Special Report: By Hook or By Crook (2001)

Harry Dodge and Silas Howard talk with Mike about By Hook or By Crook, their 2001 queer-cinema landmark, now touring U.S. theaters and streaming on VOD in a new 4K restoration. The pair met working at a dyke-run cafe in late-1980s San Francisco, and trace the film's origin story to an absurdly literal turning point: Dodge getting a cigarette-littering ticket that forced a thirteen-hour drive to Portland and back, during which the idea for a buddy story about Shy (Howard) and Valentine (Dodge) started to take shape.

They talk about writing the script out of their own friendship rather than research, shooting for thirty days on dot-com money borrowed from newly flush friends, and staffing the crew almost entirely with fellow San Francisco artists and musicians. They also get into the year-long restoration process — producer Steak House rebuilding the film from raw footage into an entirely new timeline — and why a movie about two "outsiders of the outsiders" still doesn't feel dated twenty-five years later.

By Hook or By Crook is currently playing in select theaters and available on-demand from Altered Innocence, with a Blu-ray and DVD — featuring a new commentary track with Dodge, Howard, and Steak House — arriving October 13th.

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