It’s not every day you get invited to a pool party at Bruce Cohen’s (Producer of Milk and American Beauty among others) home in the Hollywood hills, so it’s with some trepidation that I sidle up the driveway (the taxi driver didn’t help by infusing my journey with stories of notorious poolside orgies whilst driving like a bat out of hell). Once inside I soon find myself sipping a cocktail poolside with a plethora of tanned gay men in Bruce’s generously proportioned garden overlooking Universal Pictures while Bruce himself parades around with a small baby in his arms: the ‘must have’ accessory for gay men in LA, or could he really not find a babysitter? I could be forgiven for thinking I’ve made it, except of course no one here has any idea who I am. Well, I wisely eschew my usual getting-to-know-you tactics (drugs, vomiting and inappropriate sexual behaviour; see Break My Fall for more info) and keep it low key. Hell, I even turn down a spliff in the cactus garden behind the house with some producers whose names I’ve forgotten, but will probably see in next years Oscars coverage. As a result I manage to keep my clothes on and not end up actually in the pool, which is full of impossibly buff toy boys and a few bikini-clad babes throwing beach balls with gay abandon. No I’m determind to stay fresh for my screening later at Laemmle on Sunset…
Andrew Haigh and Kanchi Wichmann
There’s a good turnout for the film despite the lack of press and promotion and the fact that our screening clashes with a popular LA film. The American audience really gets the film, laughs in all the right places, cries in all the right places and asks some of the best questions so far of any Q&A we’ve had. Eventually we leave our hoards of adoring fans and head off into the night keen to celebrate our success. But after a quick glass of wine in a nearby organic restaurant bar, most of our entourage is ready to turn in for the night and the staff are sweeping up around our ankles. Luckily, Christian Svenson (festival hospitality and aspiring actor) and Henry (newfound friend and fa
n of BMF from Argentina) have other plans and we head out to West Hollywood to an amazing club called the Abbey full of tough-looking black guys fondling one another and go-go dancers with dollar bills sticking out of their posing pouches dancing to pumping hip-hop beats. Suffice it to say we have the best night! (We’ve yet to explore the lesbian scene: strangely most of the lesbians I’ve met in LA so far just seem to want an early night).
The next morning I drag myself out of bed for the Directors Guild of America Outfest Directors’ lunch (I know – it’s a hard life). In the understated glamour of XIV restaurant UK directors Andrew Haigh, Rikki Beadle Blair and I skulk in our corner table with Charles Herman-Wurmfeld (director of Kissing Jessica Stein and Legally Blonde 2), programmer Bryan Stamp and festival director Kirsten Schaffer. Charles was keen to pass round his recently aqquired nine-dollar check from the Director’s Guild, which is not really an incentive to join but he seemed happy enough. The food is lovely, but each course takes so long to come that by the time the lunch is finished I’m hungry all over again. And after some (slightly) emotional farewells back at festival HQ I’m back off to Santa Monica to pack and take the hire car back. Our last night in LA is kind of the antithesis of Outfest, but deserves a special mention as it involves a dimly lit neighbourhood bar on Pico with a taco van outside it and the most amazing karaoke singers, absinthe shots and a man called Odin who happily shares his medical marijuana with me while regaling me with stories of his time in Mötley Crüe (seems he was kind of like the fifth Beatle – at least in his own mind: I Googled him and got nowhere). A million miles away from all those tanned and successful film gays, but still one of the best nights we had in LA… Now I’ve just got to get on with my next film so that Outfest can invite me back again.
PS: To all queer or queer content filmmakers, I strongly recommend trying to get your film into Outfest: it truly is an amazing experience.
Check out part one of Kanchi’s OutFest blog here.
Break My Fall opens on Friday 22 July at the Apollo Cinema, Piccadilly Circus, London. To book tickets online, please click here. Alternatively, you Break My Fall is showing at the Rio Cinema, Dalston, London on Saturda23 July. To pre-order the DVD from Amazon, please click here.
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