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You might have recently seen the perfectly cheekboned producer Danielle Renfrew running amuck with her two canines in San Francisco's Dolores Park, spiritedly trying to forget the schmuck that just dumped her. And you might have been sitting next to the rather solid, extremely tall, and hunky director/writer/editor Greg Harrison as he expertly maneuvered his chopsticks at Ibisu on 9th and Irving. "It's wonderful, wonderful sushi," he proclaims. But you've probably never diligently mused over their names as you will when the end credits roll on the duo's delightful new tribute to the San Francisco rave scene, Groove. This rollicking celluloid chronicle of the transformation of a warehouse into an ephemeral, crazed dance palace full of gesticulating, horny, drug-taking deejays, drag queens, breeders, and gays who are thumping to the beat is one of the more energizing flicks you'll see this year. This collage of nightlife joy and angst is acted out by a whole bunch of genuine thespians such as Lola (NYPD Blue) Glaudini and Shakespeare veteran Hamish Linklater, but included are a whole lot of your swinging neighbors and local talent such as John Digweed, Mixmaster Morris of Irresistible Force, and WishFM. "It was like the meeting of two worlds," notes Harrison. "The rave sceners didn't know anything about film, and the film people didn't know anything about raves. As a director, I tried to keep them together all the time -- going out and having dinner or rehearsing together. Improvising together." "Right," Renfrew agrees. "We also brought in people for the crew that were from the scene but who hadn't necessarily worked on a film before, like the people that did the video projection, and one of our costume designers." But besides getting the scene right, what's so agreeable about Groove is the integration of all sexual persuasions, especially one gay couple who unites the many disparate elements of the film as they drive in their Volkswagen Beetle from one end of town to the other in search of the rave. What gave Harrison, an avowed heterosexual and former raver (from 1994-1996), such sensitivity and insight? "You'll have to ask my mom about that," he laughs. The gay couple driving around? "I just always have had these characters, this couple that was in a relationship. This notion came directly from the scene. I gathered all these details that were true about people who spend all night searching because they're [such] hard-core partyers. I've actually done that myself. So in the process of moving the pieces around in the film, I just put those gay characters as the ones that couldn't find the party. "They're played by two really good friends of mine from college, actually, and we spent a lot of time together just rewriting those parts through improvisation. I thought they captured such a wonderful relationship. So it evolved organically," he insists as he sips his first coffee of the day. It's noon. "A lot of people have asked me if there's some reason they can't make it to the party. That a gay couple can't make it to the party. The answer is no. A gay relationship is really just a part of the larger whole of my wanting to show people from all walks of life coming to parties like this, which is very much the rave scene. "Also, San Francisco is really mixed," adds Renfrew. "I mean, there definitely are designated gay bars and straight bars, but there's also much more crossover here. Everything is just much more mixed than in a lot of other cities. But there are a lot of places, especially in the rave scene, where it's kind of everybody coming together. The sexual orientation and gender and class. In the rave scene, sometimes the parties can kind of transcend that. You'll have a CEO of a Web startup company that's about to go public standing next to a high school kid. It's kind of a very interesting mix of people. "There's also the bisexuality," Harrison interjects. "I thought that was really something I saw in the scene a lot. I think that's because it's a scene based on openness and experimentation. Young people are sort of searching for identity and exploring themselves. Among them, there is a lot of moral and sexual ambiguity and crossing boundaries of relationships. It might be based on experimentation or confusion. Either way, I just saw a lot of that happening. I think partly some of it may come from the use of Ecstasy, which opens you up, and you wind up feeling like being sensual and physical." Ecstasy certainly helps just-engaged Colin (Denny Kirkwood) and tattooed flirt Anthony (Vince Riverside) move into make-out mode. Sadly, the actors had to play the scene chemically unaided, Harrison recalls. "The first time Vince met Denny, he broke the ice by walking up to him and going, 'So we're gonna make out, huh?!' Denny just quivered. I mean, Vince is an incredibly, very, very intense personality, and he scared Denny initially. "But on the set, I remember everybody knew when we were shooting this kissing scene. Suddenly we had forty people on the set. I went, 'Where the hell did all these people come from?' They were all just waiting to see this happen. I told Vince and Denny, 'Hey, I could clear the set.' But they were being men. They were like, 'No, you don't need to do that.' They said later it totally freaked them out, which I think added to the scene. "I told them they had to only do it once. Then I went back to the DP [director of photography], and I realized, well, the way we're going to cover this, I'd really like to get the kiss from a couple of different angles. So I had to shoot it eight separate times, and the guys had to mash full-on with tongue eight times. It wasn't what they had expected. They probably wound up making out for about two hours on and off." Consequently, now everyone wants to star in a Greg Harrison film. "Exactly," Harrison laughs. "Exactly." * Read the PopcornQ review of Groove PQ MOVIE NEWS: PQ Video Hot List | Interviews | Advance Guide to Queer Film | Movie News Archive | PQ Video Hot Lists Galore MORE NEWS ON PLANETOUT: PlanetOut News & Politics | PlanetOutRadio | Entertainment
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