HAZE was one of the films that screened at the LGBT Short Stack at the 2016 Queens World Film Festival. Here is a synopsis of the film:
Told in one continuous, unbroken shot, HAZE is the story of a single moment shared between two past lovers when they unexpectedly reunite for the first time in years. Phil and Gavin have moved on with their lives after their break up three years ago. They’ve had new jobs and new relationships; they are different people. But when they run into each other at a bar one night, they are forced to confront their unresolved emotions for each other, to reassess what they though to be true about their relationship, in order to find true stability in their individual lives.
After the screening, director James Resendes talked about the two motivations for making this film:
It’s a two part answer. In terms of the story itself came from a conversation I was having with a friend of mine, just about both of us being at a weird place in our (former) relationships. I feel like it’s a pretty universal feeling where something ends and you’re not quite ready for it to end. But it’s also something that you don’t necessarily want to go back to. Emotions and the thought processes that our main character goes through is a pretty universal thing that a lot of people feel, especially when they’re reunited with such an important person from their past.
But the other thing about it, growing up, I never saw stories about queer people that weren’t centered around their sexuality and weren’t centered around a coming out story. And that was something that I yearned for. Degrassi was the only thing that I could find that as a teenager, growing up in a very religious household, the only kind of queer stories that I saw, and I latched on to those. And a lot of those were pretty stereotypical in terms of struggling with a past and trying to come out, and having a person there helping you come out. That’s what I needed. I needed stories about queer people just living their day-to-day lives and just being people, as opposed to having that queer label on them. So I was adamant about making a film that about queer people, and starred queer characters, but the plot lines and emotional undercurrents weren’t centered on their sexualities.
Read more about HAZE on its Facebook page.
Still of Warren Macaulay and Eitan Shalmon in HAZE (2015).