaker 3 (01:10:45):
Important and if you know, one person can really make
or break you know, keeping you to sane essentially. Yeah,
kind of moving on to happier things. I am kind
of curious just how to have curiosity. You guys they
were able us to do a proper honeymoon out of curiosity.

Speaker 10 (01:11:07):
Well, the honeymoon was kind of the wedding weekend, the
day after the day after the wedding in Vegas. Still,
we just tried to like load as many fun Vegas
activities into that weekend as possible. And we also were
lucky to have like our friends and family support us
through the registry that we made, so that included things like,

(01:11:31):
you know, going to see Drag Race Live and the
Punk Rocket Museum.

Speaker 9 (01:11:36):
Yeah, we're really grateful for that, and I think any
excuse to like prolong the honeymoon phase is a good one.
So hopefully we'll take like another cool trip or do
another little celebration because all of our family weren't able
to go there. But I guess the answer to your
question is no.

Speaker 3 (01:12:01):
Well, my last question is you will find you Alie
to follow you guys as exploit.

Speaker 2 (01:12:07):
Sure well.

Speaker 9 (01:12:09):
I can be found on Instagram at Jonathan Andre the
Giant if you want to stalk me personally, if you
just want to find out about the films, and one
of our podcasts, Heath and Henshaw at Heath and Henshaw's
where you can find all that information.

Speaker 8 (01:12:24):
Yeah, I'm also on Instagram at Graham Colbeans and I'm
on Blue Sky and also Graham Coolbeans dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
Oh and follow us on YouTube.

Speaker 9 (01:12:36):
Yeah, we have a series called Flea that continues this journey.

Speaker 2 (01:12:42):
If you want to see me cry.

Speaker 9 (01:12:43):
Over the results of my passport, I won't spoil the tears,
are happy or sad, Just go on over to Flee
and just check it out.

Speaker 1 (01:12:58):
You say that rope off of yourn and know you
are love, Drop that nine off.

Speaker 5 (01:13:18):
Of your.

Speaker 1 (01:13:22):
Split, those pills out of your mouth, leave the cub
out of your head.

Speaker 2 (01:13:36):
And know you are loved, You are

Speaker 1 (01:13:39):
Alive, You're not alone, don't be afraid and more

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Queer Screams Film Festival (2025, Part One) | Episode #477

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Queer Screams Film Festival (2025, Part One) | Episode #477