Making the Boys (2011)

Director:

Crayton Robey

Release Date:

11 March 2011 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Gay Rights Movement, the film explores the drama, struggle...

Plot Keywords:

Gay | Gay Stereotype | Controversy | Transvestite | Dui

Cast

Edward Albee	...	Himself
Joe Allen	...	Himself
Matt Baney	...	Himself
David Carter	...	Himself
Candis Cayne	...	Herself
Andy Cohen	...	Himself
Mart Crowley	...	Himself
Michael Cunningham	...	Himself
Dominick Dunne	...	Himself
David Ehrenstein	...	Himself
William Friedkin	...	Himself
Peter Harvey	...	Himself
Aaron Hicklin	...	Himself
Jerry Hoose	...	Himself
Cheyenne Jackson	...	Himself
Page Johnson	...	Himself
Charles Kaiser	...	Himself
Curtis Kelly	...	Himself
Josh Kilmer-Purcell	...	Himself
Ed Koch	...	Himself
Norman Korpi	...	Himself (as Norm Korpi)
Larry Kramer	...	Himself
Carson Kressley	...	Himself
Tony Kushner	...	Himself
Charles Leslie	...	Himself
Laurence Luckinbill	...	Himself
Terrence McNally	...	Himself
Michael Musto	...	Himself
Patrick Pacheco	...	Himself
Gilbert Parker	...	Himself
George Rondo	...	Himself
David Rothenberg	...	Himself
Paul Rudnick	...	Himself
Dan Savage	...	Himself
Marc Shaiman	...	Himself
Christian Siriano	...	Himself
Andrew Tobias	...	Himself (as Andy Tobias)
Tree	...	Himself
Stephen Tropiano	...	Himself
Robert Wagner	...	Himself
Peter White	...	Himself
Scott Wittman	...	Himself
Robert Woodworth
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Julie Andrews	...	Herself (archive footage)
Lauren Bacall	...	Herself (archive footage)
Lenny Dunne	...	Herself (archive footage)
Jane Fonda	...	Herself (archive footage)
Judy Garland	...	Herself (archive footage)
Rock Hudson	...	Himself (archive footage)
Peggy Lipton	...	Herself (archive footage)
Roddy McDowall	...	Himself (archive footage)
Sal Mineo	...	Himself (archive footage)
Peggy Moffitt	...	Herself (archive footage)
Mike Nichols	...	Himself (archive footage)
Anthony Perkins	...	Himself (archive footage)
Suzanne Pleshette	...	Herself (archive footage)
Tuesday Weld	...	Herself (archive footage)
Natalie Wood	...	Herself (archive footage)

Directed by
Crayton Robey

Produced by
Judith B. Bass	....	associate producer
Susan Bedusa	....	producer
Miguel Camnitzer	....	co-producer
Bill Condon	....	executive producer
Jack Morrissey	....	co-producer
Crayton Robey	....	producer
Danielle Rosen	....	associate producer
Douglas Tirola	....	producer

Original Music by
Peitor Angell
Francis Minarik		(as Fran Minarik)
Lucian Piane

Cinematography by
Eric Daniel Metzgar		(as Eric Metzgar)
Charles Poekel

Film Editing by
Robert Greene
Seth Hurlbert

Sound Department
Matt Gundy	....	sound re-recording mixer (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Gobi M. Rahimi	....	additional camera (as Gobi Rahimi)
Jeffrey Schneider	....	additional camera

Music Department
Rebekah Touma	....	music supervisor

Other crew
Yegor Andrianov	....	set production assistant
H. Whitt Bell	....	set production assistant
Hillary Berkowitz	....	set production assistant
Daniela Conwell	....	accountant: Altman, Greenfield & Selvaggi
Jerry L. Dasti	....	legal services: 4th Row Films, Sloss Eckhouse Brennan LawCo (as Jerry Dasti)
Hannah Dillon	....	production assistant
Jacqueline Eckhouse	....	legal services: 4th Row Films, Sloss Eckhouse Brennan LawCo (as Jackie Eckhouse)
Jessica Else	....	production assistant
Sean FotzGerald	....	production assistant
Stuart Gelwarg	....	accountant: Altman, Greenfield & Selvaggi
Sara Gordon	....	production assistant
Ashley Griggs	....	set production assistant
Lluvia Higuera	....	production assistant
Michael Jamroz	....	set production assistant
Kevin Kaufman	....	set production assistant
Liann Kaye	....	production assistant
Katie Kolombatovich	....	production assistant
Erin Michels	....	production assistant
Kathryn O'Donnell	....	production assistant
Joanna Pinker	....	publicist: Falco Ink
John Power	....	production assistant
Beth Rodgers	....	set production assistant
Janice Roland	....	publicist: Falco Ink
Rosemary Rotondi	....	senior archival researcher
Betsy Rudnick	....	publicist: Falco Ink
Arjun Sheth	....	set production assistant
Rob Stone	....	production assistant
Shannon Treusch	....	publicist: Falco Ink
Abbey Wells	....	set production assistant

Thanks
Farley Granger	....	acknowledgment
John Cameron Mitchell	....	acknowledgment

Production Companies

• 4th Row Films

Distributors

• First Run Features (2010) (USA) (theatrical)
• Gravitas Ventures (2011) (USA) (video) (VOD)

Other Companies

• Altman, Greenfield & Selvaggi  accounting services
• DuArt  post production services
• East Coast Digital  post production services
• Falco Ink.  publicity
• Law Offices of Judith Bass  legal services: Crayton Robey (as Law Offices of Judith B. Bass)
• Sloss Eckhouse Brennan Law  legal services: 4th Row Films (as Sloss Eckhouse Brennan LawCo)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

4th Row Films

Movie Connections:

References The Birthday Party (1968)

Uneven but essential

For a film that's been kicking around the festival circuit and minor bookings for almost two years, MAKING THE BOYS is a surprisingly uneven documentary - which is not to say the quality lags, it's generally remarkable, but that the flow is so jerkily edited as to suggest a student film project. Nevertheless, the film is so packed with insightful interviews, period images, on stage clips from the original Off-Broadway and London West End productions and side trips into the impact of the original play and the movie which followed (and how one led to the other) on the lives of all of the major participants, the evolution of modern gay rights and American culture in general that the result is as close to an essential historical document as on objective viewer could ask.

Obviously central to the project, Mart Crowley takes us back to the writer and the person he was before the idea of THE BOYS IN THE BAND was even on the horizon and leads us to how it came to be, and what it and he came to be. This and the general cultural discussion - and how BOYS... changed that discussion yet came to be viewed as something of an embarrassment to some activists and then came full circle to regain respect - are done superbly (despite the off-hand use of TV's "Will and Grace," still viewed as something of a gay "Amos & Andy" in some quarters, as a pride-ful example - a slip). The details of this evolution are so fascinating that it's easy to miss the few things the film tends to short.

One is the rehearsal and interpretation process under the great (and unfortunately late) Robert Moore's direction (four Broadway productions as an actor before BOYS..., eight as director after it - almost all of the latter major hits), but understanding this, the film makers (researcher Rosemary Rotondi and director Crayton Robey) have brought in those close to Moore to fill in the blanks. The brief section on Peter Harvey's scenic design, building on the use of projections (so brilliantly used by Robert Guerra and Tom Skelton in YOUR OWN THING just three months earlier) is fascinating.

They are less successful in fleshing out the lost members of the original Off-Broadway and film cast, but in dealing with inevitable questions - it has long been famously reported how many were lost in the early waves of the AIDS epidemic years after BOYS... and less accurately how few were launched into successful stage and film careers after BOYS... - the interview observations are well chosen even when not definitive.

Whatever the film's shortcomings in flow and the few details lost with the passing of primary sources, its success is overwhelming in how much it does give us putting THE BOYS IN THE BAND in historical perspective and showing us how far we've come building on the groundwork it laid. This is a major achievement and very satisfying viewing. A generation of gay and straight men and women too young to have lived through the events discussed should be highly encouraged to see it. They will not be bored.