When I Knew: Two Things

Two generous reviews for When I Knew, exerpted:

From TV Guide: "With humor and no small amount of pain, a cross-section of men and women open up with disarming frankness about when they realized their “otherness...." The variety of responses speaks to the diversity among the gay and lesbian population. Lesson: No two gay people or lives are alike, just like in the straight world."

From the LA Weekly: "[I]t’d be nice to see this modest, entertaining and undeniably affecting patchwork of reminiscing heads have a demystifying effect on fearful heteros who happen to catch the documentary as well. Then maybe the world will shift that much further, and a later film will feature formerly intolerant straights telling us when they knew gays weren’t the enemy."

When I Knew premieres tonight on Cinemax.

Frameline 32

This year's Frameline Film Festival has been really fun so far. As you can see from the photos attached, I've been hanging out with WOW alum, Alec Mapa. We found this giant Hello Kitty in one of the rooms at a party Saturday night – it was as big as him. Alec plays a closeted teacher in a film called Tru Loved, which gets a repeat this Wednesday @ the Castro Theatre. It's a heartwarming fairy tale with some amazing cameos by Jasmine Guy and Nichelle Nichols. The idosyncracies of digital video, like hyper blurred motion, usually overshadow a production and in lesser hands it may have done in this project, but the writing and performances were so strong even the limitations of the medium couldn't distract too much. It's a great exploration of small-town small-mindedness and the amount of courage needed to overcome it.

I also met Grant & Dan the guys behind the thriller, Cthulhu which features WOW alum Tori Spelling in a supporting role. I convinced Dan to join me for Randy's screening of When I Knew. The film is so uplifting and thought-provoking, you guys really did a good job on it. I've talked to a few friends this morning who saw the film yesterday and I wanted you to know that people are still talking about it and thinking about their own coming-out evolutionary paths. I can't remember the editor's name [Mark Cohen] but Randy said he was straight and stayed up all night to put together a special "San Francisco Remix" with footage from the When I Knew video booth stationed in the film festival pavilion. Since I recognized a few of the people featured, it felt even more special. I love the way both versions captured a distinctive mix of immediacy and nostalgia with such raw honesty and authenticity. It felt like a celebration of the special qualities that make the LGBT experience so unique. I'm really excited to see how the web project evolves and I've bookmarked wheniknew.com and I hope you'll encourage your readers to post their videos there.

– Quartknee

Randy Pulls an Andy

With all their current projects, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato are kept so busy with producing and whatnot that they don't have time to sit down for all the interviews people want from them. To solve the problem, Randy has taken his cue from Andy Warhol who often sent lookalikes to functions he had no time for. In the case of this interview with the New England Blade concerning the documentary When I Knew, Randy seems to have gotten away with sending this young man in his place.

When I Knew

If you're a guy, sometimes all it takes to realize you might be gay is lusting after the man on the box of Doan's pills. Sometimes it's sex with a man. After making stops on the gay-film-festival circuit, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato's touching and funny documentary, When I Knew, in which 16 gay men and women reveal what it was that first clued them in that their lives would follow an alternate route, airs on Cinemax June 25, and drops on DVD June 26. (Modern Tonic)

When I Knew New York Advance Screening Thumbnails

More Film Magic thumbnails here.

Now You Know

Yes, there's a special advance screening at the Time Warner Center in New York tonight of Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato's lovely When I Knew documentary short, which has 150 subjects in five cities telling their poignant, funny stories of when they first knew they were gay. But you can have your own private screening at home when the film premieres on Cinemax June 25 at 7:30. Circle the date with a pink marker.

When She Knew

In Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato's documentary short, When I Knew, dozens of gays and lesbians recount the moment they first became aware of their homosexuality. It was a film so personal to the directors that they appear in it – right at the beginning. “We’ve never put ourselves in a film," Barbato told The Advocate. "We’d never even considered it." Before this, their only personal intrusion into a project was a disembodied voice asking questions. “It’s so much easier to be behind the camera,” Bailey said. When the film, which premieres June 25 on Cinemax, screened at the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival last month, HBO set up its video booth again for festival-goers to confess their realizations into the camera. This is one of those stories.

Merge Miami

The first day of Merge Miami came to a successful end with a fashion show by designer Jay McCarroll, subject of the film Eleven Minutes and winner of season one of Project Runway.

Merge Miami 1.2

The first day of Merge Miami ended with a fashion show by designer and winner of Project Runway Season One, Jay McCarroll, on the rooftop of the Catalina Hotel.

Merge Miami 1

Part 1 of Merge Miami's panel and events. Panelists Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey screened their When I Knew documentary at the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.

Reminders

• The World of Wonder Storefront Gallery reopens tonight with the 8PM reception for the "depARTed" group show. 6650 Hollywood Boulevard at Cherokee.

• The When I Knew documentary screens at the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival on Sunday, April 27, at the Regal Cinemas 17 at 7:15PM. Randy and Fenton will answer questions afterward and screen videos from the When I Knew confessional booth.

• Episode 3 of ¡Viva Hollywood! airs Sunday, April 27, at 10PM on Vh1.

You're Invited

Now you know.

When I Knew to Screen at Miami Festival

On Sunday, April 27, World of Wonder's witty and poignant short doc When I Knew will screen at the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival at 7:15PM at Regal Cinemas 17. A Q&A with the film's directors Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey will follow, along with screenings of the when-I-knew confessions recorded in the HBO video booth, which will later be posted on Wheniknew.com.

Shameless Plug

World of Wonder's touching documentary When I Knew, directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, will play the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival on April 27. The festival runs from April 25 to May 4. Barbato and Bailey will attend the screening and discuss the film afterward. And meanwhile, the HBO When I Knew video booth will be set up to record, we hope, your own stories.

When She Knew

Another when-I-knew realization recorded in HBO's video-booth confessional during the Sundance Film Festival. World of Wonder's When I Knew documentary, based on Robert Trachtenberg's book, airs in June.

When He Knew

When He Knew

Another when-I-knew realization recorded in HBO's video-booth confessional during the Sundance Film Festival. World of Wonder's When I Knew documentary, based on Robert Trachtenberg's book, airs in June.

When He Knew

Another When I Knew real person realization recorded in HBO's video booth confessional during the Sundance Film Festival. World of Wonder's When I Knew documentary based on Robert Trachtenberg's book airs in June.

When They Knew

Another When I Knew real person realization recorded in HBO's video booth confessional during the Sundance Film Festival. World of Wonder's When I Knew documentary based on Robert Trachtenberg's book airs in June.

When He Knew

Another When I Knew real person realization recorded in HBO's video booth confessional during the Sundance Film Festival. World of Wonder's When I Knew documentary based on Robert Tractenberg's book airs in June.

When They Knew

Another When I Knew real person realization recorded in HBO's video booth confessional during the Sundance Film Festival. World of Wonder's When I Knew documentary based on Robert Trachtenberg's book airs in June.

When She Knew

Another When I Knew real person realization recorded in HBO's video booth confessional during the Sundance Film Festival. World of Wonder's When I Knew documentary based on Robert Trachtenberg's book airs in June.

When He Knew

Another When I Knew real person realization recorded in HBO's video booth confessional during the Sundance Film Festival. World of Wonder's When I Knew documentary based on Robert Trachtenberg's book airs in June.

When She Knew

Another When I Knew real person realization recorded in HBO's video booth confessional during the Sundance Film Festival. World of Wonder's When I Knew documentary based on Robert Trachtenberg's book airs in June.

When He Knew

Another When I Knew real person realization recorded in HBO's video booth confessional during the Sundance Film Festival. World of Wonder's When I Knew documentary, based on Robert Trachtenberg's book, airs in June.

When She Knew

Another When I Knew "real person" realization recorded in HBO's video booth confessional during the Sundance Film Festival. World of Wonder's When I Knew documentary, based on Robert Trachtenberg's book, airs in June. [Note: Tom Wolf has pointed out that we don't need quotes around "real person" and he's right and we'll be removing them in the future. We're probably eligible to be on this site now.]

When He Knew

Another When I Knew "real person" realization recorded in HBO's video booth confessional during the Sundance Film Festival. World of Wonder's When I Knew documentary based on Robert Tractenberg's book airs in June.

When He Knew

Another When I Knew "real person" realization recorded in HBO's video booth confessional during the Sundance Film Festival. World of Wonder's When I Knew documentary based on Robert Tractenberg's book airs in June.

When They Knew

Another When I Knew "real person" realization recorded in HBO's video booth confessional during the Sundance Film Festival. World of Wonder's When I Knew documentary based on Robert Tractenberg's book airs in June.

Press

After Elton posted a dispatch today from the yellow snow of Sundance that includes Jessica Alba shopping at Albertson's, Fenton Bailey taxiing with a drug-dealing driver, the When I Knew panel at Queer Lounge, and Rex Lee's facial pleasures. (Photos: Fenton Bailey and Frameline's Michael Lumpkin; Entourage star Rex Lee)

Tracking Trachtenberg

Robert Tractenberg, author of When I Knew, the book upon which Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey's When I Knew documentary was based, was caught cold on the street at Sundance and grilled by Gaywired's Ross von Metzke about when HE knew. Says Metzke: "The hightlight for me are the people [at Sundance] who manage to infuse the festival with a project that really makes you think."

When I Knew Panel at Sundance

Queer Lounge's fourth panel of the week at Sundance was on the HBO-World of Wonder documentary When I Knew. The panel, moderated by The Advocate's editor-in-chief Anne Stockwell, featured the filmmakers, Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey, the book's author, Robert Trachtenburg, and Entourage's out actor, Rex Lee. We hear there wasn't a dry seat in the house.

Boothphiles

The Advocate's editor-in-chief, Anne Stockwell, left, and others pose in front of HBO's When I Knew video booth in the Queer Lounge at Sundance. Were they among the 30 or so who told their stories on the booth's last day? (Photos: Gabzebo's Steven Robert Moore)

When I Knew Booth Files

We're pleased to report that the When I Knew video booth at Sundance has been a huge success. We're at the 100+ mark of stories from people telling us when they knew they were gay. World of Wonder's HBO documentary When I Knew is based on Robert Trachtenberg's book.

When I Knew Screening at Sundance

There wasn't an empty seat or a dry eye in the house – and the house had over 150 seats for the When I Knew panel. After the presentation of a 15-minute teaser, HBO homo Rex Lee revealed that Back to the Future and the concept of Michael J Fox in his purple Calvin Klein underpants was his when-I-knew moment. Fenton said, "Every one of these stories is like a snowflake." Randy added that most of the filming "was – not too be all queer about it – weirdly emotional." Not included in the teaser trailer: "The guy who got an erection watching a National Geographic show about pygmies." [Ed note: But it IS on wheniknew.com.]

– Text and photos by David A. Keeps

Fenton and Randy with Christine Vachon

When I Knew Booth Files

We're pleased to report that the When I Knew video booth at Sundance has been a huge success. To date, there have been over 90 when-they-knew stories told. Above is a two-in-one. If you're at Sundance reading this, don't forget to clear your schedule and head over to the Queer Lounge at 608 Main Street, 3rd floor, for the 4PM screening of the When I Knew extended clip, followed by a most-likely lively discussion.

The Booth Files

On its first day of operation, over 30 people jumped into our When I Knew video closet, er, booth in the Queer Lounge and told us their stories of, you know, when they knew. Look for the results to start posting on our latest WOW TV channel – wheniknew.com – sometime on Monday. Photos by Steven Robert Moore, the guy from Gabzebo, makers of the booth.

When He Knew

Tomorrow afternoon, HBO and World of Wonder will screen an extended clip of When I Knew, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato's documentary based on Robert Trachtenberg's book of the same name, in which a wide variety of people tell when it was they first realized they were gay. The clip will be shown at 4PM in the Queer Lounge at Sundance, followed by a panel discussion and cocktails with the filmmakers, the author, and others. Meanwhile, a private video booth has been set up in the Lounge and Sundancers are invited to sit down and tell their own stories, which will be added to the When I Knew.com website.

When He Knew

Inspired by Robert Trachtenburg's book, When I Knew, award-winning filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato traveled the country asking ordinary people (over 150 from five cities) to tell their stories of when they realized they were gay. On Monday, January 21, HBO and World of Wonder will screen an extended clip from their film, When I Knew, at Queer Lounge at Sundance, followed by a panel discussion with Bailey, Barbato, Trachtenberg, The Advocate's editor-in-chief Anne Stockwell, and Entourage actor Rex Lee, who will share their own personal experiences. Meanwhile, HBO and WOW invite you to tell your story in our video booth at Queer Lounge.

When She Knew

Did You Know?

Starting today at 11AM, the When I Knew video booth will begin operating on the 2nd floor of the Queer Lounge at Sundance. People are encouraged to enter the booth and, instead of posing randomly for photos of themselves, tell their stories of when they first became aware they were gay. The videos will be added to the When I Knew.com website. The booth will be available until January 22.

When I Was Invited

When I Knew

On Monday, January 21, at the Sundance Film Festival, HBO and World of Wonder will screen an extended clip of When I Knew, inspired by Robert Trachtenburg's book of the same name. Award-winning filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (Eyes Of Tammy Faye, Party Monster, Inside Deep Throat) traveled the country asking ordinary people to tell stories of when they first realized they were gay. Through entertaining, insightful, and moving interviews with over 150 people from five cities, the filmmakers captured not only the "ah-ha" moments, but also moments when people first felt radically different from their friends and family. In a panel discussion after the screening, The Advocate's editor in chief, Anne Stockwell, Bailey, Barbato, Trachtenberg, and Entourage actor Rex Lee will share their own personal experiences relating to the themes of the documentary. A cocktail reception open to panel attendees will follow the discussion.

Queer Lounge, 608 Main Street, Park City, Utah. 4PM. The Salt Lake Weekly recommends the event in its Lounges section today.