In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with filmmaker Ira Sachs about his new film KEEP THE LIGHTS ON. KEEP THE LIGHTS ON premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and received the Teddy Award for Best Queer Film at the 2012 Berlin Film Festival. It’s currently playing theaters throughout North America. The film chronicles an emotionally and sexually charged journey of two men in New York City through love, friendship, and addiction. Documentary filmmaker Erik (Thure Lindhardt) and closeted lawyer Paul (Zachary Booth, Damages) meet through a casual encounter but soon find a deeper connection and become a couple. Fueled by drugs and sex their decade-long relationship is defined by highs, lows and dysfunctional patterns as Erik struggles to negotiate his own boundaries and dignity while being true to himself. We talked to Ira about his deeply personal film and issues facing our LGBT community.
When asked what his personal commitment is to LGBT civil rights, Sachs stated, “You know I grew up in the 1960’s in Memphis and my father was a member of the American Civil Liberties Union. I was born three years before Martin Luther King was killed and I think that history of civil action was something that I had in my blood. Throughout college I was very involved as a gay activist. I got involved with Act Up when I moved to New York in 1988. I now work as a community organizer. I run two arts programs; Queer/Art/Film, which is a film series that invites inter-disciplinarian, inter-generational conversations between queer artist and also a mentor program. And for me it’s actually something I do because I believe in it but also something I do because I feel being an activist is so nurturing to my own being. I think for many years when I had my own issues of addition and was focused on things that were small and obsessive I forgot the world and I found that engaging in the world is generative to me, and sustaining. I also feel that I can make some change to be part of history in my own small way.”
Ira Sachs films include Married Life (2007), The Delta (1997) and the 2005 Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning Forty Shades of Blue. His short film Last Address, honoring a group of NYC artists who died of AIDS, has been added to the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and MoMA. Sachs teaches in the Graduate Film department at NYU. Sachs lives in New York City with his husband Boris Torres.
For More Info: keepthelightsonfilm.com
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