It's too pretty to sit in this office much longer, so I'll be out and in the patio for the rest of my office hours. If you're around, I'm the tiny person in bike hat and a torn flannel-- casual Sunday's a thing, right? Anyway, let's do this.
There's a screenwriting book from the early 2000s called Save the Cat. It's about narrative structure, mostly, and it has a pretty helpful breakdown of what should happen at what point in a story (e.g. by page 20something somebody has to make a big decision about somethingrather). It advocates for outlining, for storyboarding, and I guess, at some point, saving a cat (it's been a while, so sue me).
Reading a book like this makes you see films and other scripts (tv shows, plays) with a keener eye. You notice when stories take forever to get going (you're 30 minutes into a heist movie and you haven't even met the thieves yet -- yes that's right "Ocean's 8," I see you). You also notice when films rely on racist or homophobic clichés to further along plot-- well worn tropes like that of the "black character dies first," and "dead lesbian syndrome." In addition to being killed off, characters in POC or Queer communities deaths seem like tools to further the storyline, or, more egregiously, to further the arc of the main character, who is almost never a member of a marginalized community.
When I started creating the project The Legend of Graham Canyon, I wanted to create a story that was not only about a queer, latinx person of the old west, but one who doesn't die because of their queerness (that's not a spoiler alert, maybe Graham dies and maybe Graham doesn't, but it's not on account of being queer). For inspiration, I searched high and low for queer stories that didn't involve tragic ends, and unsurprisingly (but still disappointingly) I came up damn near empty. The only queer character I found who didn't meet a tragic end was that of Toddy in "Victor/Victoria," though one could argue that as an out gay man in 1930s Paris, he wasn't too far removed from folks in his own queer community being put into concentration camps.... gosh now that I think of that I hope Toddy never went to Berlin. Toddy if you're there, write and tell me you're safe.
Don't get me wrong, despite the fact that "Brokeback Mountain" and "Fried Green Tomatoes" both follow these tropes, they're still two of my favorite stories/books/movies. That said, I'm eager to create stories in which marginalized people not only get to survive, but thrive. If we represent these stories and people, then perhaps the way we see one another will change, as well.
If you'd like to hear more about all the movies I googled with sad, queer stories and how I'd like to rewrite them, then please join us at the Beach House this coming Tuesday, 11/12, at 6:30pm for a showcase and talk with queer writer and artist Veronika Shulman.
Oh and just a general PSA: please wear your helmet. I crashed my bicycle today and almost became my very own buried gay cliché, but due to the foresight/paranoia of my girlfriend (who has advocated for helmet use even in car free zones like the bike path), I am alive and telling the tale. Bruised and scabby, but very much alive.
stay safe, Santa Monica.
xx
Analisa
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