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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 6, 2002)
42 il*»« M K * September 6.2002 FILM ..........▼............ Oregon Ballet Theatre presents ■ . ^ ■ ):< Í : »>* OBT Exposed! James Canfield Signatures The Nutcracker The Nut Has Finally Cracked m Trippy ¿"A Former Portlander Miles Swain opens this year’s film fest by ~ ■ .V îSÂJfl ¿ames Canfield, C hristopher M c Q uain ortland-bom gay filmmaker Miles Swain moved to Los Angeles in 1996 to pursue an acting career, which then led to film schcx)l and, now, The Trip, a feature he wrote and directed, which has been selected to open this year’s Portland LGBT Film Festival. In anticipation of his Sept. 20 return to the Rose City, he kindly submitted to a grueling e-mail interview with Just Out. Christopher McQuain: Reportedly your screenplay was inspired by an urban legend about an incident of AIDS discrimina tion by an airline that forced a gay man and his friend to take a road trip in 1984. Miles Swain: 1 was in film schtxil around the time this story was told to me. I decided to write it as a short and film it as my the sis.... 1 loved the story so much that I decided to write...an entire feature-length script. 2 0 0 2 /2 0 0 3 Dance Season Leaping from Tradition © I» : iisisiiy o n r Subscriptions start as low as $20. For tickets call 503/2 BALLET 20 0 2 /2 0 0 3 Season Sponsors <* a ™,¡cani«,*, 90.7 P O R TLA N D N EW S, P U B L I C A F F A I R S AND MUSIC THAT YOU WON'T HEAR ANYWHERE E L S E . LISTEN FOR TH IS WAY OUT AT 6 PM E V E R Y TUESDAY. S U B ES I* > £ Ü ve T k HELP WANTED Tax Accountants/FullCharge Bookkeepers Are you looking for a change of pace in your work environment? My company oilers full & part-time employment opportunities with flexible scheduling, excellent pay and benefits. My company is growing fast and I need you to have recent, related work experi ence and he ready to grow with my company. n w\ i h h J '—SEatL I tPT T i L__ £?. Contact Kim Bauske at Big City Bookkeeping, Inc. 503-232-7650. Email your resume to: mskmb@aol.com or fax it to 503-234-9759. Office location : 1818 NE Irving St. Portland, OR 97232 CM: Much of the film is set during the ’70s and ’80s against the backdrop of the burgeoning gay rights movements and AIDS Just Out encourages audience members to yell out the crisis. Where did you get the spe phrase “Hey, take off your shirt!” when Miles Swain talks cific sense of time and place? about his film The Trip Sept. 20 at Cinema 21 MS: 1 talked to a lot of activists, CM: W hat has the response been to watched a lot of documentaries and read a lot The Trip from audiences at other queer of hooks. I was only 3 in 1973, so 1 got really film festivals? involved when 1 started learning all of this gay history.... I’d call some of my friends up and MS: We had our North American pre asked them if they heard about the White miere in Miami to a crowd of about 800, and Night Riots. (“Is that a circuit party.7”) Or if we got a three-fninute standing ovation! Most they knew that the American Psychiatric Insti of the festivals we played in have been high tute classified homosexuality as a mental illness lighted positions—opening/closing/center- in the early ’70s. Everyone was like, “What?” piece.... We recently won Best Film at the Honolulu Gay/Lesbian Film Festival. While Ask a black person who Martin Luther winning awards isn’t a goal, they’re certainly King is and you’ll get an expeditious response. nice. Especially when you don’t have to suck But what about our gay heroes and the people who shaped the world we live in? We need to anybody off to get it. I’m much too old to do that anymore anyway. know who these people are. 1 tried to incorpo rate as much of it as 1 could in the story...with out it taking away from the love story. CM: What thought or feeling do you hope will be paramount in the audience’s CM: How do you feel The Trip fits into experience? the spectrum of queer movies? MS: The story’s message is to he tme to yourself and live each moment to the fullest. 1 MS: I hope it’s a film someone who’s attempting to come out will take their par- had kind of a “Tommy” in my life and made some mistakes, which I didn’t own up to. I ents/friends/loved ones to. 1 didn’t really have anything like this film when I came ignored them and wished that they would kind of just go away. The problem didn’t go away, out. 1 think The Trip covers all the right areas: our history, two regular guys as our hut he did. 1 regret that, and 1 hope that people leads and a strong message of being true to who see this movie are at least encouraged to yourself—something a lot of gay people have speak up, speak out, he themselves, not he struggles with. afraid of taking risks and say: “Hey, I’m sorry. I messed up; please forgive me.” CM: Did you worry about alienating the audience with a story and characters that CM: Where does your career go from here? could seem like they’re too black-and-white or preachy? MS: I’m currently working on turning this MS: I was very cautious of the audience, movie into a television series. It’s being consid more so than I’ll probably ever he in the mak ered by HBO.... I also have another script I ing of a film. I made this film for everyone, hut, wrote about a trailer park family in Portland, if we’re going to he specific, then to the under- Oregon (yes, it’s my family), who move to Los 30 males. That’s why you have all the cutesy Angeles to pursue their dreams and end up on humor and no long, boring, in-need-of-a- their own reality television series. It’s like The Beverly Hillbillies meets The Osbournes. Wish major-edit scenes. The film entertains; the film me luck. j n will hopefully educate.
