If there was a pill that would change gays into straight, would you take it? If so, what would the effects be? Those are two of the pertinent questions in the John Baumgartner’s accomplished feature-length debut Hard Pill. Under the threat of being condemned by a radical Midwestern media collective he took a few moments to answer a couple of questions for us.

Chicago Independent Media Center: How are you?

John Baumgartner: I'm fine and very excited to be coming to Chicago with HARD PILL.  I grew up in Lorain, Ohio (near Cleveland) and my best friends, Herr, Guy and Mindi, are meeting me there for the festival.

CIMC: Were there any particular current events/trends your film was commenting on?  Prozac nation, etc.?

JB: I workshopped the outline of this story with the cast for 2 weeks before writing the screenplay.  During this, there were many things that came up in discussions and informed us -- like birth control pills that stop women's periods, antidepressants that lessened your libido, antibiotics that cure in short term but might harm in the long term, alcohol, drugs, genetic manipulation, the rise of the conservative movement, etc.  So much got thrown in as to create a impression of the current world.

CIMC: How fun was it to write/film a fundamentalist saying, "Better living through science."? 

JB: That was one of my favorite lines and was very fun.  To me, it was important to consider opposing view points throughout the writing and directing process, because this subject is so HUGE and so complex that any one view point or position would seem didactic or facile.  Having the mom next door say she doesn't see what the big deal is with making such a pill is much closer to the common reality than having a fanatic screaming, and much more insidious. 

A key decision I made early in the process was that I wasn't going to judge whether such a pill was right or wrong.  Making such a judgment I felt would miss or distract from the main point I was exploring - what would drive someone to take such a pill and what would it do to his relationships and personal happiness?  Exploring those elements while showing as many different opinions as possible I felt would get at more of the complexities... while never pinning something down that is ultimately too big to pin down, the question of what makes humans happy OR what prevents humans from achieving happiness.

CIMC: Would you call this film gay cinema?  Science-fiction? Gay science-fiction?  Would you prefer not to put it into genres?  If so, why?

JB: Uhhh... I wouldn't call it gay cinema and I would.  What I was striving for was the exploration of universal truths and these truths happened to be demonstrated through some gay and non-gay story elements and characters.  The film deals with issues of unrequited love, emotional ruts, questions of identity, struggle for fulfillment--all things everyone deals with.  I've had the movie resonate with some hetero friends more so than with gay friends and vice versa... so I think it hopefully speaks to human truths.

That being said, it was made by a gay man about issues that gay people think about probably more than their hetero counterparts.  Specifically, if there were a pill, would I take it and would it make me any happier? What would it really change in me?  How would my life be different if I were heterosexual?  (Though heterosexual audience members may have the same questions, how would their life have been different if they were gay?)  Again, questions with no real answers.  But that the movie strives to make us question identity vis-à-vis sexuality, in that way, one could call it "gay cinema."

Science fiction?  Yes, by definition.  If you can get past the images of TRON when you think of the word "sci fi."

CIMC: The film talks briefly about gay marriage.  Much of the pro-gay marriage talk is centered on very tangible things like insurance benefits and immigration rights.  You chose to comment on a slightly more intangible aspect, that of what it would be like to be a gay teen growing up in a place that recognizes homosexual love as legit.  Could you expand upon this thought for a moment?

JB: To me, an especially important and vital difference in a world where gay marriage is legit is how it would change the experience of growing up gay, knowing that there is a "legitimate" societally sponsored "end" to your feelings.  I've talked to some gay men who spoke Joey's words in the film, "It's just something else I'm going to be expected to do," and were therefore AGAINST the idea of gay marriage.  While I acknowledge there are people who feel marriage, gay or straight, is wrong, I see that anything can be good or bad and that marriage can be a valid thing with some good.  Writing gay marriage off because of obligation issues or embracing it just for the legal reasons, I thought misses an important, less tangible aspect of the emotional tonal change legalizing gay marriage would have for gays.  Whether or not you choose to engage in it (no pun intended) is up to you--just like it's a big decision for heteros--but imagine how empowering it would be to know that, as a gay person, you could... especially for a kid coming out.   It's a form of "permission" that I think is important to self esteem that is currently missing.  I get that we shouldn't need that permission, some actually prefer and get off on it NOT being there, but nonetheless, I think it would be a great thing and I feel it would have greatly improved the quality of my adolescent life.

CIMC: How did you make a film with so much softcore sex and have it not seem exploitive?

JB: Thanks for saying that.  We always tried to keep the movie honest on all levels.  I think keeping the sex scenes honest and organic to story perhaps makes the sex seem non-exploitive.  It doesn't hurt that Jennifer Elise Cox was so excited to show off her cute boobies.  How can you exploit that enthusiasm?  I know, you point a camera at it, naked.  But nonetheless, in trying to keep it honest, we felt like we couldn't shy away from the sometimes embarrassing aspects of human sexuality, which is a big part of what makes us tick, but also would never exploit it for exploitation sake, because that would be dishonest and have ulterior motivations behind it and lessen the bigger truths we were trying to tackle.

CIMC: What's next?

JB: I am busy trying to sell out, creating a comedy pilot for television. I hope to keep doing very honest work and am considering a number of features to take on next.

CIMC: What's the best thing about Chicago? 

JB: Why, the Chicago Independent Media Center, of course.

Hard Pill will be screening at Film Row Cinema at Columbia College on Saturday, November 12 at 4pm.