aiff_program10_interior.xp 3/4/10 11:48 PM Page 17
45365 The Adults in the Room
documentar
93 minutes ■ 2009 ■ USA ■ In Competition 80 minutes ■ 2009 ■ USA ■ In Competition
Friday 6:20p
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Saturday 9:50a
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Sunday 12:20p Thursday 3:30p
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Friday 9:30p
■
Saturday 6:30p
■
Sunday 12:30p
Monday 10:00a
Plays with: Close to Home (p21)
Plays with: My Last Day on Earth (p63)
Directors/Producers/Cinematographers: Bill Ross, Turner Ross ■ Editor: Bill Ross ■
45365movie.com
Director/ Screenwriter: Andy Blubaugh ■ Producers: Erin Donovan, Phoebe Owens, James
Strayer ■ Cinematographers: Jon Beanlands, Anna Farrell ■ Editors: Margaret Lily Andres, ies
Shot over the course of nine months in Sidney, Ohio, this is a Andy Blubaugh
■ Principal Cast: Andy Blubaugh, Teresa Decher, Ryan Findley, Calvin
mesmerizing and deeply personal account of daily life in an
McCarthy ■ theadultsintheroommovie.com
American town. This cinema verité meditation explores the
relationships and interactions of people and their environment, In 1995, filmmaker Andy Blubaugh—then a curious and lonely
from the patrol car to the courtroom, the playground to the fifteen-year-old—began a sexual relationship with Peter, a
nursing home, the parade to the prayer service. Following the successful, deeply closeted man who was nearly twice his age. In
lives of a cross section of the town’s residents, their stories 2008, Andy revisited this complex relationship in a narrative
coalesce into a mosaic of images that creates a strong sense of script, the writing and production of which brought him back in
place rarely captured on film. [language] contact with Peter, providing him with the opportunity to
examine how their lives had changed in the thirteen years since
17
Bill Ross, Turner Ross they met.
Director‘s Statement (Bill Ross) These two storylines—the past relayed through scripted
narrative, and the present through verité documentary—inform
Since I can remember, Turner and I have
and support each other. However, this is not a documentary with
documented our surroundings through
“re-enactments,” in the traditional sense; the narrative functions
various mediums. We’ve had a continual
as a story on its own—an exploration of a doomed love affair.
love affair with the people around us and
Meanwhile, the documentary that weaves itself around these
the moment at hand. We don’t want fleeting
poignant vignettes documents a different story arc entirely, as
things to pass so we’ve tried to capture
Bill Ross
the filmmaker revisits his past as a thirty year old man—now the
them in some way. In our film work we
age that Peter was when their affair began. [adult content]
focus on images and the people in those
images—the storyteller rather than the
Andy Blubaugh
story itself—and in the moments and
landscapes that we find ourselves in. Director’s Statement
This project found us in a small town in I often shudder at the term "experimental
Ohio—the town where both of us were film," but in trying to describe this film, the
born. We arrived, back after many years, definition of experiment clearly applies: "a
and sought to capture the images that had method of investigating causal relationships
haunted us since our leaving—images we
Turner Ross among variables to test a hypothesis."
hadn’t seen before on film, images we
wanted to see. It was a very private and personal venture, just
When I began making this film years ago, I didn't know whether
the two of us with a camera and no funding, and so it is with
I was making a documentary or a narrative, I didn't know how
great humility that we present it here for your consideration.
the main character would change throughout the story, and I
didn't know how the film would end. Instead, I had a handful
of observations about the unique circumstances of my life, and
Filmography: Directorial Debuts
some theories about how they might relate to one another, and
to the universal human experience.
Filmography: The Burden; He Said; Hello, Thanks (2006 AIFF); The Pull (2008 AIFF);
Scaredycat (2007 AIFF)
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