BRATTLEBORO — Acclaimed writer/director/producer Eric Schaeffer is coming home.
The Latchis Theatre is bringing Schaeffer's newest film Boy Meets Girl to Vermont for a one-week run from Feb. 13-19.
Although he lives in New York City, Schaeffer grew up in southern Vermont and attended Brattleboro Union High School in the 1970s. He now owns a house in Jamaica, where he spends time at least once a month.
“The Latchis is part of my youth,” he says. “I had my first dates there. It really is for theaters like this that I make movies. I know that today so many people stream films on their computers and even telephones, but I really still believe in the big screen experience. I want people to grab their lover or their mom and a box of popcorn and go into the dark and enjoy movies the old fashioned way.”
“Eric's passion for this film is evident right off the bat, and totally justified. Boy Meets Girl is sweet, tender, compassionate, sexy, honest and very brave – everything love should be,” says Latchis Executive Director Jon Potter. “I couldn't be happier that we are showing this film for a week – and kicking it off on Valentine's Day weekend.”
While the film is a romantic coming-of-age comedy about three 20-somethings living in Kentucky, it is also one with a twist: the iconic title of this love story becomes, if not exactly ironic, at least playful, when one of the characters is transgendered.
Potter writes that in Schaeffer's film, “Robby (played by Michael Welch of Twilight fame) and his best friend, Ricky (newcomer Michelle Hendley), a gorgeous transgender girl, have never dated. Lamenting the lack of eligible bachelors, Ricky finds herself attracted to Francesca (Alexandra Turshen), a beautiful young debutante waiting for her fiancé to return from the war.
“Ricky and Francesca strike up a friendship, and maybe a little more, which forces Robby to face his true feelings for Ricky. This is a sex/human positive modern fable; identification with its themes across all gender and sexual orientation lines.”
Boy Meets Girl premiered in New York on Feb. 7, but Potter says that the film has been “turning heads and winning awards at festivals” long before that, including Best Film honors at the San Diego LGBT Film Festival, Seattle Translations Film Festival, the Memphis LGBT Film Festival, QFest Long Beach, and the Roanoke LGBT Film Festival.
In recognition of the significance of the film, a Brattleboro-based nonprofit which supports rural LGBTQ communities, Green Mountain Crossroads, is joining forces with Latchis Arts to present two special events as part of the week-long run of Boy Meets Girl.
On Opening Night, Friday, Feb. 13, at the 7 p.m. screening, a reception and post-film Q & A will be held with Schaeffer.
On Sunday, Feb. 15, following the 7 p.m. showing, Green Mountain Crossroads will facilitate a panel discussion called “Community Reactions to Boy Meets Girl.”
The film has other local ties beyond its creator. The story of Schaeffer's latest film may be set in Kentucky, yet Boy Meets Girl was filmed in the southern Vermont loctions of Jamaica, Londonderry, and Brattleboro in 2013.
Local actors filled some of the supporting roles, including a whole crew of local youth football players. Also many local individuals and businesses helped out, especially Salon Jacque, D & K Country Store, the Jamaica Coffee Shop, the Bromley View Inn, and Bob Kramsky at BUHS.
“Three of my feature films have been at least partly filmed in southern Vermont,” says Schaeffer. “I know the area and the people, so it makes it easier to work here.”
Usually wearing all three hats simultaneously, Schaeffer has written, acted and starred in nine feature films, as well as in five television series with more than 100 total episodes.
In 1994, he made his debut independent film, My Life's in Turnaround, which he wrote, directed and starred in.
He followed this with a major studio production in 1996's If Lucy Fell, starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Ben Stiller, Elle Macpherson, a very young Scarlett Johansson, and Schaeffer himself.
After this, he has dedicated himself to independent features, including Fall in 1997, Wirey Spindell in 2000, and Never Again in 2002, starring Jill Clayburgh and Jeffrey Tambor. His most recent film, After Fall, Winter, was released in 2012.
Schaeffer's work in television is also extensive. He created and starred in the Fox show “Too Something” and created the FX series “Starved” in 2005. His narrative-style documentary “I Can't Believe I'm Still Single” ran for three seasons on Showtime.
“It is my television work that enables me to make my independent feature films,” says Schaeffer.
Schaeffer says that the way he became a filmmaker was by necessity.
“I wanted to be an actor, but couldn't get the work. I was forced to drive a cab for eight years in New York City to make my livelihood,” he explains. “I then figured the best way to get acting jobs was to write my own scripts for me. So a friend and I cobbled together a few thousand dollars and, with some other support coming later, we made our first independent film. The film turn out to be a big success and played in 70 markets across the country.”
The timing was fortuitous. My Life's in Turnaround was part of the beginning of the independent film movement, coinciding with the releases of such independent classics as Go Fish and Clerks.
“In fact, the people who helped me finance my first film were the same ones who supported those very films,” says Schaeffer.
After that feature he made his next film for a major studio, with big-name actors and a big budget. Schaeffer found working with a studio to be a very different experience from working independently, some of which he rather liked.
“When you do a studio film, they do so much of the work for you,” he says. “For instance, they show you six versions of the poster and your job is just to pick out the one you like best.”
Nonetheless, Schaeffer craved the freedom independent filmmaking offered, and for the rest of his feature work he has remained independent.
“That means you have to do almost everything yourself,” he says. “Like tonight, I am printing up a flyer for my dad to post to the Brattleboro Co-op to get people to see Boy Meets Girl at the Latchis, and tweeting friends to sell tickets for the New York showing of the film.”
In Boy Meets Girl, Schaeffer wanted to do something different in the genre of romantic comedy.
“In many ways this film harkens back to those fairy tale romantic comedies made in the 1940s and 1950s,” he says. “But here the difference is that one of the characters is transgender.”
But this difference can turn traditional conceptions topsy turvy when constructs like “boy” meets “girl” are complicated.
Schaeffer feels that the time is right for a transgendered romantic comedy. “Transgender is so much a part of our national discussion now, part of our zeitgeist you might say,” he says.
Nonetheless, he feels that the themes explored in this film are the same themes that are explored in all his films - finding love, finding family, feeling comfortable with who we are.
“I wrote from the heart around the supposition that at their core, all humans want the same thing – to give love and receive love,” Schaeffer says. “I wanted to make a movie that was highly relatable to all people. By doing that it has the best chance to unify us all.”
Schaeffer has often liked to tweak the expectations of romantic movie genre.
“I'm just a normal average dude exposing all parts of humanity,” he says. “In Never Again, I made a romantic movie about people over 60, instead of pretty young lovers. Studios wouldn't touch the subject, unless it had big stars and was all sanitized.”
In Schaeffer's hands, Never Again became a romantic comedy that dealt with love, aging, and the specifics of sex.
Schaeffer bristles a bit at calling his films romantic comedies.
“I would characterize my features as romantic dramedies,” he says. “My films certainly have humor, which can range from sophisticated comedy to the downright slapstick. But looking over my work, I see a pattern of how the humor functions. My films tend to be funny for about the first 40 minutes, but in the last hour or so there are no jokes at all.
“I believe I use laughter so an audience can identify with the unusual characters I present, and then feel comfortable enough to trust them. Like life, my films can suddenly turn from comedy to tragic in a split second.”
Schaeffer sees a common theme throughout his work.
“All of my films are about the ways people live and remain true to our inner selves if the compartments that life forces us to live in are too narrow or shallow,” he explains. “For instance, men are not permitted to cry, because it shows a sign of weakness.”
Schaefer believes that actually we all are more similar than we may care to admit.
“No matter if we are a dog, a cow, or a 16-year-old boy, we all want to be loved,” he says.