'Harry' returns: Cape movie about real family secret to get national audience 12 years late
People kept saying the movie โWild About Harryโ was ahead of its time. But maybe now, the time is right.
At least thatโs what co-writer/director Gwen Wynne and producer James Egan hope as their 2009 movie โ based on Wynneโs real life in Dennis and filmed on Cape Codย in 2007 โ gets a relaunch. And the story may getย turned into a television series.
The new road begins at 6 p.m. Saturday with a "sneak premiere" as part of the Hyannis Film Festivalโs two-day โMovies on Mainโ event before โWild About Harryโ debuts Dec. 17 on Video on Demand. The film is then due to move to a not-yet-revealed major movie-streaming service.
So whatโs different 12 years after the filmโs original release? A greater acceptance of gay-themed films, growing support for women directors and womenโs stories, and a pandemic that left streaming services short on content, say Wynne and Egan.
Whatโs not different? That the story about two teen girls in 1973 realizing their widowed father is gay, and what might happen if word gets out, still resonates, they say โ especially considering the U.S. Supreme Court decision in June to affirm that the Catholic Church could refuse LGBTQ couples as adoptive parents.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
โThe story is timeless, it's entertaining, it's still relevant,โ Egan says.
Itโs also largely true.
First 'Movies on Main' fest:Movies back in downtown Hyannis for two-day event
โWild About Harryโ has โalways been like the outsider film becauseย there's never been a family gay film like this,โ Egan says in a joint phone interview withย Wynne. โThereโs never been a story told by the children of gay parents. โฆ That's what drew me to the project from the very beginning โ that this was a fresh new attitude towards an issue that we've never seen before. And who could tell it better than someone who grew up like that?โ
The real-life story
Wynne says her mother died when she was 11, and Mr. Phipps โ her widowed fatherโs lover, named Mr. Gibbs in the movie โ moved in with the family in the mid-1970s when they lived in New Jersey. The family was ostracized there, Wynne says she has since realized, so they moved to Route 6A in Dennis in 1976.
There, Mr. Phipps had a shop in the back of the house and separate bedroom, just like in her screenplay, and the men became friendly with many Capeย artists, including Richard Howard. Her father helped in the shop in part so he could be home when his daughters came back from school and no one could accuse him of being a negligent parent, Wynne says.
โHe was very afraid that my motherโs parents would take us away,โ she says. โI know that they were thinking about it.โ
Unlike in the movie, Wynne โ a 1980 graduate of Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School โ and her younger sister didnโt reveal their fatherโs unusual living arrangement or talk to their father about his homosexuality while still teens.
โWhen we were playing (the film) at festivals, it was like I was coming out because I was afraid, through my young adulthood,โ to reveal the family secret, Wynne says. โNobody knew that my father was gay.โ She recalls fundraisers she did for the film at Cape Cinema in Dennis that high-school friends attended.
โThey said, โThatโs why you never invited us over to your house,โโ Wynne says. โMy father didn't want anyone to come to the house because he was afraid that weโd get taken away. My dad was very private, so it was very interesting seeing my high school friends who are now grown adults, mothers, parents etc. and their reaction to (the film).โ
The movie, she says, โreally was important, at least for me artistically, to make. And in a sense, I was also finding my voice.โ
And giving a voice to others โ which could potentially happen again when the movie is seen on the Cape, on demand and through the streaming release.
Egan recalls the world premiere of โWild About Harryโ at the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival that included an invitation to an organization for gay parents and their children โ in a time before gay marriage was legal.
โThere was a standing ovation, I mean like a long, emotional standing ovation,โ Egan says. โA lot of the people came up and said, โThis is the first time Iโve seen my story. Thank you.โ It was a very emotional experience.โ
Wynne, who was initiallyย a theater director and started her own theater company in Washington, D.C., says she only wrote her familyโs story down in the 1990s when she was in film school, long after Mr. Phipps had died of AIDS. After reworking the screenplay with a co-writer, Wynne ended up back in Dennis in 2007 to film it and found a supportive community for her efforts.
Location was important for her first directing job. โI kept on saying I need this incredible light that only the Cape has, that brought so many painters and artists to the Cape. I wanted to capture that.โ
Egan, who lives on Buzzards Bay, became producer on the film in part, Wynne says, โbecause he got it, he really got what the film was about.โ
The first life of 'Harry'
The movie โ originally called โAmerican Primitiveโ โ stars Tate Donovan (TVโs โThe O.C.,โ โDamagesโ) as the character based on Wynneโs father; Adam Pascal (Broadwayโs โRentโ) as his lover; Danielle Savre (TVโs โStation 19โ) and Skye McCole Bartusiak (โThe Patriot,โ โRiding in Cars With Boysโ) as the sisters; Josh Peck (TVโs โDrake and Josh,โ the new โHow I Met Your Fatherโ);ย James B. Sikking (TVโs โHill Street Bluesโ); and Susan Anspach (โFive Easy Piecesโ).
โWild About Harryโ was a hit at film festivals. But it never got national distribution, largely, Wynne and Egan say now, because of the business model then of selling DVDs and the refusal of some big marketers, like Walmart, to sell gay-themed films.
โWe made it at a time when there were no gay family films,โ Wynne says, noting โWild About Harryโ is really the teen sistersโ story and told from their point of view.
Egan adds: โIn those days, women protagonists were not considered financially viable in the (movie) theater. It took Thelma and Louise going over a cliff to convince people that there was an audience for women. โฆ Unless it was a Disney film and she was a princess, you were not gonna get any kind of (major studio) to take that kind of risk.โ
Document:New documentary about Brewster's Greg O'Brien shines light on Alzheimer's disease
Times have changed somewhat related to women, though, and that DVD business model has been up-ended by streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, they say, especially since the pandemic began.
In the time between, both Wynne and Egan went on to multiple other projects. Wynne has two production companies, including Cape Cod Films, and launched a new global initiative, the Eos World Fund, to support female directors and minorities by financing and championing their movies. Her focus on โuntold storiesโ includes theย PBS show โTyrus,โ about a Chinese immigrant who became a top Hollywood concept artist; "Al Garib (The Stranger)," set in the occupied Golan Heights that she executive-produced with directorย Ameer Fakher Eldin that just premiered at the Venice Filmย Festival.ย and an in-progress episodic spy drama about intelligence agentsย during WWII.
Egan has focused his writing/producing on โmedia that makes a difference,โ including 2019โs award-winning โRaise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivinsโ; โKimjongilia,โ about survivors of the labor camps in North Korea; and the in-production โFightback,โ about women around the world teaching othersย self-defense to stop physical and sexual abuse.
Wynne says she hadnโt realized how hard it would be to work as a woman director in Hollywood and Egan, who has worked largely with women directors, says heโs glad to see some more opportunities now โ including recognition for Wynne.
โIt's important for us to hear womenโs point of view in media because it is life-changing for us,โ Egan says. โWe need new solutions. And women have that perspective, as outsiders, to bring a fresh perspective to the world. As artists, they can make these changes happen because we need them โฆ and women are that powerful voice for change.โ
The second life of 'Harry'ย
The idea for them to revisit โWild About Harryโ began in part because Eganโs partner, Dan Perdios, wrote a book, published earlier this year, called โA Golden Retriever & His Two Dads: An Adventure on Cape Cod.โ The story takes place on the Dennis set of โWild About Harryโ and the coupleย rewatched the film to get the details right.
โI said, โThis is a fantastic film. We've got to get this film out there,'โ Egan says.
And because streaming services now welcome gay subject matter and there was a lack of content with filming shut down during the pandemic, Egan said, companies were suddenly interested.
โThe great thing is that the paradigm for distribution has changed dramatically,โ he says. โNetflix and Amazon turned everything upside down and COVID made people desperate for content and โฆ suddenly we were now viable in the marketplace.โ
Participation this summer at the Marthaโs Vineyard African American Film Festival helped connect Egan to those now working to get โWild About Harryโ a larger audience. โWe had five or six digital platforms interested right away โฆ and the film's going toย finally reach the audiences.โ
Fall reading ideas: Here are 5 new books by Cape Cod & Islands authors
Beyond the future of the movie itself is continuing the story as a possible television series, which Wynne and Egan are working on now. She hopes to draw in other parts of 1970s Cape Cod โ the Indigenous community, people of color, the fishing community, immigrants, LBGTQ friends โ to expand on various aspects of what it was like to live here almost 50 years ago. She even mentions the possibility of using local artists, like Edward Gorey, as characters.
A TV series set around the โHarryโ story would be โa way to preserve the history because the โ60s and the โ70s, that whole time, was a very rich moment on the Cape,โ she says.
And would she return to film the TV series on Cape Cod, too? โWeโd love to do that,โ Wynne says. โItโs a fascinating place. I love it.โ
Contact Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll at [email protected]. Follow on Twitter: @KathiSDCCT.
If you go
What: "Wild About Harry," directed by Gwen Wynne
Presented by: Hyannis Film Festival for "Movies on Main"
When: 6 p.m. Saturday
Where: 529 Main St., Hyannis
Reservations and information:ย https://www.hyannisfilmfestival.com/