Gregg Araki

Infobox_Celebrity


image_size = 150px
name = Gregg Araki
birth_date = Birth date and age|1959|12|17|mf=y
birth_place = Los Angeles, California
occupation = film director
networth =
website =

Gregg Araki (born December 17, 1959) is an American film director of independent films. He is a seminal figure of the New Queer Cinema genreFact|date=February 2007.

Early life

Araki was born in Los Angeles but grew up in Santa Barbara, California. He completed a Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies at UC Santa Barbara and an MFA in Film Production from the University of Southern California in 1985. [ [http://cinema.usc.edu/alumni/alumni-history/ Notable Alumni, USC School of Cinematic Arts] .]

Career

Araki made his directorial debut in 1987 with "Three Bewildered People in the Night". With a budget of only $5,000 and using a stationary camera, he told the story of a romance between a video artist, her lover and her gay friend.

Two years later, Araki made a name for himself on the festival circuit with "Long Weekend (o' Despair)". Produced, directed, written, photographed and edited by Araki (for his own Desperate Pictures Company), this very small-scale "Big Chill" derivation involved a group of recent college graduates brooding over their futures during one woozy, boozy evening.

He followed this up in 1992 with "The Living End", a road movie about two HIV-positive men whose paths cross one fateful day and the tumultuous relationship which ensues. The film starred Craig Gilmore and Mike Dytri, and featured Mary Woronov (who appeared in several of "underground" films by Andy Warhol) and cult favorite Paul Bartel. Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, the film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.

Araki's next three films comprised his "Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy."

"Totally Fucked Up" (1993) ("Totally F***ed Up" in publicity) chronicled the dysfunctional lives of six gay adolescents who have formed a family unit and struggle to get along with each other and with life in the face of various major obstacles. Araki himself classified it as "A rag-tag story of the fag-and-dyke teen underground....A kinda cross between avant-garde experimental cinema and a queer John Hughes flick". The movie explored the youths' depression and homophobia.

"The Doom Generation" was a black comedy brimming with graphic violence, cultural symbolism and relentless eroticism. The film starred Rose McGowan, Johnathon Schaech and James Duval (who had starred in "Totally Fucked Up"), with cameos by indie favorite Parker Posey, comedienne Margaret Cho, "21 Jump Street" actor Dustin Nguyen, "The Brady Bunch" star Christopher Knight, "The Love Boat" star Lauren Tewes, Hollywood madame Heidi Fleiss and musician Perry Farrell. While largely trashed by critics, the piece won a measure of respect in a number of circles and is available on DVD and VHS in both rated and unrated versions due to several sex scenes as well as the violent climax.

"Nowhere" (1997) was described by its director as "A "Beverly Hills 90210" episode on acid." It centered around a group of bored, alienated Los Angeles teenagers during a typical day of kinky sex, drugs, and the requisite wild party. Duval, Rachel True, Nathan Bexton, Debi Mazar, Christina Applegate, Heather Graham, Ryan Phillippe, Jaason Simmons, Scott Caan and Mena Suvari starred in the film, with cameos by Beverly D'Angelo, "Facts of Life" star Charlotte Rae, Traci Lords, Shannen Doherty, Rose McGowan, John Ritter and "International Male" and fitness model Brian Buzzini.

Araki's subsequent effort, the romantic comedy "Splendor", told the story of a woman (Kathleen Robertson) who cannot choose between two men (Johnathon Schaech and Matt Keeslar) and so decides to live with them both. "Splendor" was both a response to the controversy surrounding his relationship with Robertson and an homage to screwball comedies of the 1940s and '50s. Hailed as the director's most optimistic film to date, it made its premiere at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.

Araki's next venture was the ill-fated MTV series "This Is How the World Ends" (2000), which was meant to have a budget of $1.5 million. The network only gave him $700,000 and hoped to find partners to finance the difference. Araki offered to make the pilot episode for $700,000, and MTV took him up on it. After the pilot was shot, however, it was not picked up for broadcast, there are however circulating the internet bootleg copies of the ill-fated mini series.

Following a short hiatus, Araki returned with the critically acclaimed "Mysterious Skin" (2005) based on a novel by Scott Heim, which tells the story of a teenage hustler and a withdrawn young man obsessed with alien abductions, and how they both deal with the sexual abuse they suffered from their Little League coach when they were children. With this movie Araki found critical acclaim and a generally good public reaction.

Araki's ninth feature, made in 2007, was the stoner comedy " Smiley Face", starring Anna Faris, which he directed with a screenplay by Dylan Haggerty. Araki wanted to make a comic film after shooting the more serious and darker film, "Mysterious Skin". Critics have mentioned the potential of this film in becoming a "cult classic." [Todd Konrad, Independent Film Quarterly, http://www.independentfilmquarterly.com/ifq/reviews/first-smiley-face.htm] [James Mottram, the Independent, http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-and-tv/features/brits-reign-at-sundance-433616.html] .

One consistent feature of Araki's work to date is the presence of music from the shoegazer genre as film soundtracks, first seen on "Totally Fucked Up" and heavily so on the films "Nowhere" and "Mysterious Skin" (even going so far as to employ Robin Guthrie to oversee the latter's score). Both "The Living End" and "Nowhere" are named after tracks by shoegazing bands (The Jesus and Mary Chain and Ride respectively).

Personal life

Araki self-identified as gay until 1997, when he entered a relationship with actress Kathleen Robertson, whom he had directed in "Nowhere". [http://www.celebritybazar.com/kathleen_robertson] The relationship ended in 1999. Since then, he has been involved mostly in same-sex relationships.

Filmography

References

BOOKS
* Yutani, Kimberly. "Gregg Araki and the Queer New Wave." In Leong, Russell. Asian American Sexualities: dimensions of the gay & lesbian experience. New York, NY: Routledge, 1996.

External links

*imdb name|id= 0000777|name= Gregg Araki
* [http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/15/araki.html Young, Beautiful, and F***ed: A conversation with Gregg Araki and other members of The Doom Generation]
* [http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/59/59arakiiv.html Bright Lights Film Journal interview]

Persondata
NAME= Araki, Gregg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= film director
DATE OF BIRTH= 1959-12-17
PLACE OF BIRTH= Los Angeles, California
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=