Portrait of an Artist: Clyde Petersen

What is it like to grow up transgender with a schizophrenic single mother? That’s the question that Clyde Petersen tries to answer in his recent film, “Torrey Pines.” The transgender filmmaker, animator, and musician creates what he calls “a queer punk coming-of-age tale” based on his personal story. Since its release in 2016, Petersen’s film has been screened all over the world, from Norway to Japan. It arrived at Emerson Paramount Center’s Jack Liebergott Black Box on Feb. 14 for a special one-week screening. The Harvard Crimson sat down with Petersen to chat about his work, LGBTQ representation, and “Torrey Pines” itself.

The Harvard Crimson: In recent years, we’ve seen an explosion in the production of LGBT-themed films and TV shows. Do you feel that audiences today are more interested in nuanced portrayals of LGBT characters?

Clyde Petersen: Oh, yes, for sure. Generally speaking, I think that all audiences are ready for more nuanced characters, beyond portrayals of caricatures and stereotypes. I think that everyone is thirsty for that. The situation that we have now in Hollywood is pretty bleak. Most films just reiterate stereotypes and portraitures of queer people, people of color, and women. I think it’s great to see all of those marginalized communities making films that represent themselves. There are so many stories about gender in the world. I think that every story is a story about gender, but [films nowadays] mostly emphasize the common thread of what a man is and what a woman is in our culture. It would be good to see some other stories out there, because everyone struggles with gender in some way, whether they identify [with] that or not.

THC: A major theme in “Torrey Pines” is mental health. How did you approach such a sensitive topic?

CP: I grew up with my mom, who was schizophrenic. The way the film came about was that I wrote a song about it with my friend, Kimya Dawson, and a lot of people were responding to it in many ways, like talking about their families and telling stories about mental health and growing up queer. So that’s how it unfolded over time to become a film. And I feel like we definitely see an explosion of discussion of mental health. Over the last 10 or 15 years it has become a real conversation, which is exciting. I’m excited to be a tiny part of that. And I definitely wouldn’t have had the same understanding of it if I hadn’t experienced it growing up with my mom.

THC: “Torrey Pines” is your directorial debut. How different was it from your work on short films in the past?

CP: It was incredible. It took three years and I had seven interns and an employee. We actually made it in my bedroom, which was really ridiculous, but cost efficient. It was an incredibly exciting experience, full of the day-to-day work of taking one picture at a time. It was different from working on short films because I can make a short film in a couple of weeks. I usually work by myself or with one collaborator. Here I had eight.

THC: “Torrey Pines” has a special theatrical version, the same one being performed at Emerson, with its score being performed by a live band. Where does this idea come from?

CP: I love watching films with a live score. It’s so fun. It’s not uncommon for old films to have them, but I’ve seen a couple of new ones over the years. It’s one of my favorite experiences. I was excited to be able to do that with this film. My band, Your Heart Breaks, made the soundtrack for the film so it was easy for us to transition to that. I’d say that “Torrey Pines” is 50 percent music and 50 percent not. And we received a grant, touring grant, so that was how we were really able to do it. We’ve been touring all over the world. We’ve just got back from Japan, Iceland, Denmark, and Norway. We’ve been on tour for two years. This is our last one, I think, unless something comes up.

THC: You are based in Seattle. What is it like to make movies outside the bubble of New York and Los Angeles? Do you think it influences the film itself?

CP: It’s so fun, I just love it. I think it’s easier to tell alternative stories outside of Los Angeles. Seattle has an incredible filmmaking scene, full of independent animators and live-action filmmakers. The support here is really strong. People really support each other, because they recognize that we don’t have the same studio system. So I think the film had a lot of freedom to be whatever it wanted to be, without the constraints of capitalism.

THC: What about future projects? Are you working on anything at the moment?

CP: I’m working on a live-action feature. It’s a documentary about a band from Seattle called Earth. It’s kind of a heavy metal drone band. They’ve been around for years, but I finally found the space to make a film about them.

THC: It seems like you’re primarily interested in making documentaries, or at least films that examines the line between nonfiction and fiction.

CP: I studied documentary filmmaking in college. I kind of flip back and forth between kind of documentary stuff and animation. And I do animation for documentaries. But what I’m interested in is documenting things in general. So whatever format that takes—audio, video, animation... I’m interested in documenting history.