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Film Exercises

Film Exercise: Snow Angel

When you get stuck in a cabin in upstate New York during an intense blizzard, what else better to do than make some art, right? And that’s exactly what Bee Nest Films did with our collaborators and cohorts at Watergun Outlaw Films. Who cares if there was only four of us, with minimum equipment, no script and 24 hours to shoot… When you have a passion for storytelling, not to mention pushing the envelope, then you take any opportunity to do so.

The synopsis is this: A man who is haunted by the suicide of his boyfriend is visited by a mysterious woman during the middle of a blizzard. Here’s the epic moment of this mysterious woman’s arrival, played by Shannon Beeby, who fearlessly braved the blizzard to get the shot:

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community news

‘Stamping’ Out North Carolina’s HB2 at The Wild Goose Festival

BeeNest Films teamed up with Evangelicals for Social Action to stage a “Stamp Your Cash” demonstration at the progressive faith festival, the Wild Goose Festival in Hot Springs, North Carolina in order to speak out against HB2.

The festival had been held in the same spot for the past six years, so when North Carolina passed HB2 it came as a real blow to the organizers of the festival who are morally opposed to the bill and its latent bigotry. So when I was invited to attend the festival by ESA in order to participate in a Racial Justice Institute Workshop they were hosting with the Faith Matters Network, I started thinking about how there could be some way to bring money into the state of North Carolina and make it express my opposition to HB2.

That is when I thought of where the Stamped Film Festival in my hometown of Pensacola, Florida got their name from:

Back in the 90’s, the gulf coast was a Mecca for the LGBTQ community over the Memorial Day weekend for Pride. Thousands of people would gather and celebrate on our beautiful beaches, but there were some squeaky wheels that did not like the influx of gay people coming into the area. In response to these complaints the organizers of the Pride festivities began stamping all of the cash that was generated with phrases like “Gay Money”. By the end the end of the year it was estimated that the LGBTQ community infused nearly 25 million dollars in the local economy. Interestingly enough, those squeaky wheels got a lot more quiet from that point on. 😉

Our objective was a bit different, but what we were hoping to do was give an outlet for this community of faithful people, most of whom identify as Christian, to not only speak out against HB2, but to also address the deeply troubling use of Christianity to support such a bill. Our stamps featured phrases like “Christians Against NC’s HB2” and “#WeAreNotThis”.

Chances are, if Jesus had a twitter account, he’d be hashtagging #WeAreNotThis a whole lot lately.

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Stamping cash in North Carolina in order to Speak Out Against HB2

The response was fantastic! Festival goers pulling out their wads of bills and going to town with our provided stamps – And at the end of the festival, I went around to the vendors and gave each of them a stamp to keep and continue to use and mark all their bills. It was clear that people were very excited to have an opportunity to take back the narrative in some small way.

This brings me to what I found incredibly impactful about attending the Wild Goose Festival – Reclaiming the Narrative of Faith.

I’m going to be honest, the word “christian” has been allowed to take on such a negative and destructive connotation that describing myself as one has felt like a misnomer. I know many, if not most of my friends who were raised in a christian household, have now evolved into usually only feeling comfortable with describing themselves as “Spiritual” or as “a follower of Jesus, but not necessarily ‘a christian’”.

The Wild Goose Festival allowed me to rediscover how the spirit is flourishing beyond oppressive definitions and constraints, and also within the body of the Church. It may not be the part of the body that gets the most press, or has the most lobbyists in DC, but it’s heart beats with radical love that values diversity and the oppressed. It is the part of the body that strives to embody the love of Christ in every moment and with every person, and to recognize the spirit in all things. It is the part of the body determined to self-examine and expand through the scientific exploration of this universe; to grow in understanding and appreciation of the uniqueness of others. It is the part of the body that inspires me to reclaim and celebrate my faith heritage.

If this speaks to any of you, if you have ever felt disenfranchised by your faith community, I highly recommend attending next year’s Wild Goose Festival.  Ryan and I will see you there 🙂

Categories
Film Festivals RSVP

Bee Nest Films at The Maui Film Festival

Six years after Ryan and I got married, we sublet our apartment in New York and spent two months living on the Hawaiian Island of Maui. We lucked out in finding a cabin in Makawao, a ranching town on the slopes of Haleakala, that rented for a little less than what we were getting for our place in NYC. Our jobs were remote and we continued to work while there, but our days were sprinkled with watching sea turtles surf in the reef break on the north shore, and hiking through the lunar lava landscape in La Perouse, and gathering footage in windswept sugar cane fields and ancient upcountry eucalyptus forests.

In the last week of our residency, we were purchasing gifts for family at a local shop, and we noticed our bill was much lower than what it should have been, when we asked, the shop owner told us that she had assumed that we were locals and had given us the coveted “ locals discount”. To say that Ryan and I were honored by this assumption was a real understatement.

We joked with each other, “ You know what we’re gonna do!? We’re gonna make a film and submit it in the Maui Film Festival and we’re gonna come back here some day! That’s what we’re gonna do!”

We said this, having never made a film.

We laughed and had a lot of fun with how “out there” this fantasy was.

And then, this May, we got a call from a Maui area code with the news that our crazy fantasy had become a reality. 6 years after our first experience in Maui we would be returning as guest of Maui’s magical and life-affirming festival to screen our first short film, RSVP,  an allegory that expresses our hope for people of faith to Fully Affirm the LGBTQ community.

After sleeping on the floor of LAX during our 8 hour layover, we arrived in Maui. And oddly enough, it felt like only a few months had passed since we were last there.

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That first night we attended an event hosted by the Maui Film Festival, called the Taste of Summer. Despite being pretty loopy from jetlag and traveling for the past 20 hours, we had smiles that couldn’t be wiped off our faces. Paradise has a way of doing that to you.

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We screened RSVP at the Castle Theatre at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center which was beautiful space.  And we were honored to screen before the feature length documentary STRIKE A POSE, which explores the journey of Madonna’s backup dancers during the height of the AIDS crisis.

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There is truly an intangible magic to Maui, a feeling that I can only really ascribe to the fact that the Islands of Hawaii are still alive and being formed. Their continual birth, so far removed from the mainland and the rest of society, prompts you to undergo a similar expansion of self. Its natural beauty is almost confrontational, as if to say, “How can you not see all of this as the miracle and blessing that it clearly is?”  And so you take a good look, and become overwhelmed by how true that is: That you, and everything around you, is a gift.

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Ryan and I drove the “back way” to Hana and came upon a historic church. We took the opportunity to hoist a Pride Flag in order to express our belief that Jesus would definitely make room at his table for the LGBTQ community. And that he implores us all to do the same. He told us what  his greatest commandments were. Now it is time for all Christians to really treat them as such.

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Matthew 22:36-40

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”