LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
Film Festival Homecoming |
by Fay Jacobs |
Did you hear the one about the Associate Producer and the chickens? Probably not. But we'll get to that. But first things first. At the recent Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival, the Associate Producer of the film The Fluffer, Gill Sperlein, was on hand to introduce the film and re-connect with old friends in his favorite beach resort. Sperlein, who first came to Rehoboth in the summer of 1985, worked at a new restaurant and bar called The Palm, where Cloud 9 now operates. Later, he went to work for Astral Plane next door (presently Sydney's). "After a year away from Rehoboth, I returned and went to work as a waiter at the Tijuana Taxi, then owned and operated by Victor Pisapia and Joyce Felton. I bartended at the Taxi for two summers while also working at Blue Moon catering, The Strand and Westside Cafe," says Gill. In other words, Gill's own coming of age days mirrored the Rehoboth gay business community's adolescence. Having graduated from college in Baltimore, Gill then moved to Frederick, MD to be with his partner Dennis Gilbertand, quite incidentally, got a job as a novice reporter on a suburban bi-weekly newspaper, the Montgomery Village News. In a stunning example of three or less degrees of separation, the then-editor of said newspaper happens to be the author of this article. Hence, she got her first tales of a gay friendly resort called Rehoboth Beach. Fast forward several years to Gill's decision to go to law school, move to San Francisco with Dennis, and spend five years working as a trial attorney. "But the profession wasn't for me. All you do is argue. What kind of life is that?" Which, is almost where the chickens come in. "I always wanted to do something creative," Gill says, explaining that he got in touch with friends in the film business, asked if he could sit in on some shoots. Next thing he knew, he was in the set decoration business. "It's really hard work," Gill says, describing how The Fluffera story about a young cameraman infatuated with a porn starwas shot in just three weeks, utilizing 29 different sets. "So you can imagine the pace," he says. The Fluffer had three days on a sound stage at the beginning of the shoot and another four days at the end. In between, Gill and his crew would arrive at locations at 5 a.m., set up by 8, shoot a scene, put the place back the way they found it and scurry off to another location. Since The Fluffer was a film about the porn industry, Gill notes that some of the props he had to obtain were not the kind he'd just have hanging around the housespecifically a leather sling. "I had to go meet with a guy named Daddy Zeus who owns a fetish film company to borrow the thing. He helped me tie it into the truck saying, 'hey, you're pretty good with knots.'" Gill made a quick getaway, reminding Daddy Zeus that he was just picking up the prop. Which does take us to the chickens. "We had to do a cheesy farmyard scene with hay bales and a pitchfork, but my assistant really wanted live chickens. Of course, there's no money to buy things, so we found these chickens at a Saturday swap meet and kept them in my backyard in boxes with screens on the top until the day we needed them. I came home one night to find that one chicken had escaped and I had to go around the neighborhood saying 'Excuse me, but have you seen a chicken running around? Talk about embarrassing." Once Gill recovered the runaway chicken, he used his new pets for the shoot and immediately returned them to their previous owners at the swap meet. "I had fresh-layed eggs every day in my backyard. How many people can say that?" Not many. Nor can they say they are associate producers, which turned out to be Gill's next career move. "As I was working on the film and getting to know the actors, I was impressed with the cast and the rushes (the film shot each day). Dennis and I talked it over and we decided to invest. And how has it turned out? Fabulously. The film had its world premier in Berlin last January and has also played London and Toronto. The reviews have been raves and there has been great pressincluding a feature story in Out magazine, mention in The Advocate and lots of other publications. Audiences here at the Rehoboth festival loved the film and it's now set for a full theatrical release beginning November 16. "I think we are going to do well with the film, but it's really a risky, risky business," Gill says. Would he recommend producing? "People should invest in projects they believe in, to support the arts. But it's really at the risky end of our portfolio," he admits with a laugh. Besides introducing the showings of The Fluffer, Gill got a chance to see some of the other films and then take time to catch up with some old Rehoboth friends, spend time in front of the bar at Blue Moon, and soak up some Rehoboth hospitality before heading on to the New York premier for The Fluffer, and then back to San Francisco. So how did he like Rehoboth's Independent Film Festival? "The program was very impressive." says Gill, "and the sense of community is wonderful. It's not like that at many festivals. Some of the film makers and industry people generally know each other, but here, lots of audience members know each other and it's really exciting." The Fluffer, which received raves from Rehoboth audiences, should turn out to be a huge success for Associate Producer Gill Sperlein, Rehoboth's bartender turned lawyer turned movie producer. We'll leave "chicken-catcher" out of the resume as we send Gill off to New York for the big opening with best wishes from his friends in Rehoboth Beach. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 11, No. 15, November 21, 2001. |