From Director David Weissman: Serendipity and Facebook brought Alex and me into each other’s orbits back around 2013—more details on that in Alex’s comments below. Our experience working together on the Bob Dockendorff conversation was filled with moments of great poignancy and cross-generational connection—memorably when Alex met Bob in person for the first time very shortly after the horrific massacre in Orlando. Alex is a man of extraordinary kindness and depth who was a perfect match for this project.
From Editor Alex Bohs: I moved to California from Chicago after completing film school with roughly $200 in my bank account. I packed up my 11 year-old VW bug; a few frumpy bags filled with loud blouses, a few wigs, too many books and a clunky desktop computer. That computer would be my lifeline even though I was certain a few fun wigs would provide the light humor and familiarity I craved in life.
I hustled for one year getting on any set I could, surrounded by toxic heterosexuality and bad craft services. I failed miserably at being a PA so I began cutting music videos for friends; a delightful experience each time but fruitless financially. I quickly realized this was a skillset I could use for others so I took up work at a few editing houses in Culver City; not as delightful an experience but certainly more financially fruitful.
It was about two years in when I realized what I was actually searching for (more than a way to pay rent) hadn’t come my way yet. Then David Weissman called.
“I’m thinking of doing this unorthodox project…” I was on a lunch break in Culver City at a job I couldn’t stand. My heart was beating faster as he described this queer, intergenerational, malleable collaboration. *This* was what I had been hunting for. “I’m absolutely down” I snapped back at some point in the conversation. I returned to work beaming knowing the gray barren walls of this cold edit house wouldn’t be my only outlet.
Chicago had been the first home I was fully myself. Nobody knew me there. I entered it as outlandish and unabashedly queer as I felt comfortable being then. I ingested queer art at a rapid pace but had a tough time blending into the gayborhood. I longed for yesteryear queer communities like what I had learned about in San Francisco in the 70s.
I came upon WE WERE HERE when I was 19 in Chicago. It broke open such a taboo topic (at least for me at that time); AIDS. More specifically it conveyed nuance, tenderness and frankness about such a big community loss; it made it digestible in a way I had never had the ability to have in conversations myself at that point with older queer individuals. It was unfathomable to me then (and actually still is today in many ways) to go forward after such trauma as a community.
I reached out to David shortly after watching – on Facebook if memory serves me – thanking him for this incredible gift. To my surprise, he graciously responded and later that summer I had I short of my own at Frameline so we met in person in San Francisco (my first time visiting that incredible city).
I state all of this because at two very pivotal moments in my life, David Weissman came into my orbit and changed it all by the art of conversation, friendship and mentorship. This project in particular brought so much into my life through the early editing process itself all the way to befriending the other filmmakers and subjects.
Bob Dockendorff was who I was paired with to help bring to conversational life. What a gift that was in numerous ways. Bob and I have so much in common despite the generations in between us. His compartmentalizing in particular got me through my early Midwestern years. It was one of my greatest joys to sit with him and David in person before our Frameline premiere.
To make this long story shorter, it has been rather hard for me to define this project in a linear way (hence the back and forthness in this writing) because it has come in and out of my consciousness the more I work in this film world; the more years that pass since this collaboration the more I realize how special it was. The ways in which it got me over my own insecurities of striking up a conversation with someone older than me – especially someone queer – is hard to define. I’d say the ability to build a rich community with diverse ages and experiences can be traced back to this project and the conversations had by not only David and Bob on screen but also the offscreen ones I was lucky enough to witness and participate in.
November 12th will be my 8th year in Los Angeles and it feels like it. I was a different person when David and I first crossed paths (nearly) 11 years ago. The only thing that has remained is the comfort felt when we are able to chat and unpack this wonky world.
Thank goddess for David Weissman, Bob Dockendorff, Bill Weber, Michiel Thomas, Jake Stein, Ben Zweig, Aron Kantor and all others who helped in bringing these valuable conversations to life. I hope all who watch this series are as inspired by the history captured; community starts with a spark and I’m forever thankful to have been a part of this spark.
http://www.alexbohs.com
