Parris Patton and His Creature
by Steve Pride
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Stacy Dean in Creature
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"Stacy has been around since I can remember. When I was little, I knew what I wanted then, at nine or ten. I knew what I wanted to be. I didn't want to be a boy. I didn't think that I was a boy." -- Stacy Dean in Creature
Creature is an intensely honest documentary covering five years in the life of Kyle Dean as he transforms from Stacy Hollywood -- an Arena nightclub diva -- into Stacy Dean, a full time woman. Whether you are gay, straight, bisexual or transgender, this beautifully photographed documentary has something to say to everyone about the search for identity. Its director, Parris Patton, is a sweet, unassuming young man best known as a music video director for the artist formerly known as Prince. Recently we got together for a chat about Creature.
PopcornQ: What was the genesis of your documentary?
Parris Patton: About six years ago I was in Hollywood shooting "B roll" for a music video. At the time, the intersection of Santa Monica and La Brea was sort of a tourist attraction because there were so many transvestites out picking up guys or just strutting their stuff on the Boulevard, and I went up there to film the scene. That night I met Stacy Hollywood. And there was just something about her when she hit the camera. I thought, this person wants to tell her story. Later that night they were having a birthday party for her at a nightclub called Arena, where she emcees the drag show, and she said, "Why don't you come down and film?" So we went and filmed the party and a lot of the drag show. It was all very interesting, but the moment I knew I had started a film was when everyone in the club started singing "Happy Birthday" to Stacy, who was on stage dressed as Madonna, being coy but definitely loving it.
PQ: Let's talk about the time frame. Did you intend to spend five years working on this one film?
PP: It took five years because of money. I would run out of money and have to decide whether to develop film or go buy more film stock to film some more. And it would be like a two-month period before I could make either one of those choices, and invariably I would choose to buy film stock and go film some more, because I knew didn't have a film yet. So why develop it? I had stacks of film that didn't get developed for years. I would be sitting in my living room during the summer looking at stacks of film wondering if it was totally baked from the heat. Was it going to be useable? But I knew the film was getting better the longer it took. If someone had come in and given me $50,000 after two years, I don't think it would be half as good.
PQ: The counterpoint to Stacy's story of transformation is someone named Barbarella. Tell us about him.
PP: The other main character in the film is Phil -- or Barbarella -- who was the original drag diva at Arena before Stacy got there. Phil had a lot to do with bringing Stacy into the limelight and getting her up on stage. Actually, Phil is the one who made her the emcee and host at Arena. So he sort of fell into the story naturally. And Phil is definitely a boy. This is a gay fellow who does drag and looks good doing it. When you're around Stacy you say to yourself, "Here is a girl." To have those two types of gender present was a nice contrast and I did my best to show the difference between a gay person and a [transgender] person. Stacy can't be gay. Stacy doesn't want to be gay. So, Stacy is a woman, and in her mind ... she is straight.
"Next year I'm going to look totally different. I'm going to have breasts and I'm going to look more like a female than anything. And I'm going home next year for the holidays. And for any of my family that sits there and gawks at me or says, "I just can't believe it" ... well, I don't care. I don't care, because this is what I am. They don't live my life." - Stacy Dean in Creature
PQ: During the filming, Stacy decided to return home to Indiana to visit her parents. Were you apprehensive about the outcome?
PP: I was a little worried because I didn't know that her father was an ex-convict until we started driving up there. But Stacy assured me that while he might get excited or mad, he had changed since being saved by Jesus, so we didn't have much to worry about.
PQ: What do you want people to take away from Creature?
PP: It took me five years to make the film and I spent a lot of time with Stacy. I just hope that people watching it will feel that they have spent time with her. Because I think if you spend time with someone, you can consider them a real person and not a freak ... or creature.
* Read the PopcornQ review of Creature!
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