Noah's Arc: February 2009 Archives

Darryl Stephens gave me a very thoughtful interview on the red carpet at the NAACP Image Awards last Thursday where "Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom" was up for three awards including outstanding independent movie.

Being at this partiucular awards show and it being more than three months since California voters passed Proposition 8, our conversation was different from any we had had before.

On "Jumping the Broom" getting an Image Award nomination: "The thing about this movie is it really didn't give you time to be squeamish. If you were not comfortable with the subject matter, you had about 30 seconds after the movie started to get comfortable. The fact that the NAACP has embraced the film and has been very, very supportive, it means a lot. It's an incredible statement to hear from the NAACP that they're recognizing gay brothers. It's a bug step for them."

Writer-director "Patrick-Ian Polk was very deliberate in the image he wanted to present. He wasn't giving you down-low brothers, he was giving you black gay men who were comfortable in their skin and who were living their lives responsibly and without shame."

On the movie's reception on DVD: "Our fans have always been incredible. It was heartbreaking for a number of people because there was such a limited release in theaters and in the smaller cities like places in Ohio and the Midwest and the South, it didn't come out anywhere. So I think they were excited to finally see it (on DVD). They really, really loved the movie."

The movie, which features the marriage between Noah and Wade (Jensen Atwood) was released less than two weeks before the Nov. 4 election. Because of this timing, Darryl sees a real lost opportunity because the movie did not have a very wide release theatrically.

"I hate to say this but I feel like if the film had played at the Magic Johnson Theater instead of the theater in West Hollywood, it might have had more of an impact on that vote. We've been so fixtated on locating gay stories in West Hollywood and there's so many other black people in California who need to be reached and in the U.S. Getting outside of those environments is what Prop. 8 showed us that we need to do."

After the vote, Darryl was part of one of the bigger rallies in downtown Los Angeles and I wondered if more activism was in store for him since he was such a powerful and articulate voice for gay rights.

"I'm honestly trying to focus more on art this year," he said. "I got very into the activism last year and it was great but it's not paying bills. I'm doing some things here and there to stay active and educate people when i can but I'm not really as focused on that.. There are people who are really committed who do an amazing job and when they reach out and say, 'Can you help us with this?' I'm happy to."