My Future in Film  | FIRST PERSON | Advocate.com

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My Future in Film
Jeremy Podeswa is known for his work on projects that deal heavily with issues of sexuality like Six Feet Under, Queer as Folk, and Nip/Tuck. But with his latest film, Fugitive Pieces, which is about the Holocaust, he looks past identity politics and hopes to redefine what it means to be a queer director.
An Advocate.com exclusive posted May 2, 2008
My Future in Film

OK. Here’s the thing. I’ve just made my third feature film, Fugitive Pieces, and it’s a story about a young, Jewish Polish boy whose family is killed in World War II. He is found and saved by a Greek man, who at the risk of great personal danger, hides the boy in occupied Greece throughout the war. He then effectively adopts the child (with whom he has no shared language, culture, or history). The film goes on to dramatize the life of this boy as he grows up, becomes a famous writer, gets married, and grapples with the legacy of his traumatic past.

The film is based on the profoundly moving literary bestseller by Anne Michaels, which has won numerous awards internationally. All very well and good.

But why am I writing about this film for The Advocate? Fair question.

I have previously made two feature films that directly addressed issues of intimacy and sexuality, gay, straight, and not so well-defined. Those features, Eclipse (distributed by Strand Releasing) and The Five Senses (distributed by Fine Line and starring Mary Louise Parker), and a number of short films including Touch (part of the DVD compilation Boys Briefs) are of obvious interest to gay and lesbian viewers. I have also directed episodes of the TV series Queer as Folk, The L Word, Six Feet Under, Nip/ Tuck, Rome, Dexter and The Tudors… all of which might be of more obvious interest to readers of this publication. But what about Fugitive Pieces?

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