Co-presented by
Douglas and Vance Van Daele
Post screening discussion with Amber Dermont and Brandon Taylor

"Hoses away the layers of dirt to reveal the fragility of the subject's anything-goes hedonism." - Jeannette Catsoulis

"Combines tell-all appeal with a seriously significant story of prejudice and hypocrisy on a literally mythic scale." - Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

Having just been mustered out of the Marines Corps after the Second World War, Scotty Bowers came to Hollywood in 1946. Strikingly handsome and personable, he immediately caught the eye of many of the town's stars, who encountered him at the gas station where he worked on Hollywood Boulevard. Scotty began having sex with many of the key players in the movie colony and soon started connecting many of them with his band of beautiful and promiscuous friends, most of them newly discharged from the military. This documentary is a secret history of Hollywood in the pre-Stonewall era.

People, Places, Things
Motivated by a desire to explore ourselves, each other, and our world, this six-part series at FilmScene presents films that explore the human condition, our connection to the planet and our relationships with ourselves. FilmScene invites you to join us for these thought-provoking films and conversations.

Panelists
Amber Dermont is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel The Starboard Sea and the short story collection Damage Control. The Starboard Sea was selected by the New York Times Book Review as an Editor's Choice and as one of the top 100 Notable Books of 2012. The Starboard Sea was also a Los Angeles Times Bestseller, an NPR Bestseller, and NPR Favorite Summer Read, an Indie Next List Featured Selection and an O Magazine, Oprah Summer Reading List Editor's Pick. Damage Control was nominated for The Story Prize, was selected by the New York Times Book Review as an Editor's Choice and was chosen by Elle Magazine as one of the twenty best books of 2013.

A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Amber is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the Sewanee Writers' Conference. She is also a recipient of the Independent Film Project's RBC's Emerging Story Tellers Prize.

Amber Dermont is an Associate Professor of English at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Brandon Taylor is the associate editor of Electric Literature's Recommended Reading and a staff writer at Literary Hub. His writing has received fellowships from Lambda Literary, Kimbilio Fiction and the Tin House Summer Writers' workshop. He currently lives in Iowa City, where he is a student at the Iowa Writers' Workshop in fiction. His debut novel is forthcoming from Riverhead Books.