From the Archives of The Advocate.May 8, 1990: Longtime Companion fights to break new ground It's almost commonplace to see gay friendships featured in mainstream movies these days. But ten years ago Longtime Companion, the first studio-backed film about AIDS and its impact on gays, struggled to make it to the screen. As writer Kim Garfield reported in 1990, screenwriter Craig Lucas "met everything from lack of financing to studio snubs" in his effort to make the film. As a result, Garfield wrote, "on-screen on·screen or on-screen adj. & adv. 1. As shown on a movie, television, or display screen. 2. Within public view; in public. and behind the scenes, Longtime Companion is the story of people determined to make it against all odds." The movie received all its funding--a modest $1.5 million--through PBS's American Playhouse American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by PBS. It premiered on January 12, 1982 with The Shady Hill Kidnapping, written and narrated by John Cheever and directed by Paul Bogart. series. But after filming wrapped in October 1989, at least 20 distributors passed it over for fear that an AIDS movie could not make a profit. Undeterred undeterred Adjective not put off or dissuaded Adj. 1. undeterred - not deterred; "pursued his own path...undeterred by lack of popular appreciation and understanding"- Osbert Sitwell undiscouraged , backers heightened buzz around the film by holding a screening for 500 New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of journalists. Soon after, Longtime Companion won the Sundance Film Festival's Audience Award and a distribution contract with the Samuel Goldwyn Co. "It's very important for the film to be seen by a mainstream audience," said Bruce Davison, one of the film's stars. "The real battle will be to market this stow about the decimation DECIMATION. The punishment of every tenth soldier by lot, was, among the Romans, called decimation. of the gay community without the rage that, I guess, has kept the mainstream away. This is a wonderful, life-filled stow of survival and triumph." |
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