Rhode Island Film Festival - Sunset
In the days following Pearl Harbor, a young gay man must decide whether to serve overseas or remain in New York City with his streetwise lover.
Interview with Writer/Director Gary S. Jaffe
Watch Sunset here:
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Thanks so much! “Sunset” came about because I wanted to write about a very, very hard goodbye. One of those moments where you just can’t let the person you love walk out the door. At the same time, I was reading George Chauncey’s Gay New York and Allan Bérubé’s Coming Out Under Fire, both of which gave me the idea to set the goodbye in 1941, in the days following Pearl Harbor. One man wants to fight; the other refuses to. But they love each other desperately so… voila! A very, very hard goodbye.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Come for the gorgeous cinematography by Jonathon Millman; stay for the nuanced, sensitive performances by Ryan Trout and Niccolò Walsh. Watch this film if you like big messy emotions without easy solutions. Or if you’re interested in pre-Stonewall gay history!
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Though it takes place in New York City, “Sunset” speaks a lot to my experience growing up in Austin, TX. Austin is a funny place -- it’s this progressive, liberal city in the middle of a conservative state. Katie and Skylar have also spent much of their lives straddling cultural divides. We grew up with both Americas, side by side.
“Sunset” balances core values from each. Peter is deeply patriotic; he wants to serve in this war, this good war. Arnie, who is older and has seen a darker side of America, does not. He’s not willing to serve a country that has no place for him as a gay man. But what makes everything more complicated is Love -- the universal value. I admit I am a romantic! I believe in Love’s power to build bridges, to allow forgiveness and understanding. Peter and Arnie get tangled up because of their conflicting values, but Love helps release them. (Or makes the knot worse, depending on how you look at it…)
We can’t separate our private lives from the broader world, from the political and ideological forces that can completely change the direction of your life in the blink of an eye. So it is for Peter and Arnie and so it is for us.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
“Sunset” began as a screenplay, but then became a short play. Over the course of a few productions, the script simplified to our shooting script. What we discovered in the editing room was that even more of the script could come out, that our actors effectively conveyed whole paragraphs with a glance and we didn’t need them! There’s so much silence and simple eye contact now; I love it so much better than all those foolish words. A big moment we thought was just slam dunk when we were filming it revealed itself to be unnecessary in the editing room. Kill your darlings, always!
It’s also fun to note how the play version and film version feel different. The play feels more like a battle of ideas playing out against the backdrop of a breakup. In the film, it’s all about the breakup; the battle of ideas is more the characters hiding from having to really talk about their feelings.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
The audience response has been wonderful! We played to a 500+ crowd at our World Premiere at Palm Springs International Shortfest. People have praised the film for its intimacy. They feel like a fly on the wall in this extraordinarily vulnerable moment for these two men. One interesting thing we’ve noticed is that the film plays as a Rorschach test. Audience members tend to take sides, identifying with one or the other based on their own core values.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
We’ve found out that “Sunset” is a bit divisive as a short. In many ways, we break a lot of rules for short filmmaking -- the film is talky, it’s one location, it moves at a slower pace than audiences typically expect from a short. We’ve even heard our film has programming teams debating about what a short film is and how it should function. And you know what? We love that. Because when audience members praise the film, they praise its deliberate pace, its insistence on exploring this one moment, its use of language. And they do praise its cinematic qualities -- how Katie deftly moves the camera through the limited space, how Jonathon’s beautiful cinematography makes a fold in the cloth rich in story and character. So, it makes me think we’re doing something right if we’re inspiring such different reactions.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
We are just trying to get the word out there about the film! We’re so proud of it and we just want to give more people the opportunity to see it. If We Are Moving Stories helps us get the film in front of even one more audience member, that would be enough. (Dayenu!) And we love We Are Moving Stories’s mission to champion new voices and its commitment to gender parity. My fabulous co-editor Katie Ennis is 100% why “Sunset” exists as a film. Skylar and I knew we wanted to make it but we didn’t really know how to make the first moves. Katie made it happen. #womeninfilm
Additionally, the three of us have been collaborating on a feature script version of this story called “Peter and the War.” The more visibility we can get for “Sunset,” the closer we get to that big, beautiful feature...
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Right now, we are all about the film festivals and journalists. We’re on a roll with the festival circuit, but I’m always so aware of how many festivals are out there, especially specialty fests like LGBT and Jewish film festivals, and we want to play at all of them! And any kind of online coverage (like this, thank you, Carmela!) helps like crazy. Once our major festival run concludes next year, we’ll move into a discussion of distribution, but that’s pretty far in the future. In the meantime, get at us, film festival directors and journalists!
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
We’re particularly interested in expanding the conversations that LGBT films are having. There are so many wonderful gay films about the modern moment, but relatively few which look to where we’ve been as a community. I think knowing who we were is so important to understanding who we are.
And, as mentioned, our feature version “Peter and the War” expands the story in very exciting ways, so our short is definitely trying to attract interest for the larger feature.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
How do we stay together when our core beliefs push us apart? Should we?
Would you like to add anything else?
I just want to sing the praises of my collaborators. Katie Ennis ran the shoot, she directed the camerawork, she brought the film through the editing room, and it’s literally her apartment we shot in. I stepped in and directed the actors from time to time with an eye on the story, but really the whole cinematic universe of the film is from Katie’s imagination.
And then there’s Skylar Landsee, my producer (and boyfriend.) He was the first person to see that “Sunset” should be made and started us moving in that direction. Then, when we were making the film, he took on almost every single thankless, aggravating task and made them look easy. He’s also responsible for our beautiful web presence and attention-grabbing materials. You’ve got a make a great first impression, and Skylar made sure “Sunset” does.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Katie is an editor on FX’s “The Americans” which is very exciting. Skylar is a producer at the content development company Mana Originals, and they’ve got some really interesting unscripted projects brewing over there. I wrote the script for a new musical that’s opening next month in western Pennsylvania.
Under the banner “Band of Others,” the three of us are moving the “Peter and the War” script through various drafts. We have a whole slate of projects in various stages of development, and we’re looking to pull the trigger on our next short this fall.
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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SUNSET
In the days following Pearl Harbor, a young gay man must decide whether to serve overseas or remain in New York City with his streetwise lover.
Length: 15 minutes
Director: Katie Ennis & Gary S. Jaffe
Producer: Skylar Landsee
Writer: Gary S. Jaffe
About the writer, directors and producer:
Gary Jaffe is a Brooklyn-based writer/director. His theatre work has appeared around NYC and the US. “Sunset” is his debut in the the film world.
Katie Ennis is a NYC-based filmmaker and member of the Motion Picture Editor's Guild, currently working on “The Americans.” BS in Film: Boston University.
Skylar Landsee is a Brooklyn-based film and TV producer, currently serving as development producer at Mana Originals (a new division of Mana Contemporary, Jersey City’s rising artistic community).
Key cast:
Ryan Trout as “Arnie”
Niccolò Walsh as “Peter”
Looking for:
Film festival directors, journalists, producers for the feature
Social media handles:
Facebook + Instagram: @sunsetshort
Where can I see it in the next month?
-Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival (Austin, TX -- Sept. 7th)
-Outflix Film Festival (Memphis, TN -- Sept. 14th)
-ImageOut: Rochester’s LGBT Film Festival (Rochester, NY -- October 8th)