by Harley Dennett extract from article in The Sydney Star Observer
The queer young people of Twenty10 Youth Support have many stories to tell and, as Craig Boreham at Channel Free discovered, they are not shy about telling them to the world.
Boreham teamed with Dean Francis to direct the short film Stray. The two Sydney directors met with the young people weekly in the later months of last year to workshop ideas and develop a storyline from their experiences. “They were really open and comfortable putting their stuff out there, excited about being able to tell their stories,” Boreham said. From those workshops the film’s story developed, telling of the ordeal of Mouse, an inexperienced gay country boy coming to the city and being taken advantage of by the characters who live there.
“It’s about being on the street, disenfranchised and being the target of homophobic violence, being given drugs, which leads to a date rape scenario. It was about consequences, being aware of what can happen,” Boreham said. “A lot of the kids come from the country and have a real sense of being isolated,” he said. “Inevitably they discover the problems with the city’s gay ghetto, problems with being vulnerable and inexperienced and young.”
Lead actor Aiden Calabria was himself one of those Twenty10 subjects. “A lot of it was Aiden’s story, having similar experiences. It seemed like an obvious choice to cast him,” Boreham said.
“I think they all got a lot out of the process of actively telling a story, acting out the story that is distilled from their own experiences. That’s a really powerful thing,” Francis said.
Stray will premiere as part of Queer Screen’s I Can See Queerly Now.