Burnt Orange Report

Movie With A Gay Character? Can't Shoot It In Our Town!

By Vince Leibowitz

I hardly ever post more than once--let alone twice--a day, and a third time is very unprecedented (and maybe not allowed), but I've been waiting for our local newspaper to update its Website so I could post about this brouhaha, which is so typical of small-town politics. I finally saw the story on there tonight.

Anyway, last week, an independent film was supposed to be shot in Canton. All seemed well and good until the Powers That Be found out that one of the primary characters led an "alternative lifestyle."

Then, all Hell broke out and the blame shifting began, to wit:

[This story is very disjointed, but keep in mind it was published in a very "conservative" paper and was probably severely edited for content without regard for style]

The independent film "Fat Girls" that was scheduled to be shot in Canton from January 23 through January 30 has been relocated to Waxahachie after the crew failed to follow proper procedure through the city and "mislead" the school district on their intentions.

Casting director for this production Katrina Cook released a statement about the move.

"The city manager pulled the plug and we have moved the entire movie to Waxahachie. His reason was because the lead character was gay. Not only is this discrimination but he has denied many local people the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (perhaps) to be in a film. Unfortunately a core group of individuals can make decisions based on their personal points of view," said Cook.

Canton City Manager Charles Fenner said the allegations that he "pulled the plug" on the movie was a false statement.

Fenner said the crew did not go through the proper city procedure to block the roads and sidewalks for their filming needs. The filming crew needed to get approval from the Canton City Council.

"Basically when I talked to the casting producer, I told her that I did not have the right to tell her she could not come to town (to film). She wanted to dwell on the issue of the homosexuality. I told her I did not have authority over the school district because the school facility was no longer available to them," said Fenner.

He explained that he heard the crew was coming to the area and were going to put up saw horses out on the city streets and the public sidewalks.

"I told her they had to go through the proper procedures and that is to petition the council to use the public roads and sidewalks. I explained to her that even our own fire department, MDA and humane society has to go through the council," he added.

"She was the one who dwelled on the fact that the issue was uprising about the homosexuality. I told her that I was sure she understood that there were principals and morals in the community," Fenner said. "I did not even know anything was going on until last Thursday that they were going to be using as much of the public property as they were trying to use... I do know that there were people concerned."

"We just told them that any public facilities that were used had to go through the proper procedure. Even if we have a restaurant owner or someone on the square that needs to use the sidewalks they have to have a permit also," he pointed out. "This is not discrimination; we are not treating them any differently than anyone else."

"They (film production team) said they had already done all of that and I told them they had not."

"The producer called me and kept hitting on the gay issue. I told her whether that was my belief or the community belief was not the issue. They have the right to say what they want to say on private property. But as far as using public property, that has to go through proper procedure" Fenner said. "I'm not sure what the city has to do with this other than the city streets, we don't have the right to tell them they can't come to Canton on private property. As far as the public facility there is a procedure that everyone has to abide by."

Canton Chamber of Commerce President Rona Watson would not comment on the film production being moved.

"We agreed to let the filming take place at our schools but we were mislead by their intentions."

"We felt like the storyline was not appropriate for our school to be involved in," Canton ISD Superintendent Larry Davis said.

Originally some scenes of the film were going to be shot at Canton Junior High.

When the project was first proposed to the Canton Chamber of Commerce the storyline was about three teenagers coming of age in a small rural Texas town.

The town was been renamed to Bloom, Texas. The basis of the story is three teenagers that are a little overweight; they are struggling with what they want to do in life.

It was later discovered by the school administrators, the city manager and the chamber that the eccentric star teen character leads an alternative lifestyle.

Now, given that Phyllis Diller and one of the Lawrence brothers were supposed to be in this movie, I find it hard to believe that the production company didn't bother to give the city a heads-up on what, exactly, they'd be doing--especially since the city Mayor's hardware store was to be one of the shooting locations.

However, in defense of the city, street/sidewalk closure does require a city permit. I've been in charge of the July 4th Parade in Canton for going on five years now, and every year I have to appear in person before the council to get approval for the street closing.

Personally, as a citizen of Canton, I think it would have been nice for a movie to have been shot here. It would have helped the economy and potentially led to more movies coming to town. Our downtown would lend itself nicely to movie filming. And, though I'm not gay and don't lead an "alternative lifestyle," I for one was not bothered by the fact that a movie with such a character was being shot here. Who cares? This is 2005, and I think we should be a little bit past that by now.

Though I'm not surprised by the city manager's reaction (he was formerly a city council member who gained his seat with the support of our former county judge, Jeff Fisher--former head of the Texas Christian Coalition and now Executive Director of the Republican Party of Texas), I am surprised by the school district's reaction. I covered Canton ISD for years and have attended at least four dozen of their board meetings, and met with the superintendent countless times. I can only assume they were bending to the wishes of their constituents and aren't so narrow-sighted to realize that, after all, it is just a movie.

Vince Leibowitz is the County Chairman of the Democratic Party of Van Zandt County.