Hi, Stu Maddux. A large Washington lobby is now following your tweets on Twitter.

Hi, Stu Maddux.
American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging is now following your tweets on Twitter.

SM: Welcome AAHSA. It's very nice to have your attention.

First article about Gen Silent suddenly appears

We didn't expect the coverage quite so soon but it is welcome:

http://www.queerty.com/

The comments (below) are as insightful as the article.

Documentary editing resumes with new funds after 3-day hiatus.

Ahh, the life of independent film.
We had to take a short, three-day hiatus last week while a large check we were expecting came in. It represents nearly a quarter of this film's budget and comes from one individual. Without blowing their anonymity I wanted acknowledge just how grateful I am that we can begin editing again and get this film finished just as soon as possible. We are far from making our budget and need all the donations that we can get to make this film happen. - but we have traction.

Its message about older LGBT people being afraid to ask for care, must be heard just as soon as possible by as many people as possible. We are losing OUR greatest generation because they are going back into the closet.

This contribution along with the other generous donations are also allowing us to tell this story in a way that will get people's attention. Must we cut corners? Oh yes. If you only knew! But now we don't face cutting off the arms and legs of our film by abruptly ending our coverage of people we have been following for nearly a year.

Trailer

Power drinks make LA-SF and back in one day possible...in A CAAAAR!!

I live in the Bay Area and have a rental property in LA. The two cities are about six hours a part connected by a mind-numbing interstate of throat cutting proportions.
That's what's in the cars on the side of the road if you are ever wondering.


For the past two weeks I've been forced to repeatedly drive back and forth during the same day trying to fix a really bad, scary tenant situation. At the gas station, the power drink fridge that I would before only glance at- I now stand in front of. Power drinks are not only something new to do; they are like a medieval potion that eliminates my problem.

Driving down to LA , during the six hours I do that mental rehearsal of every possible confrontation that may take place, I choose this name brand:



And LO- Everything went OK. So, going back I replay the days events and kick back on the 5 with this:


Never has it more been about packaging. They all taste EXACTLY the same.

Ipod video camera helped me while stuck on an airplane

I'm flying through Atlanta. No, correction. I'm sitting 20 feet above a flooded tarmac in Atlanta aboard my 757.

The pilot is walking through the cabin explaining that it is literally going to be hours before we push back from the gate because of an electrical storm that suddenly moved in. But here's the great part- he can't let anyone off the plane because we'll all get zapped on the jetway. Looking out the window it really does seem 50/50 that someone would die doing that. The screaming baby four rows back suddenly enters my thoughts but only for a second.

So I call my ride to tell him that it will be well after midnight before I need his services and I really will have NO other way to get home by that point and could he PLEASE still give me a ride. Luckily it's my partner on the other end of the line so the ride falls under watching the other guy's back part of the relationship. But he simply can not understand how it is possible that this is happening and I cannot seem to make him understand how it's an act of GOD and not an act of man or his man or...if only he were here he'd get it.

Then I get a brainstorm and tell him to just look for an email explaining it all. Within minutes he is watching this 30 sec video that I shot on and emailed from my new Iphone 3Gs.





That little video camera on the new Iphone 3Gs did a great job.
Now he gets it.

Emotional footage makes me press stop

I've started logging 40 hours of footage for my latest documentary, Gen Silent, about LGBT seniors searching for safe, welcoming care in their old age. The work has begun by pouring over the year that we have spent with Lawrence Johnson: a gay man caring for his partner Alexandre in a nursing home.

Occasionally I just have to press the stop button, get up and walk outside. It happens when I've managed to capture an extremely intimate moment like the one above.

It's a feeling of discomfort at being so close, of excitement about getting such great moments and humbleness of being allowed "in".