For the first time, the Sarasota Film Festival is targeting an LGBT audience with a few genre-specific films peppered throughout the April 7-17 celebration. The festival will also feature several appearances by film legends like Geena Davis and Christopher Plummer.
Plummer stars in Beginners, an intimate tale of a middle-aged son confronting his 75-year-old father's decision to come out as a gay man. The film will show twice at the Regal Cinemas Hollywood 20 on Sunday, April 17, at 5 and 7:30 p.m. It is the festival's closing night feature. Both mills and Plummer are scheduled to appear.
The premise of Beginners stems from director Mike Mills' personal recollections of his ailing father, who found a â┚¬Å”second windâ┚¬Â after sharing his life-long secret. Famously known for his graphic design work and music video-direction, Mills casts the likes of Ewan McGregor and Plummer, utilizing seasoned actors and naturalistic film techniques to explore the family dynamics of a father and son dealing with the ugly truth of death, while discovering that, at any age, life can be beautiful.
Mills took a moment to chat with Watermark about his work.
WATERMARK: After directing music videos for such acts as Moby, Yoko Ono, and Air, what inspired your jump to features?
MIKE MILLS: I love doing music videos, but I always hoped to make features. My videos were always story-based. With videos, I was practicing, trying different styles to become a filmmaker. For me, video making was like film school.
Aesthetically, what mood were you trying to create with the film?
I started writing it after my father passed away, and when a second parent dies, there's a period of â┚¬Å”high grievingâ┚¬Â where you have so much to say. So visually, I wanted a dense bouquet of images in the film, with stills and drawings and people talking to the camera. I wanted the film to have a naturalistic quality, with a rich vocabulary.
The character Hal was based on your father, who came out as a gay man late in life. Where there any gay stereotypes you tried to avoid when writing the role?
I tried to avoid stereotypes in the gay characters as well as the straight characters. I knew that portraying my dad's gayness would be different because he had played straight for most of his life. That's why I thought Christopher Plummer would be good for the role. I felt the choice would surprise the audience. Plus, Christopher and Ewan had such great chemistry. Ewan genuinely liked Christopher as a person. Beyond that, we didn't have a discussion as to a character being gay or not. It was more about how they loved.
What was your reaction to your father coming out? And how did it compare to the reaction of Ewan McGregor, whose character was based on you in the film?
I think Ewan's character was surprised, but embraced his father, which was my reaction in real life. There was so much more vitality in my â┚¬Å”gayâ┚¬Â dad. His coming out was so positive. He was in love with the UPS man. He was shopping at French Connection. Overnight, he became 40. He wanted to talk about sex all the time. I think Ewan's character reacted quite similar to me. He found it quite beautiful.
As a writer, do you find that you write about what pains you?
Sort of. More so, I write about my thickest mystery.
So with Beginners, are you telling the story for you or for your dad?
I'm telling it for everybody, but only because I know about it. As a filmmaker, I find that I have to truly know a subject to have the right to tell a story. I saw it (Beginners) as a type of memorial for my dad. He would have qualms with itâ┚¬â€ÂI'm sure, as he was a bossy, intense man. But I think, ultimately, he'd be into it.
see+hear
WHAT: Beginners
WHERE: Sarasota Film Festival, Sunday, April 17 at the Regal Hollywood 20
WHEN: 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
TICKETS: SarasotaFilmFestival.com
