After An 11 Year Absence, Gay Filmmakers Make Triumphant Return At Tribeca Film Festival
Filmmaking and producing duo Deondray and Quincy Gossfield have been back at their East Point home for over a week since their successful debut at The Tribeca Film Festival, but the energy of New York City and the industry buzz generated from their short film FLAMES is showing no sign of being extinguished anytime soon.
Emmy-Award-winning lesbian filmmaker Lena Waithe is responsible for the Gossfield’s return to the director’s chair after spending the last 11 years as reality television producers.
The Gossfield’s were one of ten directors selected in Waithe’s Rising Voices initiative presented in collaboration with Indeed that aims to discover, invest in and share stories created by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) filmmakers & storytellers around the meaning of work and the idea that jobs have the power to change us all. The selected filmmakers were given access to a $100,000 production budget, an additional $25,000 COVID-19 safety budget, along with mentorship and support from industry professionals from Waithe’s Hillman Grad Productions and Ventureland.
Having first rose to prominence in the early aughts with the release of The DL Chronicles, the Gossfields have been in the entertainment industry for over two decades with credits far exceeding that of an emerging artist, a fact that kept the pair from applying for Waithe’s initiative until hours before the deadline.
“I was like, why are we submitting to this contest? They're not going to select us for some contest for up-and-coming directors,” says Quincy. “We've been in this game for 20 years. They're not going to even consider us.”
Equally skeptical, Deondray considered their competition.
“It was like 850 submissions. So I had no hope whatsoever,” he says.
With only two spots left and three filmmakers still in the running, the pair endured several rounds of intense interviews, which increased Deondray’s anxiety and simultaneously bruised his ego.
“From our fans’ perspective we’re still who we are, and they still appreciate the work. They still love us. But on the inside of the industry, we’re not directing.”
“I felt some kind of way because we've been doing this for so long and here we are, they've given basically eight spots away and we’re the directors that's on the fence,” says Deondray. “And I'm just trying to get out of my head. I'm trying not to let my ego get to me. This is the process—you haven't been doing it. Put on your coat of armor and kill this interview.”
The gag was, he didn’t have to kill the interview. The Gossfields had already been selected.
“It was a huge shock because I did come into it feeling a little bit defeated, to be honest, because it's been such a struggle to get our foot back in the door,” says Quincy.
“From our fans' perspective we're still who we are, and they still appreciate the work. They still love us. But on the inside of the industry, we're not directing,” says Deondray.
“Like that moment for the DL Chronicles—I think it will be loved and appreciated probably forever. But in the industry, it's not relevant any longer. They've gone on to POSE, they've moved on to other shows and newer filmmakers who are doing groundbreaking things, and often we're completely erased or overlooked when the conversation is happening in the media about Black LGBTQ stories and images,” he says.
Now the Gossfields are jumping back into the conversation and the director’s chair with FLAMES, and are telling Black LGBTQ stories as only they can.
Igniting The Flame
In Deondray’s script for FLAMES, Ahmad, played by Deion Smith (Queen of the South), a streetwise college-bound scholar on the precipice of a new bright future, and Sadik, played by newcomer Dontavius Williams, a rehabilitated hooligan grappling with his identity, find themselves alone together before Ahmad’s graduation party in the woods. Soon, unresolved issues and old resentments ignite a forbidden blaze between them that must be doused if Ahmad is to have any chance of escaping the past.
Shot over three days in the Chattahoochee Hills in Fairburn, GA, Deondray tells The Reckoning that his impetus for writing FLAMES was to provide commentary on toxic masculinity.
“I had these really strange relationships when I was growing up where I had these really close male friends and it would become, well at least from my perspective, romantic in nature,” says Deondray.
“There are a lot of stories that we want to tell, but we do feel that there is a responsibility that we owe to represent our lives and our stories and our image.”
“I also wanted to comment on male intimacy and how there's this incessant need for it, especially in the Black community. It doesn't mean physical, just platonic male-to-male intimacy with our fathers, with our brothers, and cousins. It's something that we just don't do. The slightest touch that lingers too long. I think it creates this thing that keeps feeding itself. And I think we become malnourished emotionally,” he says.
Deondray also tells The Reckoning that their new short film was inspired in part by a situation with his childhood best friend and his desire to “reimagine it.”
“What would he have said to me or what would have happened if I’d said what I really wanted to say to him, or if I had kissed him when I wanted to kiss him? Who would these boys be if they didn’t have society on their backs?”
It’s a question Deondray and the characters grapple with on screen, and ultimately, a question that is left for the audience to grapple with, too. For the talented duo that brought audiences The DL Chronicles and The Chadwick Journals, FLAMES is a continuation of creating content that centers Black LGBTQ characters.
“There are a lot of stories that we want to tell, but we do feel that there is a responsibility that we owe to represent our lives and our stories and our images,” says Quincy.
And for the Gossfields, representation doesn’t begin and end in front of the camera.
“It was very important for us when we were choosing our crew because this program was about and for Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC). And so we didn't want to be the only one and then not pass that down to production. We wanted to represent women, Black women, people of color as our crew. And I would say 98.8% were all people of color and people of African descent,” says Quincy.
“We had a couple of white guys in there too,” Deondray jokingly points out.
“It's always nice to look across a team of people who don't get these opportunities, doing amazing work and of color,” he says.
For Deion Smith, one of the film’s stars, his casting in the Tribeca-bound film was a moment he’d manifested, and the Gossfields were proud to have played a role in bringing to fruition.
“Deion said he put it on his vision list. ‘I want to make it to Tribeca.’ That was literally on his vision board. It was so fulfilling to share that moment with them,” says Quincy of Smith and Williams, especially after the men received star treatment and praise for their film during their time at Tribeca, with many viewers commenting on how the directors breathed new life into a familiar plot.
“We've been beating down this coming of age, coming to terms with your sexuality story for…I mean, that was the emphasis of The DL Chronicles,” says Deondray. “I said, just tell the story and then worry about it later because it was in me and it needed to come out. And so I was happy to find out that people felt like it felt fresh,” he says.
Now that Tribeca is over, the Gossfields are eager to lean into their first love of directing.
“Tribeca was just a moment. It was just a splash,” says Deondray.
“It’s there, and it's gone now, already. So the goal is, you know, what happens next?”
If FLAMES is any sign, the Gossfields are gearing up once again to be at the center of conversations involving Black gay filmmaking.
You can watch FLAMES below.
