Ira Sachs (2014)

My mother and stepfather, my great uncle and his partner, a wonderful man named Michael Zimmer, who lived in the West Village in a house with 2 gay cops on the top floor; and one gay couple we read about who lost a job with the Catholic Church after having gotten married.

they claim it's for language -- there are a few F-words and 2 MF-words -- but there is enough precedent for them to decide that the film is still very suitable for family audiences. It's more of a shame than I knew, because I'm now hearing of friends not taking their children, and I am shocked that they follow the rating. It's about as family friendly a movie as Miracle on 34th St.

I get inspiration from so many filmmakers not working today, who actually seem more sophisticated in their presentation of gay characters than most working today, including Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Patrice Chereau, Chantal Akermann, Pier Paolo Passolini....what's challenging today is for queer filmmakers to sustain a career for years, which is what's necessary to get better and deeper.

We were shooting a scene where she has no dialogue -- she's alone in bed with her husband, played by actor Darren Burrows -- and I watched her on the monitor very closely. It was then, seeing how much she could express in her face (almost as if she was writing paragraphs for me, but without words), that I understand how brilliant an actress she really is, and why she has 3 Academy Award nominations (and one win!). She is extraordinarily committed to making each moment on screen meaningful and complex.

In truth, it's hard for any artist to survive, or at least most, and as a gay artist, almost everything economically is set up to discourage work in which gay lives and stories are told. Hollywood, for example, didn't put a dollar into this film, even though it had well known stars. That's why I created Queer/Art organization, to create a ballast against that force that encourages GLBT people to tell their stories. You can find out more at queerartfilm.com and queerartmentorship.org

thank you for participating! I do think it's odd when people talk about the film with surprise that the characters aren't ONLY defined by their sexuality -- as if I would ever write a character that doesn't have many different elements of their personality. It's no great feat of mine, or an extra effort, to make gay people as human as other characters in my film!

Mauricio Zacharias and I are working on a third film in what we consider a trilogy of NYC stories, following Keep the Lights On, and Love is Strange. This time we are writing an intelligent film for kids and adults, about kids and adults. It's called THANK YOU FOR BEING HONEST (hearing it here first!), and it's about two boys who take an oath of silence and stop talking to their parents.

In 2012, when I started working with co-writer Mauricio Zacharias on the film, for the first time in my life I felt hopeful about love. I also went from living alone, to living with my husband, painter Boris Torres, our newborn twins, their mom, and various visiting in-laws....so I was inspired to make a film about many generations trying to get along in one cramped NYC apartment.

I never count on the film industry to support my work, so even as we were soliciting finances from film companies, I was developing another strategy, that relied on individuals who believed in the film's story, and also that it could be a commercially successful film. Ultimately, 26 individuals supported the films creation -- and they have all made their money back!

I work the most before I start shooting with my cinematographer, more than my actors even (particularly because I don't believe in traditional rehearsals before we start shooting); Christos and I spent 3 weeks watching movies, and talking, and studying closely a few films that were very key to our visual strategy, most specifically two films by Maurice Pialat, A Nos Amours and Loulou. Those were our most important.

Good question. I would say the wedding, because weddings no one really moves, and keeping the visuals compelling, without motion by the actors, was tougher than I expected.

Each of the projects has certain pleasures, and certain challenges. I like all the films equally though, because they each represent me at that time and in that moment. That said, these last two Keep the Lights On and Love is Strange have been particularly good experiences, because I feel like I was most comfortable with myself, and also I didn't have a boss. I worked with a bunch of wonderful people, but the finances were created in a way that as a filmmaker I had the most independence and control. I like that way of making movies.

Good question! well maybe when we discussed their backstories, and how they met, I could shed some specific light, but in general I think they looked at the characters as people not unlike themselves -- both of whom have been in long term marriages, and I think those experiences, with their wives, and in terms of that intimacy and pattern, was where they got the most.

I used to want to adapt A High Wind in Jamaica, by Richard Hughes. I think it would make a great, but very dark, animated film. I'm unlikely to do that though.

oh it always evolves. thanks for the nice words about the film by the way. I really was quite miserable in love until I was in my late 30's, when things got so bad, I had to make changes, and that's when I started to respect and like myself in a new way, which made me open to love in a new way, and better ready for it.

Doesn't seem to be a problem, and probably it's good for us, because we are a small movie, and we could get lost in the fray if we came out against the bigger films, with their bigger advertising budgets.

I think it's a good time for people to start making films, because they can do it cheaply; and the challenge is then for them to do it well; what's difficult, and unfortunate for the independent film scene, is that it's very hard for people to maintain and sustain careers, which is one thing that's very important for the quality of the work to grow. People are leaving cinema because it's not economically viable as a career.

I don't have a literary agent, so I can't help with that, but I think in terms of writing screenplays, if you aren't a filmmaker yourself, the best thing to do would be to find someone you respect, someone you know, who is, and see if you two can collaborate on making a movie. With most art work I think looking close at hand is the best place to start.

I have so many, but some that inspired me deeply now would be Joe Brainard, Angela Dusfrene, Alice Neel, Cindy Sherman. I like figurative, narrative work, though abstract painters like Louise Fishman also move and excite me deeply. My husband Boris Torres and I do like a lot of things similarly, though he loves horror movies, and I can't watch them.

the Knickerbocker, on 9th St and University Place is a home away from home

i drink red wine and johnny walker black on the rocks on occassion.

I love Ray's films, the beauty of both the stories, and the storytelling, the humanity, the interest in music and the comfortable poetry of his image making. He also has some films with really great plots, in which very simple tales resonate widely.

I first lived in NYC the summer of 1984, following my Freshman year of college, and then I moved here full-time, to Carroll Gardens Brooklyn, in January, 1988. So that's over 25 years now.

small popcorn, no butter, diet coke. What's that say about me, do you think?

even better the second time around, because over the years, I think I've learned a lot about the business, so I can participate with more depth in the process; the movie is also finding a wide audience, so that always makes the experience and collaboration more fun -- when the film is working.

I've been away for so long that at the moment I don't feel like I have any close stories to tell there, but you never know.

It's a film for kids and adults, about kids and adults, and specifically about two boys, best friends, who take an oath of silence and stop talking to their parents. It's also about NYC and real estate and families and growing up, so all the themes that were rolling around in Love is Strange also. It's called THANK YOU FOR BEING HONEST.

I don't really know about how they deal with smaller productions and profiles. I'm always surprised and impressed by how much information you can find there.

John Lithgow has said it well, each marriage is made up of many small marriages, and chapters. One folds into the next, but it's good to be ready for the "new" even with someone you've been in a relationship with for many years. My own personal feeling is that they most important thing in a marriage is honesty, and being strong enough in yourself to not take the small things too seriously.

I don't actually watch Game of Thrones, but I have many friends who do, including the gay policeman on which Cheyenne Jackson's character is based.

well I have known a lot of teenagers, and also I was a teenager, kind of like Joey (I stole French books from my high school, for example), but I also cast an extraordinary young actor, Charlie Tahan, who brought the character alive in such an organic, open way. I think he's one of the best young actors -- best actors period -- I've ever worked with.

It's instinct. Also, I cast Alfred early, and when I learned that he and John knew each other previously, I thought that would be a good base. I had a sense they would bring out very authentic, naturalistic, human performances from each other, and I wasn't wrong!

My co-writer Mauricio Zacharias and I are finishing a new script, THANK YOU FOR BEING HONEST, about two boys, best friends, who take an oath of silence, and stop talking to their parents. It's a film for kids and adults, about kids and adults. I think it's amazing how few intelligent films -- non-animated, and cinematic -- are made for young people.

Pierce was wonderful to work with. He's a natural, and very easy on set, and he nails it in almost the first take. It comes very easily to him, and he has a brilliant sense of humor.

Wonderful. Eric is a very astute, and very funny, young actor, who fits comfortably into any scene, and can make your dialogue sing!

Good question, and I really should get out more! Now that I have kids, Im discovering new places that were right in front of my nose, including playgrounds I'd never noticed, the NYC Fire Museum on Spring Street; the Children's Museum for the Arts on Charlton; and the zoo in Central Park.

I think we would likely all go out to dinner instead.

no I haven't.

I think these two characters were probably closer to them than any they had yet played, and that's partially due to how I like to work, in that I'm looking for actors to reveal themselves, more than transform. They aren't playing John and Alfred, but they can bring as much of their real selves to the role. After that, it's their brilliance as actors which gives the characters depth and shape (not to mention humor).

write about the world you know about most; that's what you have to offer that's unique. Your community, your friends, your thoughts, your personal experience and challenges. Then my other advice would be to watch as many different kinds of movies as possible, and read novels too! You have to invest in the history of the medium, and storytelling, to have the depth. So start now!

i guess both. I would look it up before writing either probably.