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Here
and back again: Dorian Blues producer Mary-Beth
Taylor and writer-director Tennyson Bardwell before
last weekend’s Capital Region premiere.
photo:Chris Shields
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Bringing
It All Back Home
Dorian
Blues, Ballston Spa filmmaker Tennyson Bardwell’s first
feature-length production, made its Capital Region debut to
sellout audiences last weekend, providing a homecoming of
sorts for much of the film’s cast and crew.
“It
felt late, because we’ve been out on the festival circuit
for two years now,” said Bardwell of the hectic touring schedule
that preceded the film’s recent screening at the Spectrum
8 Theatres in Albany.
Shot almost entirely around the Capital Region, the film returned
home with a host of awards (including several “Audience Choice”
and “Best Feature” awards) from various festivals, and a cast
and crew who were thrilled about the opportunity to show off
the product of their labor to some familiar faces. Nevertheless,
Bardwell quickly discovered that the rave reviews each showing
produced came from more people than just those with professional
or social connections to the film’s cast and crew.
“I
really thought it was just going to be full of people involved
with the film, but we had a show of hands and found out that
most of the people in the audience weren’t involved in making
the film at all,” said Bardwell. “That was definitely a pleasant
surprise.”
However, Bardwell said some of the best compliments the film
was paid were generated during the Q&A sessions that followed
many screenings. As a straight man writing about the trials
and tribulations of coming out of the closet for a film he
hoped would appeal to straight and gay audiences alike, he
wasn’t sure what to expect from each crowd that showed up
for screenings.
“Here
in Albany, it was a mostly straight crowd, but when we were
in San Francisco, the audience was almost entirely gay men,”
laughed Bardwell. “It was interesting, because each crowd
laughs at different parts of the film.”
“But
I realized I must have done something right when I was in
San Francisco and the audience wouldn’t believe I was straight,”
he added.
The success of the film recently prompted the Spectrum to
extend Dorian Blues’ stay through Feb. 16. With the
DVD of Dorian Blues hitting shelves less than a week
after its theater run ends and The Skeptic, his second
film, already in post-production, Bardwell says he hopes his
newest film can begin—rather than end—with a Capital Region
screening.
“This
is where we made Dorian Blues and it’s where we made
The Skeptic,” he said. “So this is like our home field.”
—Rick
Marshall
rmarshall@metroland.net
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