OneTakeFilms
Greg Ivan Smith
Filmmaker, Screenwriter,
Actor, Editor
THE BACK ROOM
(short film - TRT: 16:17)
Two strangers uncover astonishing connections as they search for a mysterious Renaissance painting.
Awards
- LOGO TV’s The Click List: Best in Short Film - Season 8: “BEST OF THE BEST (Romance)”
- LOGO TV’s The Click List: Best in Short Film - Season 7: “BEST SHORT”
- Vermont Cineslam’s “Teddy Bear Audience Award: BEST MALE SHORT”
- Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival’s Audience Award: “BEST MALE SHORT”
- Rhode Island International Film Festival: “ALTERNATIVE SPIRIT AWARD”
- DIGIT 2009 Digital Media Exhibition: “EXCELLENCE IN STORYTELLING” Prize
- 2008 Iris Prize: FINALIST
Director's Statement
The Back Room is a love letter of sorts, dedicated to the two great romances of my life: Florence, Italy, and Michael, my partner of 18 years.
I met the former in 1990 as a young art student, and like so many Americans throughout the centuries, quickly claimed its ochre walls and abundant art as my own. I embraced some of its best-held secrets, from Santo Spirito’s perfectly blank façade, to Jacopo Pontormo’s heart breaking, unheralded High Renaissance paintings and frescoes. Our affair lasted a full school year, and when we parted ways I was red-eyed and miserable for weeks.
I fell for the latter in 1996 during graduate school and we’ve been together ever since. After years of bragging about my first love, Florence, I finally brought Michael there to see what all the fuss was about in 2005. It was at the moment I introduced him to my favorite Florentine painting, Pontormo’s “The Transportation of Christ,” that I knew this relationship would last, as Michael burst into tears as I had done fifteen years before, his breath needing to be caught as mine had all those years ago.
I wrote The Back Room upon our return from Italy. It’s about the power of art to connect disparate people, to touch strangers and scratch an itch within them they didn’t know existed.
Thanks so much for
watching!
Official Screenings
Out in the Desert, Tucson, AZ
KASHISH – Mumbai Interanational Queer Film Festival, Mumbai, India
CINEMAROSA – Queens Museum of Art, NY
International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Modesto, CA
QueerFilmFest Rostock 2010, Rostock, Germany
NewFilmmakers, NY, NY
Golden Woofs Film Festival, Adelaide, Australia
PERLEN 2009 - Hannovers lesbisch-schwules Filmfest
Vermont Bear Film Festival
North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
Vermont Cineslam
DIGIT 2009 Digital Media Exhibition, NY
FESTIVAL MIX MILANO
FilmOut San Diego
Connecticut Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
Seattle International Film Festival
Out Takes Film Festival, New Zealand
Delray Beach Film Festival
Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film and Video Festival
Boston LGBT Film Festival
Tropical Alternative Film Festival, Cairns, Australia
Pink Apple Film Festival, Zürich & Fraunfeld, Switzerland
Bendigo Queer Film Festival, Bendigo, Australia
Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Melbourne, Australia
Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival
Festival Mix Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil
Reeling 2008: The 27th Chicago Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival
Backyard Short Film Festival, Palm Springs, CA
2008 Iris Prize, Cardiff, Wales
Cambridge Film Festival, Cambridge, England
Palm Springs International Shortfest
Providence Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
Rhode Island International Film Festival
Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
OUTFEST - The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
Provincetown International Film Festival