Local film ‘I AM FINE’ to premiere in early December

Short film reflects on the impacts of conservative Christianity on LGBTQ+ community members

By Cameron Aalto, Ashland.News

A locally made short film entitled “I AM FINE” that centers on the experience of a gay man named Ryan as he grapples with his religion and sexual identity will make its premiere on Dec. 6 at John Pugh’s Big Dog Studio in Ashland.

Film director, producer and writer Lia Dugal explained the film was inspired by a friend of hers who had taken his life after years of struggling with the tensions between his sexuality and his religion. “‘I AM FINE’ was inspired,” she said, “when I found out that I had a dear friend who I had known when I was involved in a very high control, Christian religion, who had taken his own life.”

Dugal said that the film is “loosely based on him, but it ends as his life should; it comes to a positive note.”

The flashback-oriented film has a main cast of six characters, four of whom struggle from separate facets of religious traumas including conversion therapy, sexual trauma, and what Dugal describes as “the shallowness and the emptiness of being a Christian.”

“I think it’s very important that we show how this (conservative religious) element affects people with this (LGBTQ+) identity,” she said. “This is who they are and this is what you’re doing to them and then, also, just to kind of show them that they are OK.

“The phrase ‘I am fine,’ is what I wish (my friend) would have known for himself.”

Michael Meyer, the actor who plays Pastor Clint in the film, said, “I think this film is important because it points out the need — and it’s, unfortunately, it’s an ongoing need — to enjoy other people for themselves and, you know, their sexuality is between them and whoever they are attracted to.”

“It’s just that idea that people to this day are still trapping people inside their own skins and keep(ing) them in the closet because they can’t be accepted for who they are,” Meyer said. “And that really has to be brought out and, unfortunately, we have to keep bringing that to people’s attention.”

Dugal added that another important interpretation of the film is that “If you’re questioning not only your sexual identity but your faith, that you can come out of that worldview and still have some semblance of belief in Jesus, or whatever, and you know it’s just about being authentic, being true to yourself, and knowing that you are loved as you are, and that you are fine.”

Ashland.news intern Cameron Aalto is a recent graduate of Southern Oregon University. Email him at aaltoc@sou.edu .

This article mentions suicide. Individuals in crisis or looking to help someone else who is can reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988, or visit 988lifeline.org for more resources.

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