Robert Adams in Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.’s “Passing Strangers.”
➤ BRESSAN, from p.62
interviews, but as we are seeing the footage
we hear audio recordings of people who were
there.
What Bressan did throughout his career
was put characters in real life situations. But
he has this quality — all his fi lms are romantic
and often two-handers. I think that’s true
of gay adult fi lms — they have a sweet, naive
quality to them. It’s the freshness of the liberation
movement but it’s also really politicized.
He is making the case for gay liberation and
how important it is to be out and proud.
KRAMER: Can you talk about his style of
fi lmmaking? Bresson uses voiceovers for the
actors — the characters never speak to each
other on screen. He loves slow motion and uses
light and shadow in accomplished ways. The
fi lm goes from black and white to color when
the guys meet, expressing how vivid their lives
are together,
OLSON:He placed a lot of weight on the narrative
aspects. It transcends just being a porn
fi lm. He does all kinds of things that work
within constraints of budget and brings a creativity
to it. “Abuse” uses stills and voiceover.
“Forbidden Letters” is an epistolary story.
He shoots without sound, which is cheaper
and easier — it doesn’t involve acting. He puts
in voiceover. It feels low budget but it’s also
unique and creative, and it’s successful. It’s
cinematically sophisticated. He also incorporates
fi lms within his fi lm. And he has cameos
in all of his fi lms.
KRAMER: There is a great silhouette of Robert’s
penis in the fantasy/ bubble sequence.
What are your observations about how he
fi lmed sex, nudity, bodies, and sexuality but
also the messages of freedom and liberation?
THE BRESSAN PROJECT
OLSON: I love the bubble scene. You do have
the sense that this fi lm was made in San Francisco
in early ‘70s and there’s the gay liberation
movement and the hippies, and like so many
guys here the early days of the movement were
counterculture, antiwar aesthetics, and ethos.
It was very celebratory: love and freedom. When
you look back and talk about Stonewall and all
that anger and the politics, the other piece is
the liberation. It’s 1974, so it’s early in terms
of the aesthetics of porn, which were different
then — but there was some interest in aesthetics.
He makes interesting use of lighting, black
and white and color. He shoots outdoors, which
also, in terms of budget, doesn’t require lighting.
KRAMER: The fi lm provides terrifi c footage
of ‘70s San Francisco, pre-AIDS . What can you
say about the time capsule quality of his work?
I love the cruising on Polk street sequence.
OLSON: It’s this gay porn fi lm that we can
look at as a documentary. Literally, a document
of 1974 San Francisco Gay Freedom Day. The
characters are really there, but it is also a doc
in the sense that this is one glimpse of what it
was like to be a white gay man in San Francisco
in the early 1970s, which was a time of moment
of early gay liberation. It brings a sense of that
time which was totally connected to sexuality.
It’s political: sex and self-realization, community
and connection. That is a fundamental
piece of the narrative. A guy who’s a little older
and has come out helps a younger guy coming
out. It’s so romantic. You have a sense of them
as a couple in the world. It’s beautiful. But it
has a bittersweet, wistful quality to it because
Bressan died of AIDS in 1987.
PASSING STRANGERS | Directed by Arthur J.
Bressan, Jr. | The Bressan Project | Streaming
at PinkLabel.tv.
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