OUTfest 2001

By David Geffner
Photos by Robert Hale

l-r: Irwin Rappaport, Matt Brodlie, Howard Cohen, Dennis O'Connor, Tommy O'Haver and Jamie Babbit.

DGA Theater 2 was the site for a Guild-sponsored panel entitled "Making the Leap: Beyond Filmmaking on a Shoestring." Moderated by entertainment attorney Irwin Rappaport, whose clients in this year's Outfest included Cheryl Dunye (writer/director of Stranger Inside for HBO) and Dirk Shafer (writer/director of Circuit), the panel featured DGA member indie filmmakers Jamie Babbit (But I'm Cheerleader) and Tommy O'Haver (Get Over It). Other panelists included Matt Brodlie, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions for Miramax Films, Dennis O'Connor, Vice President of Theatrical Distribution for Universal Focus, and Howard Cohen, Head of the Independent Film and International Financing departments at United Talent Agency.

"It's a tradeoff when you choose to make any kind of leap and direct larger budgeted projects," Jamie Babbit said at the outset. "You gain more access to equipment, a greater profile as a filmmaker, and a shiny, polished movie. But you don't get as much control. You don't get any queer characters, for the most part. And you get a watered-down version of your vision, which sucks."

Rappaport quizzed O'Haver as to the evolution of his second film (following his gay-themed debut Billy Hollywood's Screen Kiss). "When I first pitched Get Over It, it was like a high school version of Showgirls, with gay characters," O'Haver explained. "Those characters were developed out of the final script, and, in fact, Miramax made me shoot a scene with the Martin Short character, whose sexuality was sort of ambivalent, to show he was married. The scene turned out so badly that even they said we didn't have to use it."

The panel discussed the current market for gay-and-lesbian-themed films, with the consensus from the executives on the panel being a rather bleak viewpoint for independents. "All of the movies that we are picking up or making now," noted Miramax Vice President Matt Brodlie, "need to either start as mainstream movies or cross over into the mainstream. That's how Harvey Weinstein wants it. Unless you have a big star like Robin Williams or Kevin Kline to assure audiences a gay-themed film will not offend their sensibilities, mainstream America just won't turn out on a large scale. It's a fact of the business, so far."

"I'm not here to defend Miramax," added Universal's Dennis O'Connor. "But if you look at most gay movies, with a few exceptions like Boys Don't Cry and Before Night Falls, there is a ceiling of $2 million or $3 million that these films make. Marketing costs are so high that it's tough to make money on a movie that can only gross $2 million or $3 million, so I agree with Irwin when he says these films should stay in the half-million-dollar range. The foreign returns are worse than the domestic [on gay films], so it's a huge risk to put out a lot of money."

Filmmaker Babbit served up the most direct and tough-minded comments of any member of the panel, and the audience clearly warmed to her candor. "This discussion is going off-point to say that the best thing an independent director can do to move up the chain is to write a great script. And oh, by the way, don't include any gay characters. Scott Rudin and Paul Rudnick [producer and writer of In and Out] had a very hard time making a studio film with gay characters. And they're not in this room today. My film cost $1.3 million and I had to struggle to bring the aesthetic I wanted. It's a sad thing to tell filmmakers that they need to stay under a half-million dollars if they have gay content, and then expect them to make an amazing, groundbreaking movie at that budget level."

Director Randal Kleiser and Outfest Executive Director Stephen Gutwillig

DGA Third Vice President Paris Barclay presented the coveted Audience Award for Narrative Feature to dual winners: Harriet Dodge and Silas Flipper's By Hook or By Crook, and Cheryl Dunye's Stranger Inside.

Other Outfest winners included the following: Lisa Udelson's Audience Award for documentary feature, Lifetime Guarantee; Lauren Hilmmel's Emerging Talent Award for her narrative feature debut, Treading Water; Sandi Simcha Dubowski's Grand Jury Award for best documentary feature, Trembling Before G-D. Michael Cuesta's unsettling coming-of-age story, L.I.E., took home the Grand Jury Award for American Narrative Feature.

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