The Two Gay Geeks 🏳️🌈 have a chat with our good friend and collaborator, Hamish Downie. Hamish has directed a new film, Matcha and Vanilla which is releasing this week on the Gay Streaming Service, GagaOOLala. Hamish fills us in on what he has been doing since we last spoke with him and what he has coming up. Have a listen and we hope you enjoy this as much as we did.
About Hamish Downie
Hamish Downie is an Australian LGBT filmmaker and producer based in Osaka, Japan. After teaming up with Paul Leeming and directing some music videos for world music diva, Robyn Loau, he made his first short film, Silence, which did well on the festival circuit in Europe. Buoyed by that success, he ventured out to make his first feature film, Matcha & Vanilla which reunites the creative team behind Silence.
Hamish hopes to continue to make films that have a multi-cultural focus, and in the future would like to make an animated series. For his next project, he hopes to make a musical
web series.
About Matcha and Vanilla
Yuki and Ai are a long-term lesbian couple living in the closet in Japan’s traditional society. When Yuki is diagnosed with terminal cancer, they must fight against their family, the hospital, and society in order to stay together until the end.
Director’s Statement
Fear is one of my biggest muses. The Never Let You Down music video was about the time I was getting stalked by a fan. An American Piano was my cry for world peace at a time that felt like we were going to have another world war. And Silence was about an abusive relationship I was in. Now, with my debut feature film, Matcha & Vanilla I’m tackling both love and fear. I’ve been in a long-term relationship for a while and moved to Osaka to be closer with this person. Things are going well, although we don’t have a lot of money.
My biggest fear is that one of us gets sick, and we can’t financially support each other. More importantly, as we don’t have Marriage Equality in Japan if my partner were to get sick and go into hospital, I might never see him again as I’m not recognized as being his family. This is a real fear that all LGBT couples in Japan have. So, I wanted to hold up a mirror to that with this film. Making the film was very cathartic for me, and for our team.
I’ve definitely been inspired by the Australian film Three Dollars and Happy Together (one of the few LGBT films about poverty), as well as Last Days by Gus Van Sant. I wrote the script for Tomoko Hayakawa and Qyoko Kudo especially. They are the two best actors I know in Japan and we’ve collaborated on many projects now. I also needed Paul Leeming both behind the lens and as the colorist to realize the style of the 80s and 90s arthouse films that I love.
In our second segment, we chat about The Hourglass Throne by KD Edwards. We also highlight recent articles posted to tggeeks.com in the past week. As always we have our birthdays and we have the ever-popular feedback segment.
We welcome your feedback. Please, let us know what you think. Good or bad, we want to know and you could receive a shoutout in the feedback segment. Thank you for listening, we really do appreciate you taking time out of your day to spend with us.
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Show Notes / Links:
- TG Geeks Episode 354
- TG Geeks Episode 356
- Ben’s Holiday Breakdown | Christmas With The Kranks is a Movie With The Laughs!
- Ben’s Breakdown | Thanksgiving Frasier Episode (The Apparent Trap)
- Ben’s Breakdown | K.D. Edwards’ The Hourglass Throne Is a Thrilling and Breathtaking Ride!
- Nerdy Chupacabras #078
- Christmas Confessions by Gini Koch
- Gini’s Christmas Classics | Bachelor Mother for the Holidays
- Gini Koch Warns us about Phoenix Holiday Decorations
- Keith’s Holiday Korner | Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special is an Experience Not to be Believed…
- Hamish Downie’s Five Questions With Socks Whitmore
We want to bring attention to a Public Service Announcement with Dr. Culber (Wilson Cruz) of Star Trek: Discovery
Beat the Bash – PSA from Mike Costanza on Vimeo.
This 90’s PSA (GLAAD, La Pietra Foundation, MTV) brings awareness to gay bashing.
Starring Wilson Cruz, Meredith Scott Lynn, and Joseph Reitman. Writer/Director: Mike Costanza.
Director of Photography: Brad Rushing. Producer: Cara Coslow.
Thank You:
- The Arkle Times Post Dispatch News – Brian, the &-list YouTuberon Twitter @G33kOfAllTrades — Be sure to take a look at Arkle’s other venture: Arkle Studios presents Shameless Cash Grab
- Special thanks go the Facebook Group moderators of “Gay Geeks Afterhours” for encouraging us to share our content there, and there URL is www.facebook.com/groups/gaygeeksafterhours/.
- Here’s a special shout out to “The Gay Geek” for graciously allowing us to post our episodes in their Facebook group www.facebook.com/groups/thegaygeek. And a special Thank You to Jeremiah Reeves, the moderator, for being such a great guy.
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