 Out director
Jonah Markowitz tells Adam Bub why
his ‘gay surfer’ movie Shelter is
more than just a ‘gay OC’.
“Our whole concept for this film was to
make a coming out story, and a gay independent film, in a completely new and
different way,” Jonah Markowitz says of his directorial feature debut, the
internationally acclaimed Shelter.
Replete with hunky leads, romantic intrigue
and family crises, Shelter sounds
like a typical gay indie film, in the vein of Latter Days or Get Real. But
it’s not.
“It was written to not have the same scenes
we’re used to seeing in gay films – there’s no gay bar, no drag queens, and the
guys don’t meet in a locker room, sauna or club - not that there’s anything
wrong with that. It’s just that I don’t think that’s everyone’s story,”
Markowitz tells MCV.
“I wanted to show two guys in nature, two
guys who knew each other previously, whose relationship blossoms in a very real
and organic way.”
The film tells the tale of Zach (Trevor
Wright), who works in a dead-end job and takes care of his troubled sister’s
son. He finds refuge in drawing, and surfing with his best friend, Gabe (Ross
Thomas). When Gabe leaves for college, Zach’s life is turned upside down by his
new surfing buddy – Gabe’s hunky older brother, Shaun (Brad Rowe).
Unlike the ill-received ‘gay surfer’ movie Tan Lines (2006), Shelter explores gay relationships in the traditionally
heterosexual subculture of surfing with a deft dose of reality. But Markowitz
hesitates to plant the restrictive ‘gay surfer movie’ label on his film.
“We wanted to make Shelter a film for everybody, so that it wasn’t just a gay film,
but rather a film about people who are dealing with falling in love and finding
themselves. The leads are gay, but that isn’t the only struggle they have in
the course of the film.”
Its straight male leads, up-and-coming
Trevor Wright (appearing soon in Vacancy
2) and Brad Rowe (from gay cult classic Billy’s
Hollywood Screen Kiss and last year’s National
Treasure 2: Book of Secrets), had few qualms with playing gay characters,
Markowitz explains.
“They identified with the emotions in my
script. Before Trevor auditioned, Trevor wanted to talk about the movie – we
thought it was because it’s gay. He actually wanted to know all about where I
surf, what surfing means to me, why it’s in the story – he wanted to make sure
we weren’t doing some homoerotic OC movie.
He really got into it.”
Wright, a surfing champion in his own
right, even wears Australian brand Rip Curl in Shelter, from his win at a Rip Curl Championship. Shelter has local appeal for other
reasons too – it’s filmed in San Pedro, an urbane beachside suburb not
dissimilar to many Australian coastal cities.
“I have a close friend living in Perth, and when I came to visit I felt like I was in California the whole
time,” Markowitz observes.
At just 31, Markowitz has worked as an art
director for multi-million dollar Hollywood
productions, including Meet the Fockers,
Saw and Rocky Balboa. Always an outdoors type, he grew up skiing in Colorado, and began
surfing after his involvement as an assistant art director on another surfing
movie, Blue Crush. He attended
college in Boston, and moved to Los Angeles at 22, working
in script development, art direction, and now, directing.
“I’ve had the opportunity to work on
wonderful Hollywood movies and also
independent films, and straddle both worlds,” he says; an experience which put
him in good stead to direct his own script for Shelter.
“It had been sitting in the drawer for
about three years so it was wonderful to pull it out and make it! I got all the
people that worked on films with me to agree to do it on this tiny budget, and
we shot the whole thing in three weeks.
“We shot it in December. We shot beach scenes at 5:30am, just when
the sun came up, because it was stunning and the waves were good, but the water
was unbelievably freezing,” laughs Markowitz. “There was plenty of talk about
them not being with their wetsuits on but that just wasn’t an option!”
Given that Shelter resonated so strongly with Melbourne audiences earlier this year, Markowitz
says he is pleased that the film is getting a local DVD release.
“I’m so excited that we had such a great
response in Melbourne,
winning the festival award there. I was really shocked to get the call. It’s a
city full of interesting, intelligent and artsy people, so of all the awards to
receive, it was a really fantastic one.”
Shelter is out now on DVD through
FQ Films.
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