Jay Paul Deratany said Saugatuck Cures—a family-friendly, gay-themed movie that he wrote and was filmed this fall—was the most fun project of his career.
Laughter was commonplace during filming of the comedy about a widowed bed-and-breakfast owner, Maggie Callaghan ( played by Judith Chapman ), living in Saugatuck and dealing with a second round of cancer. When she cannot afford treatment, Maggie's gay son Drew ( played by Glee's Max Adler ) becomes determined to raise money for her treatment, yet he doesn't have the slightest idea of how to do it. After a falling-out with his sister, religious conservative Penelope, Drew is convinced by his eccentric best friend Brett ( played by Danny Mooney ), who is straight, to pose as ex-gay ministers in order to raise the money by "converting" homosexuals into heterosexuals.
"Since it's a comedy, there was a lot of fun on the set," Deratany said. "[Filming] went way better than expected. I couldn't have asked for a better result. I was so happy with the directing from Matthew Ladensack, who is gay; and the acting. The acting and the direction carried the day in terms of the beauty of the film."
After a crazy adventure, getting into trouble with the law, family conflicts, and not knowing if they will have enough time to save mom, the film ends with an overall message of forgiveness, love, and acceptance.
And plenty of laughs along the way.
In fact, Deratany said that filming was stopped at one point when the boom operator was laughing so loudly. "That's a pretty good sign," Deratany said.
"We get across a message while having fun."
The movie, now being edited, is expected to be shown in the Chicago area next April. It was primarily filmed at The Kirby House in Grand Haven, Mich.
Deratany is a Chicago attorney who doubles as a screenwriter. He also wrote the GLAAD-nominated play "Haram Iran," based on the true story of the hanging of two Iranian teenagers who were alleged to be gay.
In Saugatuck Cures Deratany plays Rev. Stan, a gay-friendly minister modeled after Stan Sloan, the CEO of Chicago House & Social Service Agency.
"The character represents love, acceptance and tolerance—and [tells that] you can be religious, gay, and accepted within the church. Stan was an easy, fun character for me to play," Deratany said.
Saugatuck Cures will, likely, appeal to both gay and straight audiences, Deratany said.
"I hope there is a message from this," he said. "Maybe those more conservative folks in the town, or out in the country who haven't really gotten to know gay people, or don't think they know gay people, or maybe they live in a more homogeneous suburb, or something like that, and don't have a lot of diversity and culture, they can see a movie like this and sort of laugh at themselves similar to what All In The Family did with racial relations. Archie Bunker was a character that a lot of older white men who had racially intolerant or dumb views came to start laughing at themselves."
Deratany said the biggest surprise of filming was "just how well it turned out."
"You always have fear as a writer how [your work] is going to be perceived. But I just feel like the tempo of the comedy, the acting and the directing, just took it over, really made it happen," he said. "I'd like to bridge a gap between religion and affirming gay-rights. There's no reason people can't be gay and religious, or that the churches can't accept all people, including gays, and not judge anyone."
