{"id":66400,"date":"2025-10-08T21:52:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T21:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/66400\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T21:52:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T21:52:08","slug":"why-pedophile-drama-blue-film-was-too-controversial-for-festivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/66400\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Pedophile Drama ‘Blue Film’ Was Too Controversial For Festivals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tElliot Tuttle knew that \u201cBlue Film<\/a>,\u201d the fictional story of a camboy who reconnects with a former high school teacher who was fired for sexually assaulting a student, was going to be divisive. After all, it features an empathetic portrait of a pedophile. But he thought some festival would have the courage to screen the incendiary drama. Instead, Tuttle suffered 10 rejections in a row, including hard passes from indie bastions like Sundance and SXSW.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA lot of the feedback that we got behind the scenes was that it was very polarizing, and it seemed like the powers that be were scared of the movie,\u201d Tuttle says. \u201cIt was unbelievable to me. I believe in the quality of the film, and I also had a hard time believing American festivals were this risk-averse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSalvation came from the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where the film premiered last summer, receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews. Many critics praised Tuttle for handling such a provocative subject with sensitivity. It will next screen on Oct. 11 at NewFest with more festival dates to come. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt feels like it kind of took one festival saying, \u2018No, it\u2019s OK to program it,\u2019 for lots of other festivals to come on board,\u201d Tuttle says. \u201cI\u2019m still hoping it will find distribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCritics in Edinburgh also heaped praise on Reed Birney<\/a>, a stage veteran who is a revelation as Hank Grant, a disgraced middle school teacher obsessed with Aaron Eagle (Kieron Moore), his former student who has grown up to become a fetish performer. Grant hires Aaron to spend a night with him. He\u2019s attracted to Aaron, but he also wants more than sex \u2014 absolution, understanding, connection \u2014 it all becomes so murky.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was dark, but it was so well written,\u201d Birney says. \u201cThey were such great characters, that I didn\u2019t hesitate for a second about it. Only afterwards, when we were watching it in Edinburgh for the first time with a room full of people, did I get embarrassed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMoore, who makes his movie debut in \u201cBlue Film,\u201d had a visceral reaction to the script.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was scared,\u201d he says. \u201cBut the thing that scared me the most was the idea of watching another actor do it. I felt like I had something that would be worth showing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBlue Film\u201d was a bare bones production. Shot on a micro-budget in a house in L.A.\u2019s Hancock Park neighborhood over 13 days, the filmmakers moved fast to get everything done on schedule. The days were long and Birney and especially Moore spent many of them half-naked. But the hardest part was the two actors\u2019 searing exchanges, in which they share parts of their tortured souls with each other.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe character things that were more difficult for me than the intimacy stuff,\u201d Moore admits. \u201cThe intimate scenes felt like a nice break from some of the dialogue \u2026 but making this movie forced me to ask myself, what kind of actor do I want to be? And I want to be a dangerous artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTuttle drew on his own childhood memories to create a story that clearly represents the kind of dangerous art Moore wants to keep making. He had been watching a lot of films by Catherine Breillat, the French auteur known for her edgy depictions of female sexuality, when the idea for \u201cBlue Film\u201d came to him. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was reminded of how when I was in middle school, I really wanted my teacher to have sex with me \u2014 like, I really did,\u201d he says. \u201cI had been journaling a lot about that experience, thinking about it retroactively later in my life, and this was kind of a natural extrapolation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTuttle knew the topic of pedophilia inspires passionate feelings, but he was impressed with how \u201cPervert Park,\u201d a 2014 documentary about a Florida community of convicted sex offenders, compassionately examined its subjects\u2019 lives and inner anguish. He wanted to do something similar with \u201cBlue Film.\u201d But Tuttle and Birney, whose Hank is witty, insightful and guilt-stricken over his aberrant desires, know that many people will condemn them for portraying a pedophile as a human being, not just a monster.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI will feel empathy for everybody. That\u2019s just the way I live my life,\u201d Tuttle says.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNobody chooses to be a pedophile,\u201d Birney says. He did, however, insist that Tuttle make it clear that Hank is not a predator. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe does not have a computer full of kiddie porn and he hasn\u2019t rounded up kids,\u201d Birney says. \u201cWe have a line in there where I say, \u2018I know it\u2019s wrong. I\u2019ve always known it\u2019s wrong.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHank\u2019s self-awareness might not be enough to convince skeptical viewers to see \u201cBlue Film\u201d with an open mind. At one of the final screenings in Edinburgh, some audience members made it clear this wasn\u2019t an emotional journey they wanted to take. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was sitting in the green room with my mom,\u201d Tuttle says. \u201cAnd one of our producers was in there watching the film and about halfway through he texted me, \u2018Oh, there\u2019s a walkout\u2026 and another one\u2026 and another one.\u2019 But the Q&A was also lively and there were a ton of hands being raised. So for me, it still felt like a good screening.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elliot Tuttle knew that \u201cBlue Film,\u201d the fictional story of a camboy who reconnects with a former high…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[53645,156,409,111,139,69,53646],"class_list":{"0":"post-66400","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-blue-film","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-reed-birney"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}