Christine Vachon in ‘Pride’
Swoon. Golden velvet. Hedwig and the angry thumb. Boys don’t cry. Far from the sky. Go fishing. Colette. These classic queer films all have one name in common: Christine Vachon.
In the 1990s, Vachon and his production company, Killer Films, emerged as the chief shepherd of the New Queer Cinema movement, helping to produce the first films for movie lions, including Todd Haynes, Daniel Minahan, Todd Graf , Kimberly Pierce, Wash Westmoreland and John. Cameron Mitchell. Along the way, she has also produced work for renowned directors including Mary Harron, Larry Clark, Robert Altman, John Waters and Paul Schrader.
In other words, few people have contributed more to the American Independent Film Movement or queer films.
Now Vachon is dropping not one, but two queer-themed series, and at the same time. The Netflix series Halston, written and directed by Vachon’s often-collaborator Daniel Minahan, traces the rise and fall of the iconic queer designer of the 1970s. Pride, produced for FX, unites Vachon with some of the most talented LGBTQ directors around the world, including Tom Kalin, Andrew Ahn, Cheryl Dunye and Yance Ford. The six-part series chronicles the birth of contemporary queer culture in the United States and traces the history of the LGBTQ rights movement.
We caught up with Vachon – one of our longtime heroes – just after Halston’s premiere, and just before the Pride finale to talk about both shows, his career, and his incredible contribution to queer visibility. Halston streams on Netflix. The Pride finale airs on FX on May 21.
So you released two series at the same time. Have you ever given yourself a break?
It’s a good question. Pride has been in production for some time. We spent most of the pandemic finishing it in post-production. So it required a different kind of energy and intensity than that Halston did. It was in very active production when the pandemic struck, fell into darkness for a while, then restarted in the fall.
HALSTON (L to R) REBECCA DAYAN as ELSA PERETTI, EWAN MCGREGOR as HALSTON and DAVID PITTU as JOE EULA in episode 101 of HALSTON Cr. JOJO WHILDEN / NETFLIX © 2021
When it comes to Halston, I understand that Daniel, your director, spent 25 years making the series. Have you been involved all this time?
Yes. Dan and I met a million years ago on the set of a movie called I shot Andy Warhol.
Yes, we love it.
He was the co-writer of this screenplay and directed the second unit. He was really part of the creative team. We became friends and I produced his first feature film: Series 7. It’s awesome.
Yes it is.
He brought me the book and said, “I really want to tell this story.” Now, as you can probably tell, I’m obsessed with fashion …do not.
[Laughter]
Halston – I remember the guy from the “I Love New York” commercials and Studio 54 and Bianca Jagger. When I really fell under the hood of the story and saw what it really was about, I became just as passionate. So yes, for 25 years – I don’t want to give the impression that we have worked tirelessly. Obviously Dan went on and had an amazing career as a director, and Killer Films went on to make around 100 more films. This is not an exaggeration. We really did the same.
Wow.
We kept coming back to Halston to try to figure out how to break it – the best way to tell the story. We would periodically install it somewhere else, bring it to a certain point, and then for some reason it wouldn’t progress. And look, sometimes I think we had to wait 20 years for Ewan to be old enough to play. Sometimes I just think the zeitgeist had to come back to us for the story to have the kind of power it has for our time right now.
You mention Ewan. Has he always been your first choice to play Halston?
I think back in the days when we weren’t close to tying up the cast, we really didn’t. [have someone in mind]. I never remember who we talked to in the abstract. When we restarted it a few years ago and started to work seriously on putting it together, Ewan was our first and only choice.
HALSTON (L to R) EWAN MCGREGOR as HALSTON, director DANIEL MINAHAN, and BILL PULLMAN as DAVID MAHONEY in episode 102 of HALSTON Cr. ATSUSHI NISHIJIMA / NETFLIX © 2021
And he’s wonderful on the show; it is one of his best works.
I couldn’t agree more.
That said, there was a look back at her casting before the series premiered. You’re someone who’s worked with so many directors, writers, actors and everything over the years.
Yes.
There is a debate about the meaning of representation – how far it should go, how it should count, etc. As someone who has made a career of working with queer filmmakers and actors, how do you strike a balance?
I mean, there is no hard and fast rule. I know there are a lot of heated opinions out there, and I don’t want to be cavalier about it. Obviously, the more representation, the better for everyone. When queer actors feel like they can access the same opportunities as their straight counterparts, much of that discussion fades away in my opinion.
Sure.
But I understand. Listen, when I started two million years ago, telling stories about the LGBTQ community – trans stories, stories of gay men, of people living with HIV – bringing up and telling these stories was very , very difficult. Obviously, this is something that Killer has been at the forefront from the start. I think Ewan is amazing in this role, and it’s hard for me to imagine anyone else. At the end of the day, we picked the person who would bring this to life in the best possible way.
Well said.
HALSTON (L to R) EWAN MCGREGOR as HALSTON in episode 102 of HALSTON Cr. ATSUSHI NISHIJIMA / NETFLIX © 2021
You already mentioned Pride was a difficult and complex project. I have already spoken to Tom Kalin and Cheryl Dunye. How did you select your directors for the show?
I had existing relationships with some of them, but not all. We wanted it to be a very eclectic group. I felt very strongly that I wanted some of the Olympics to be represented. In my mind, I went to see Tom and Cheryl around the same time. These were the two that I knew would bring something truly extraordinary. Now all the directors have done it, trust me. But what I’m really proud of these seven directors – episode four, the ’80s had two directors – what I’m really proud of is that it’s a very eclectic group of different ages. They get there from different points of view. Some of them had never made a documentary before. Some of them were not alive at all for the decades they are living. It gives her an intimate yet epic feel that I wanted her to have. So I feel really good about the show as a whole.
What’s remarkable about watching this show is that all of the directors seem to have made their own short films – they’re all very personal. Tom uses actors. Cheryl appears on camera. The ’80s episode almost entirely uses home video footage. Was it by design – that each episode would have its own unique personality? Why this approach?
I guess I felt like there was a way to make a documentary about those six different decades and the steps forward and backward that our community has taken. There was a way of doing it that was reasonably generic and linear. And I would have appreciated this version. But I also feel like it’s a version we’ve seen before. Look, I was very lucky that FX backed this up with us and came up with the idea of trying to find some characters or events that you weren’t necessarily familiar with.
Yes.
One of the things I love about Andrew [Ahn]The episode is that he’s talking about all those uprisings and riots that happened before Stonewall that nobody knows anything about. And he focuses on Bayard Rustin who, as a lot of people say in the episode, if he had been straight there would be high schools named after him.
For sure.
So it was all just an amazing way to delve into stories we didn’t already know, and from the point of view of the filmmaker himself. Andrew is a good example. He was the last filmmaker who came. I was like you do the 60s. He was like OKAY! And he had to educate himself and find his way into his episode. So it was a big leap of faith for me and FX to let them do this crazy thing. But I was really pleased with the reviews who recognize that this is its strength.
Michael Musto in ‘Pride’
What was the biggest surprise for you?
Good question. Every episode has something. Images of Nelson Sullivan from the ’80s – that was when I was young in New York. Seeing this was a real shock to my system. All that, the 80s, I hold very close. But I love the 70s – the Cheryl episode and those voices. Of course I know who Audre Lorde is, but seeing her ripple effect [was inspiring]. And I love that Cheryl includes Barbara Hammer. Is it awesome? Hope she is an eye opener for people.
Yes. I hadn’t heard of Barbara, but I immediately got an interest after seeing her movie footage. Its staging is among the most erotic and sensual I have ever seen.
You are the godmother of queer cinema. Your films have amended. Lives. Was it something you wanted to be?
I think it’s really important to put in context that I started my career as a producer in the 80s. It was right in the middle of the AIDS crisis. I think it caused a big acceleration. There was a sense of urgency that if we weren’t telling our stories, no one else would. And no one cared what was happening to our community. I try to describe this time to queer youth, and it is difficult for them to understand the denial of the franchise that we felt. It was as if our community was dying each day from this horrific death, and there was no feeling that it mattered.
Yes.
So in particular the first films I shot came out we’re going to have an inheritance. We will tell our stories by any means necessary. Over time and I developed relationships with Tom Kalin and Todd Haynes and Rose Troche, I …
