Soft Lad tells the coming of age story of a young gay guy embroiled in an affair with a married man who’s struggling to come to terms with his own sexuality. Cameraman, director, writer and editor, Leon Lopez, talks to QX Magazine about realising his project and the current state of LGBT cinema.
Soft Lad marks your editorial debut, how did you feel going into the project?
It was interesting because I didn’t go into it thinking of it as a directorial debut. I’d done some short films and stuff before, but I just wanted to make a feature film. We didn’t have any money really, didn’t have anybody backing it, so I just wanted to show people what I – at the time – thought I could do with limited resources.
The script that I had was a play that I had written a few years before and it was a story that I really felt passionate about. So I thought that it would be a good starting point for something that I could make with no money and limited resources.
What are some of the main themes you’ve explored in Soft Lad?
The themes I wanted to explore were about our sexual identity. But from watching it and looking back, I think a lot of the other themes that it touches on are people being aware of who they are and how their actions can affect other people.
You’ve got a younger gay character who is totally open and comfortable with who he is, he’s a little bit selfish, and he is openly gay and out. And then you’ve got the guy who he’s having an affair with, who just so happens to be a husband. He’s 10-15 years older, from a different generation, who’s been kind of shoe horned into a role – a heterosexual man with a wife and a kid – because society forced him to do that. So he couldn’t be who he was. Both of these are gay guys but have just given into the pressures of society. And it’s kind of a battle between these two people, their battles and their demons.
What message do you want the audience to take away from the film?
Being an actor as well as being a director, I never do anything because I want people to feel anything; what people feel is their own thing. I wrote it with my message and what I want to say. But I don’t want people to necessarily come away with that.
I want people to read into it however they will. Anything classed as an art form is totally subjective and it should be their own. I don’t believe in saying you should come away with this – I just want people to come away and enjoy it, because it is quite hard hitting and it is quite emotional, but it’s got a cathartic element to it.
“We’re never allowed to tell our stories unless they come from voices they feel comfortable with.”
What do you make of the current state of LGBT cinema and TV?
I think we still have a long way to go when it comes to LGBT TV and cinema and how we are represented in the medium. It’s sad that in the UK we don’t really have any LGBT TV and the only two high profile shows commissioned in the last two generations have come from the same person [Cucumber and queer as folk].
It’s as if TV commissioners are afraid of fresh voices, so we’re never allowed to tell our stories unless they come from voices they feel comfortable with. Even when we are represented on TV, gay men are caricatures, or overly camp, comedy roles.
In the film industry, especially in the UK, LGBT stories are almost non-existent. I honestly believe if ‘Soft Lad’ wasn’t self-funded, no matter how great the script or how big the star we employed to lead the film, no one would have financed it. I feel studios and investors are afraid to touch any contemporary gay story that has a message of any importance.
• Soft Lad is available to buy on DVD from the 9th November. For more information visit www.peccapics.com.
