STREAMING CINEMA
All He Wants for Christmas
Caring for lost dogs, souls, gay man learns lesson about love
BY GARY M. KRAMER
“The Family Tree” is
a romantic holiday
melodrama from
writer/ director
Jorge Ameer. Set in Panama, the
fi lm concerns Victor (Keith Roenke),
who works in an animal rescue
shelter. One night he rescues
a man, Roy (Michael Joseph Nelson),
who has been mugged. Victor
is smitten with the handsome
stranger, but Roy is not gay. However,
Roy is undocumented, and
Victor proposes they enter into a
civil union so Roy can remain in
the country. While Roy agrees and
the guys cohabitate, Roy eventually
falls in love with Alina (Anaïs
Lucia), Victor’s best friend. When
the couple faces a delicate situation,
they ask the brokenhearted
Victor for help, and he agrees.
Keith Roenke gives a sincere,
heartfelt performance as the selfless
Victor who grapples with loss
and longing. The actor chatted with
Queering Ireland’s Emerald Hills
Rural gay teen, lesbian “girlfriend” fi nd their way together
BY GARY M. KRAMER
Out gay writer/ director
David Freyne’s charming
sophomore feature,
“Dating Amber,” is, the
fi lmmaker said in a recent Zoom
interview, “as autobiographical as
I’m going to get.”
He explained, “I wanted to make
a fi lm of my experiences of struggling
with sexuality and coming
out. Amber is very pretentious
teenager, funny and acerbic, and
Eddie is sweet and kind.
“Eddie is so me, and Amber is
the me I wanted to be. I would have
liked the things she liked but didn’t
have the confi dence. I didn’t want
Amber to be a manic pixie dream
girl; she had her own dreams. It’s
big on the holidays. Victor took it
to another place, and it was fun to
shoot in Panama and hear about
their Christmas traditions. I grew
up in a small town and a Protestant
Christian family. Christmas
was a big thing — decorating the
house, etc. — I was able to feed off
that vibe, recalling keepsakes from
my childhood. I tried to lean into
that and what the holidays meant
for Victor.
KRAMER: What are your observations
on Victor? He is both vulnerable
and sensitive. There is also
a suggestion he is depressed.
ROENKE:Victor is an eternal
optimist despite his family situation
— he lost his mother and has
a tense relationship with his father.
That is why he is so committed
to his work, his animals, and
his friends — he’s overcompensating
for his depression. I personally
have had small bouts of depres-
➤ FAMILY TREE, continued on p.27
very much a two hander and about
both of them.”
His comedy, set in Ireland’s
County Kildare in 1995, has Eddie
(Fionn O’Shea from “Handsome
Devil”) faking dating Amber (Lola
Petticrew) because both are assumed
to be queer by their classmates.
Of course, Eddie is gay and Amber
is a lesbian, but it’s not exactly
easy for either of them to be out.
Eddie agrees to the ruse out of
his determination to squelch his
same-sex desires. He is training for
the army in part because his father
(Barry Ward) is in the military. He
is also bullied and shamed by his
classmates when he resist s touch-
Keith Roenke, Anaïs Lucia, and Michael Joseph Nelson in Jorge Ameer’s “The Family Tree,” which
begins streaming on November 6.
Gay City News about “The Family
Tree,” a fi lm that – full disclosure
— I was a consultant on.
GARY M. KRAMER: “The Family
Tree” is a holiday fi lm, and Victor
HOLLYWOOD INDEPEDENTS
fi nds meaning in the traditions
and lights of Christmas. Are you
big on the holidays? What can you
say about making a Christmas romance?
KEITH ROENKE: I am defi nitely
SAMUEL GOLDWYN PICTURES
Lola Petticrew and Fionn O’Shea in David Freyne’s “Dating Amber.”
➤ DATING AMBER, continued on p.27
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