About

 
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“I fell in love with a man in my early twenties who was older than I. His family had a history of dementia and Alzheimers.

We were closeted, and I worried what would happen to our love story if he lost his memory. No one knew about us, and I wanted some marker of it in the world. Even if it was found years later, it would be something.

I made a short film about that fear, and when the short played at festivals other gay men told me their memories.

I wanted a place to keep some of these memories, little things that might be overlooked, but are poetic and meaningful none the less, those little things I hear from other Queer folks I run into out in the world.

When I had the opportunity to spend some time in Memphis, I wanted to try and capture stories from the community in a very undisrupted style, with us all just sharing, and place them in one place as a document for future generations.”

- Jon Bryant Crawford

 
 

 
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Cinematography

“Jon was in a residency at Crosstown Arts in Memphis, Tennessee which takes place in the old Sears warehouse distribution center. Our room was only 12 x 20 with white walls and a blacked out ceiling, but also had 12 foot windows with perfect light.

Jon and I grew up in Arkansas, there was a photographer Mike Disfarmer who posthumously became renowned for his portrait photography. A look defined by sidelight, stark backdrop and character. Given our backgrounds, story needs, and location resources, this seemed like something we could achieve.

We used a drop cloth to soak up the paint and help make it less glossy than a standard commercial backdrop. He found a BlueJean blue color that perfectly frames our interviewees and give the set a profoundness that any other color would lack. We used a Red Dragon at 6k resolution cropped to 1:33:1 to mimic a medium format camera that Disfarmer used. We placed the backdrop perpendicular to the 12’ window and would use negative fill and bounced light to control contrast.

We decided we wanted these interviews to be intimate, bare, and celebrate the power of vulnerability and the stories of life lived authentically. We hope the look reflects the sincerity found in these interviews.”

- Gabe Mayhan

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Editing

"Jon and I share a passion for personal stories and had worked together on a series of intimate personal portraits before.

While we first explored interweaving the stories into a feature-length documentary, painting a portrait of the LGBTQ community in Memphis, we eventually realized that each story was powerful enough to stand on its own.

After some deliberation, we decided to release these as individual portraits instead.

We wanted the personalities to take center stage, so the editing had to be minimalistic and serve each story without getting in the way or drawing attention to itself.

We hope our work achieves this."

- Donika Jordan

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Mixing

“Editing & mixing a single voice provides unique challenges. Unlike in a traditional film, when there is a score and sound effects, there is nothing to hide behind. Every person has their own ticks or subconscious habits that occur while they are speaking. Anything from licking their lips to lip smacks or deep breathing before long phrases.

These ticks are easily ignored and forgiven when the film has underlying music or even when the camera moves way from the person speaking. But when the camera stays on the subject with no SFX or score providing cover, you can hear literally everything, and it is difficult not to focus on those habits once you hear them for the first time as a viewer. That’s where I believe my job comes in heavily.

It is up to me to make sure that the person’s story remains the focus of the film rather than the errant lip smack or even HVAC noise in the background. For the “Tell Me a Memory” portraits, I strive to create a blank canvas for the subject to be able to tell their story without distraction.

I want to be able to hear the joy, love and even pain in each person’s story. The story is what’s important, so the goal is to make that the focus, not any audio anomaly. I love mixing single voices, because I can really hone in on that single goal.”

- Daniel Lynn