11min SHORT FILM, 2019
Director: Stephen Lance
Producers: Madeleine Allen & Stephen Lance
DOP: Benjamin Cotgrove
Post Production Co: The Post Lounge
Executive Producers: Kurt Royan & Steve Cooper
Colour Grade: Angela Cerasi
This short film was colour graded by Angela Cerasi. The film was directed and produced by Stephen Lance. Post production was completed at The Post Lounge in Brisbane. The stunning images were captured by DOP Benjamin Cotgrove.
In the poignant short film, an XXY adolescent hoping to spend the weekend with his father, when he finds him and many other men partly through an intense and surreal type of suburban burning man ceremony.
Director Stephen Lance spoke about the themes and making of the film in this article:
“With Torch Song I wanted to create a lament on the transitional state of masculinities – the liminal space between the old toxic masculinity and the rejection of the feminine within new masculinity.
I agonised over the title, and finally settled on Torch Song because it suggests the rejection of the feminine and the rejection of love. And because it obviously has queer lineage.
As a queer identifying director, I think the way we bring authenticity to representation on screen, particularly with gender and sexuality, is so important and finding new ways to reinvent the casting process to adapt to this revolution is a fact we need to face with sensitivity.”
Lance had been working with the Klinefelter Society in Queensland prior to making the short film. Klinefelter (XXY) is a genetic condition in men who have an extra female chromosone. The adolescent subject of Torch Song was inspired by one particular boy Lance had met at the society and they worked together to bring some of his experience to the fictionalised short film.
To see another dramatic film (this one a feature rather than a short film) Angela colour graded that has LGBTQI+ themes, check out the trailer for A Savage Christmas here.