Two weeks prior to the beginning of principal photography on his new film Keep The Lights On, I sat down with director Ira Sachs for an interview about the challenges and triumphs of making his film. In part one, Sachs explains why he’s making this film, and discusses some of the challenges for filmmakers telling queer stories in Hollywood. The video was shot by Cary Kehayan and edited by Adam Keleman.
Yearly Archives: 2011
Day 70: Too Nice by
I walked past my ex-boyfriend’s first apartment on W. 15th Street on my way to set this morning. Mild musings, but it was a long time ago—14 years—and I feel somewhat like a different person. I do believe people can change, maybe not essential personalities, but the level of pain goes up and down and, with it, the character. I don’t live in the kind of steady pain I used to, and loneliness and isolation. It’s a running theme in the movie, certainly, that from the age of 13, when I first started having sex, in secret, with a lot of shame, I held a certain part of me back from others for the next 26 years. I came out at 40, I might say. I decided, through the Program, to not keep a part of myself back anymore. You get mostly what you pay for. More…
Day 69: A Change in Weather by
I got a good night sleep and the skies are clearing after a rained out day yesterday. We weren’t really prepared for the change in the weather, and soon enough it seemed best to give into it. The days are going fast. I’m both ready for the shoot to be over and sad it’s only a month more. One good thing about being a director is that you finish shooting and have editing to go into. It just gets more interesting. Last time I finished production—in Vancouver, years ago—I was a mess, so I think the silences were larger when the crew went home (or “the circus left town” as they might say in Canada). More…
Day 66: Take 21 by
I forgot how totally grueling it is to direct a film—maybe this one more than others, because of the intensity of the material, though in truth, the little throwaway scenes in a movie are actually the hardest to shoot and probably should be literally thrown away. Which is why they are hard to shoot. Last night, we were at Sue Simon’s house, shooting the “Ken” scenes, one of the pick-ups. She mistakenly thought we were shooting a party scene until I arrived on set with three carrots and explained they were props for a blowjob. More…
Day 64: A Good Nap by
I just watched the first dailies, no sound, at the editing room, and I came away wanting very much to go to sleep. They aren’t what I imagined and I just want to go to sleep. We were on nights last night, so I got to sleep around 7am and then was awake by 11am, so I’m also tired, clearly. The day ahead seems long. Funny how quickly when you direct you can go from elation to depression. A grave desire to sleep. To turn on the A/C to get online and watch porn. To escape. More…
Day 62: First Day of Shooting by
Heading downstairs to go to set. Feeling excited, jittery, still calm, and mostly a sense of “Wow.” More…
The Stonewall Celebration by
We sent Onur Karaoglu, the KTLO in-house video master to the legendary Stonewall bar in NYC’s West Village, on June 24th, the night when the marriage equality bill finally passed the New York State Senate, making marriage legal across the Empire State. A crowd of people had gathered after the annual Village Drag March, which finishes it’s route in front of the bar each year. When the news came across the wire, the crowd had even more cause for celebration. Enjoy.
Day 61: Calm/The Handheld Shot by
We start shooting tomorrow and I feel surprisingly, happily calm. Yesterday I had time to go to Banana Republic and buy a few button down shirts for the shoot. It’s like the day before going to camp. I like to know what my uniform is going to be and I feel comfortable knowing I have a set of new, clean shirts to wear each day. I met this afternoon with Fonzie, my dear editor, and we caught up on life (briefly) and then I wanted to show him a lot of the films I’ve been talking with Thimios about the last few days. Close study of Pialat—the subtle differences between L’enfance Nue and Loulou, for example—still reveals things to me. And still leads me to new shots and strategies of approaching our film. I need to talk this afternoon with Thimios about the use of the handheld shot, which he resists like the plague. More…
Day 51: Everything Needs To Be Essential by
It seems to be a running theme. I’m exhausted. I think it’s the tenth day of 12-14 hour days and, though I’m mostly feeling lucky, today I also feel like I might collapse here in the office. But no time, or interest, in melodrama. Thimios is stuck in Ottawa, awaiting his visa. The locations are sort of finding their way, sort of not. We get one in the morning (the video porn shop), we lose one in the afternoon (a high end fashion boutique in the Meatpacking District that wanted $3000!—so much for supporting queer cinema). More…
Day 44: Meta-Narration of a Location Scout by
Very tired again. OK location scout this morning, but a couple of the spaces weren’t as good as I thought they were going to be from the pictures. Sometimes, when things go a little off the expected, I feel a spike of anxiety that mostly makes me want to sleep. More…