WEBVTT - Noah's Arc: The 1st Comedy to Center Black Gay Men 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:04.000 But We Loved is a production of iHeart Podcasts and 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:08.760 the Outspoken podcast Network. This interview was taped in front 0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:11.800 of a live studio audience for our very first live show, 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:14.680 and before we start, I just want to say thank 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.960 you so much to everyone who made the time to come. 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:21.360 It was awesome to meet every single one of you, 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:25.360 and I've enjoyed building a relationship with you since we 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:29.360 started the show. Because of you, we also won the 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:32.080 Signal Award we were nominated for a few weeks ago, 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:35.000 so thank you again for that support, and thank you 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:39.360 for writing into the show. I have enjoyed reading every 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:43.160 single one of your letters telling me what you've overcome 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:46.640 in your own life. They've touched my heart actually, and 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:49.000 I want to hear more from you, So follow me 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:52.280 on Instagram and TikTok and message me there at your 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:56.480 Underscoregan sol this. You can also email the show at 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.760 butw Looved at gmail dot com. Thank you so much again. 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:05.480 You watch over the years and you would see aids 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:07.720 kind of it would creep closer and closer like you. 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:12.440 Of course, you hear about celebrities, and then in my twenties, 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:15.399 I remember my best friend in high school calling me 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:23.559 and telling me that our friend Tim had died, and 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:27.480 hearing about our high school classmate Jeffrey Lewis who died 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:30.160 or this, and so, you know, just coming closer and 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:35.000 closer close friends being HIV positive and so it was 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:36.440 really important. 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:39.560 To see for people to see it's not a death sentence. 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:47.120 As a gay kid, growing up religious and in the South, 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:49.680 I thought being gay was the worst thing I could 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:53.560 ever be. Now as a journalist, I'm trying to unlearn 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.000 that by seeking out our history, and what I've found 0:01:57.080 --> 0:02:01.840 are people and stories full of courage, perseverance, and love. 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:06.560 In this episode, we'll meet Patrick ian Polk, often considered 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:09.440 the father of black gay cinema. We'll learn about how 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:12.480 he broke ground in making the first show on television 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:15.919 to center black a Life, how that show got canceled 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:19.440 at its peak, and how his fan base was forever 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.800 changed because of it. From My Heart Podcast, I'm Jordan 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:49.480 go and Solves and this is what we loved. When 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:52.000 I came out at twenty one, I had two best 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:55.359 friends that were proudly gay, and even though they were 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:59.480 my age, they mentored me through my coming out. At 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:02.880 that time, I was shocked at just how confident they were, 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:06.320 how proud they were to be something that I was 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:09.840 so ashamed of. I had spent a lifetime trying to 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:15.040 be anything but gay, fixing my walk, perfecting the timbre 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:19.200 of my voice, training myself to look away anytime a 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:23.600 handsome man walked by me. But for these friends, they 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:28.760 did the opposite. They thought the world should conform to them, 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:33.600 and for years I wondered why until I asked. Funny enough, 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:36.280 they didn't know each other, but they both had the 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:40.720 same answer, Noah's Arc. At first, I was like, wait, 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:44.880 the story from the Bible, But actually it was a 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:47.040 TV show that came out in two thousand and five. 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:51.320 It was the very first scripted show about black gay men, 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:55.320 and more than that, it showcased characters that were proudly out, 0:03:55.680 --> 0:04:00.640 proudly living with HIV, and proudly black. Despite it being 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:05.360 a rating smash, it unexpectedly got canceled, but in the 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:10.240 nearly twenty years since, new generations of queer people continue 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:15.000 to find this timeless show over and over again. My 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.960 next guest, Patrick ian Polk, is the creator of Noah's Ark. 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:22.880 At a time when people in entertainment were losing their careers, 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:26.640 for coming out. He doubled down. He knew from when 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:29.120 he was a kid that he was destined to be 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:36.480 a storyteller. I just want to say thank you so 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:40.760 much for taking time out of your busy weekend to 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:44.720 come and see our show live. Ladies and gentlemen, please 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:48.560 welcome our guests for today's live episode of But We 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:58.600 Loved the Illustrious, the Luminary Patrick Ian Polk. So, Patrick, 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:02.760 we start out every show pretty much the same way, 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:05.760 and I think it kind of gives our audience a 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:08.440 little chance to get to know where you're from and 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:11.360 how you grew up. So take us to the moment 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:13.920 where you knew you were. 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:17.560 Gay, damn right out the box. Okay. 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:23.880 Well, Probably the first sort of piece of pop culture 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:26.880 or entertainment that I sort of connected to on a 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:33.920 on a sort of sexual level was my uncle had 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.640 just hundreds of record albums. I loved music as well, 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:39.800 and so I would constantly go through and kind of 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:41.440 pill for records. 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:43.520 And one of them. 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:47.480 That I gravitated towards was I was a big fan 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:52.280 of Prince and I still am. It was the nineteen 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:56.960 ninety nine album. On the sleeve that the album was 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:00.960 in is a photo of Prince. I don't know if 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:04.080 you know this picture, but it's like a bed with 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:07.560 purple satin sheets and he's draped laying across the thing, 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:10.000 you know, butt naked with the sheets kind of wow, 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:13.280 just at the bottom of his butt cheeks, you know, 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:15.120 laying you know, laying on his stomach, kind of like 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:15.960 very sexy. 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.640 And that picture was like, holy cow, wow. 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:24.520 I just very distinctly remember, and I definitely kept that album. 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:27.400 So yeah, that's sort of the first kind of thing. 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:30.400 But I always understood at a very young age, I 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:33.800 don't know when what it was, and I also understood 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:39.000 inherently that it was not something to share or be 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:39.839 spoken about. 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:44.560 You grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and I wonder if 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:47.560 you have a story that sort of epitomizes what it 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:49.880 was like to grow up as a gay kid in 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:52.560 a town like that in the seventies and eighties. 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:58.799 Hattisburg, I say, is it's like the Austin of Mississippi, Oka. 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:00.000 So it's a college. 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:05.039 It's less than two hours from New Orleans, so it's 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:09.560 probably would I would argue, the most progressive city in 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:17.240 the state, but it really was. I think around junior 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:22.760 high into high school that I met some other you know, 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:26.280 gay kids. We kind of found each other, or rather, 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:28.880 this one kind of older gay kid kind of found 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:32.120 me and just you know, and befriended me. And then 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:35.440 I remember we were driving home one day. I was 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:38.000 riding with him, and he was just like and suddenly 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:41.840 he just pulls into the guy's driveway and said, we're 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:43.680 just going to his house, and we went to his house. 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:46.040 And then from that day on we were all kind 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:48.520 of friends. And then eventually that guy and I became 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:50.840 like best friends. He's like my best friend in high school. 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:55.920 And he was a star of the church choir. I 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:59.400 was not super religious because I was raised very very 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:02.840 very permanent mom and so I was allowed to kind 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:05.200 of explore. I could do what I wanted in terms 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:09.200 of religion. But he was very much Baptist. Would travel 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:12.040 all over the States, singing at churches and stuff, and 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:16.080 he would be dating men in the church like pastors 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:17.960 and deacons and this and that. And it was just 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:20.200 amazing to me to see kind of this happening. And 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:26.040 there were certainly examples of those kids who just either 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:30.680 completely cannot hide or choose not to hide, and so 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:33.920 you would kind of see those kids and you'd be 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:36.920 kind of terrified for them and at the same time 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:40.280 terrified that people would maybe identify you with that, But 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:42.240 at the same time, there was kind of a quiet 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:47.440 reverence and appreciation because they were the ones that. 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:49.520 Were kind of like on the front lines. 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:54.960 I remember there was a kid in my neighborhood who 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:59.559 rode the same bus and his nickname was Miscotton Candy 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:02.400 and I couldn't even tell you what his real name was, 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:03.880 that was what people called him. 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:04.960 And he was. 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:11.480 Extremely, extremely flamboyant, and I would watch him and of course, 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.400 you know, people would come for him and he would 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.880 let them have it, and it was very bold, and 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:21.720 so there was this sort of like respect that he commanded, 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:26.240 and people kind of learned not to don't come for him, 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:27.840 and if he was stupid enough to come for him, 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:31.000 he would really lay into them, like a superhero kind 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:33.040 of thing, and you kind of think, like, maybe one 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:33.959 day I can be like that. 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.120 Well, so fast forwarding a little bit now to the 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:41.600 late nineties, and you've graduated from USC as a filmmaker. 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:46.920 You're out and you write the precursor to Noah's Ark, 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:53.240 which is punks, anyone in your herd of bunks, and 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:56.120 you premiere it at Sundance. And this is at a 0:09:56.160 --> 0:10:01.120 time in America where people's careers are ending because of 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:04.240 coming out in the entertainment in the stroom, thinking about 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:08.360 Ellen DeGeneres at that time, and I'm wondering, you know, 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:12.800 this is all happening at the same time, what was 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:18.559 driving you to create a film knowing that these themes 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.600 might end your career before it could even begin. 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:25.640 So when I left Mississippi, graduated high school, and I 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:27.760 always knew I would go I was going to go 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:32.120 away to college, like outside of the South, and I 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:36.520 got a full scholarship to Brandeis University in Boston. And 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:39.800 I got on the plane in Jackson and as the 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:43.320 plane took off and I looked out and watched, you know, 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:46.200 Jackson kind of getting smaller and smaller. I said, very 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:52.760 clearly to myself, when you step off this plane, every 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:55.840 person that you meet from this day fourth will know 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:56.880 that you are gay. 0:10:57.520 --> 0:10:58.080 I don't know. 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:00.240 Why that came to my mind, but that that was 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:02.080 the thing. It was like, this is what it's going 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:04.280 to be. And then that's what I did. I went 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:06.360 to college. I was out. I remember going to the 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:13.560 bookstore Harvard Harvard Square, the co Op, and there was 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.400 a whole section. I remember marveling, like, Wow, there's a 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:18.840 whole sort of section of these are all gay books. 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:22.200 And there was one book that I could see on 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:26.680 the spine had an illustration of brown skin, and I 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:30.559 grabbed that book. And that book was Blackbird by Larry Duplachan. 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:32.840 And it's this amazing coming of age story set in 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:35.880 the seventies, this gay black boy and he sings in 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:38.000 the choir and it's just beautifully written. If you haven't 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.719 read the book, I highly recommend it if you, it's 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:44.319 it's amazing. And so as I was kind of studying 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:47.880 film and learning to teaching myself to write, I adapted 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:50.720 that book as sort of an exercise. I mean, I 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:52.120 love the story, and I thought, oh, this would be 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:56.560 great to do as a movie, but I don't know 0:11:56.600 --> 0:11:58.480 that I thought it would really happen. So I think 0:11:58.520 --> 0:11:59.920 I looked at it as more of an exercise. I 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:06.200 wrote that script. Script was good. Fast forward. I'm in 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:10.080 LA I've done film school at USC. Right out of 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:13.280 film school, I kind of fell into a job as 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:17.560 an executive a junior executive at MTV Films. I'm in 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:20.839 the industry. I'm on the inside. I'm learning how movies 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:26.040 get made. Studio system. So I'd written Blackbird, had gotten 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:29.360 some good notices, had a couple of agents interested, whatever, 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:32.199 but I knew again, no one's going to make this 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:34.200 black gay high school story. 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:36.040 In the nineties, so. 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:44.840 I met a black gay British writer director named Ricky 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:49.679 beatle Blair who wrote a movie called Stonewall, the original Stonewall. 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:51.160 So Ricky had. 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:53.719 Come in to meet with us because Stonewall had come 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:55.760 out and in the film festivals, and my boss had 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:58.520 seen it and invited and was like, this amazing guy 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:00.880 is coming from London, you know. And he walked in. 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:04.599 If you've ever seen him, he's just long blonde dreadlocks, 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:09.040 and he had on these tight suede sort of Native 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:12.560 American types, fringe down the side, spaghetti strapped top, you know, 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:16.920 just completely out and you know whatever. We became fast friends, 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:18.800 and he became sort of a big brother and like 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:22.320 an artistic mentor. And I asked him, I said, so, 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:25.559 you know, I've written this Blackbird script. It's gotten some 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:27.120 good notices, people like it. No one's going to make 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:29.200 this thing. I'm trying to decide what to write next. 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:32.640 What do you think? What do you think I should write? 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:34.480 I'm thinking I need to write something that's going to 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:39.120 sell like and he said very simply, and I've kind 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:44.040 of lived by this. He said, write the story that 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:49.920 only you can tell. And so I think that straight away, 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:53.600 Like that week, I started and I wrote the script 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:58.079 for Punks in like eight days, and then. 0:13:58.760 --> 0:13:59.959 I didn't really do much with it. 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:03.360 I was working, we were making movies, and I got 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:06.040 hired by Babyface and Tracy Edmunds to come and work 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:08.720 at their film company. And while I was working there, 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:12.600 by this time, I'm like, okay, you're it's just like 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:17.480 ninety six, ninety six ish. I've been in La now 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:22.600 four or five years going on, and I was like, Okay, 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:25.480 you're getting You're getting farther and farther away from your 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:27.440 goal of being a filmmaker. So if you take this 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:30.840 job working for Babyface, you have to The deal I 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:34.360 made with myself was that I would start making films. 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:38.000 So we had a holiday coming up, and I had 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:40.400 started raising money and my old boss at MTV gave 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:42.040 me some money. Another friend of mine who came from 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:44.560 a wealthy Hollywood family, gave me a little bit of money, 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:48.000 and I was asking Babyface and his wife to give 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:49.240 me the rest of the money so I could do 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:53.160 this short. And we had this meeting like they were 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:56.200 getting ready to go on a tour of Greece for 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:58.840 their Thanksgiving holiday, and we had a little project meeting 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:00.640 and go over everything, and one of the things on 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:04.040 the agenda was me presenting this idea because what I 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:06.160 did was I was going to do a short version 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:09.240 of Punks. So I kind of boiled this story down 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:13.160 into the base, the little basic, and I pitched it 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:15.600 to them. I told them what I needed. It was 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:18.440 like twenty thousand and oven something and I pisched the 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:21.880 idea to them and they said, well. They kind of 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:23.680 looked at each other and they said, well, I mean 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:27.600 the idea sounds cool. Why do the short as opposed 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:29.760 to doing the feature because any was based on the feature. 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:31.080 And I said, well, because I don't have the money 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:33.880 to do a feature. So and then they were like, well, 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:36.240 I mean the story's kind of I mean it sounds good, 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:38.600 like right, well, I mean we prefer to just do 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:42.560 the feature. And I was like, I mean, okay, sure, 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:47.440 that's fun. So I gave them the script, and I 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:49.240 fully expected they're going to come back and be like, 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:51.400 there's no way we can make this movie. And to 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:55.520 the contrary, they came back from this sort of yacht 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:59.680 tour around the Greece islands and their entire family everyone 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:04.280 had the script, the brother, the mother, the grandmother, the dah. 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:05.480 Dah dah, and they just loved it. 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:07.320 They thought it was so funny and they were excited 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:10.840 and we were off and running and so yeah, so 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:14.000 they paid for they paid for the movie, produced it, 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:17.960 and we made it, and you know, it did what 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:22.120 it did. Obviously, it did incredibly well in New York 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:24.520 and Atlanta, Atlanta and d C. And it was at 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:27.080 the Quad here, it's like a legendary independent movie theater. 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:31.200 So the movie played there. Literally the lines were around 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:34.640 the entire city block to see that film. And so 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:38.680 it did really well in these five or six like 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:42.560 you know, we're black, gay cities. We got into Sundance, 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:45.720 which back then in two thousand was a huge deal, 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:50.000 much bigger than it is even now. And then, of course, 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:53.520 you know, expecting maybe doors to open and things to happen, 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:58.120 and they did not. You know, none of the studios 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:01.720 or any any Hollywood people wanted to buy the film 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:04.160 or distribute the film. And we had you know, Baby 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:06.960 Faith and Tracy Edmonds, we had William Morris our agents. 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:12.280 But you know, this black gay film. Nobody was biting. 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:28.640 When we come back. Patrick makes Noah's Ark. In two thousand, 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:33.399 Patrick premiered his first feature film, Punks, at Sundance. It 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:36.639 wasn't the success that he had hoped for, but he 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:40.040 discovered that there was a huge audience for his work. 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:43.560 A few years later, he was inspired to build on 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:47.119 that and create Noah's Ark. In two thousand and five, 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:53.440 Noah's Arc premiered on Logo TV, a subsidiary of MTV Networks. Immediately, 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:56.960 the show was a massive success. Fans likened it to 0:17:57.000 --> 0:18:00.600 their own version of Sex and the City trade gay 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:05.240 black life in a refreshing way, characters that were quirky 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:11.000 and intellectual and sexy. But Patrick didn't originally set out 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:14.160 to be groundbreaking. He just wanted to make a show 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:17.359 that reflected his own life. I want to talk to 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:22.879 you Patrick about Noah's Ark. Now, so not many people 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:26.159 may know this, but Noah's Ark was pretty difficult for 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:28.959 you to get produced, but you were going to make 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:30.720 it into a web series, it was going to be 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:34.240 a DVD show. Take me back to those hustle years. 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:37.880 What was it like trying to get this show produced? 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:41.480 And was there a point where you almost gave up 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:44.280 on getting it produced? And what was it like to 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:45.159 kind of overcome that? 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:48.240 Well, I mean, I don't know, it's interesting to hear 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:50.240 you say that ask the question that way, because I 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:53.720 don't really I don't think it was difficult to get 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:58.119 it produced at all. Really, Well, here's the thing, so 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:00.720 I take it all the way back to being a 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:03.920 child and sort of like having a young mother who 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:07.000 she was twenty one when she had me. I was 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:09.600 just never really told no. So when I came home 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:11.639 at like first grade, and I wanted to play the 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:15.200 cello because you know, my little white best friend who's 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:17.399 her father was a doctor, she played the cello and 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:20.200 every Tuesday and Thursday she would go off to music 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:22.080 class and I would be like, what's that you know? 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:25.320 And she didn't say as I'm sure a lot of 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:26.280 parents would be like, boy, what the. 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:27.840 Fuck are you talking about? If you don't go outside 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:30.320 and play in that yard? Or whatever. We went to 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:31.879 the music store and got a cello. 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:35.920 And so I was raised with this sort of idea 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:39.440 that I could do what I set my mind to do. 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:46.000 And so with Noah's ark, I'd done Punks. So it's 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:49.200 like I certainly knew there's an audience for this stuff. 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.120 I mean, my goal really was just to see myself 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:54.520 on screen, or see my friends on screen, or to 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:57.040 see black gay stories. I wanted to see myself represented. 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:00.800 And so after Punks and and it kind of didn't 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:03.720 break down doors for me, I decided that would be 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:07.280 my jumping point. I'm gonna leave my job. I'm gonna 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:09.920 go do this full time. So right out the gate, 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:14.360 I sold a T show idea to MTV, the network. 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:17.920 It was a college show. I had written this college 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:21.520 this feature script set in college, based very loosely on 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:26.320 my experiences at Brandice, and they decided not to make. 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:29.520 It, and I was just kind of like, Okay, well, 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:33.480 what am I gonna do? 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:39.840 So I'd gone to Phil Wilson had started this organization 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:45.400 called the Black Aids Institute, and they had this summit 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:52.440 where they invited blacka men from all different disciplines medicine, entertainment, media, journalism, 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:56.240 whatever business to come and think tank for a weekend 0:20:56.359 --> 0:20:58.399 at a hotel in Beverly Hills about ways that we 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:02.600 could from in our es help them in the battle 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:06.480 against HIV. In the Black A community, there's a kickoff 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:10.000 party boor Trade at the l Ray Theater on Most Boulevard, 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:11.600 And if you've been in the l Ray, it's got 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:13.080 a sunken danceler in the middle. 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:14.919 So I'm kind of standing and I'm seeing this whole 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:19.280 crowd of black, gay and lesbian people. 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:24.320 And as I'm standing there, the thought hit me and 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:28.159 I said to myself very clearly, I'm going to. 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:32.280 Make a show about these people. 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:35.200 Like it's just to me, like, Okay, these people are 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:39.440 coming from all over the country. They're buying plane tickets 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:42.199 and hotel rooms, are renting cars, and there's a market 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:45.159 here that no one's making programming aimed at this group 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:46.080 at us. 0:21:46.440 --> 0:21:48.280 So I said to myself, I'm. 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:50.720 Going to do a show Black A sex in the city, 0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:56.720 and I'm not gonna pitch it to Hollywood because no 0:21:56.720 --> 0:21:59.159 one's going to make this. I'm just gonna make it, 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:02.679 and I'm going to figure out how to make it. 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:05.280 And then I'm going to bring it directly to the 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:08.520 community and they can buy DVDs and that's how we'll 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:15.600 do it. So yeah, so just started doing it. I 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:18.320 Rodney Chester, who plays Alex, who had been in Punks. 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:20.680 I was a friend of mine by this point. 0:22:20.760 --> 0:22:25.280 He worked at a dance agency and so he said, 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:27.120 we can use our offices on the weekend. So we 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:32.520 had the casting in the offices, like over one hundred actors. 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:35.240 I think, and mind you, this is the time when 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:39.680 mainstream actors is nobody's trying to play gay any even 0:22:39.760 --> 0:22:42.040 gay actors who are working in Hollywood are certainly not 0:22:42.080 --> 0:22:44.000 trying to play gay. So it was a lot of 0:22:44.040 --> 0:22:46.679 newer actors whatever whatever, we had these we saw all 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:49.680 these people. I cast it. We shot this six minutes 0:22:49.720 --> 0:22:53.720 short with no money. You know, again favors from people. 0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:56.200 Oh we can shoot in this store. Rodney's friend owned 0:22:56.240 --> 0:22:57.800 the store on Melrose. We shot in there. 0:22:57.840 --> 0:22:57.960 You know. 0:22:58.000 --> 0:23:01.440 It was all these different just the streets and doing it. 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:06.960 Shot the thing, put it on the internet Gangbusters. The 0:23:07.000 --> 0:23:09.080 site kept getting shut down. I had to keep buying 0:23:09.119 --> 0:23:11.720 more bandwidth because it was being watched that much. 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:14.399 You could see where it was being watched right in 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:15.480 the world. 0:23:15.680 --> 0:23:17.680 And it was literally all over the world. It would 0:23:17.680 --> 0:23:20.560 be like military bases all over the world if people 0:23:20.560 --> 0:23:24.000 were watching it. Wow, And so I knew, okay, oh, okay, 0:23:24.040 --> 0:23:27.000 well there's definitely a market for this, Like, there's clearly 0:23:27.040 --> 0:23:30.800 a market out there, So full steam ahead. Then I decided, okay, 0:23:30.800 --> 0:23:34.520 now I need some money. So, thinking back to that summit, 0:23:34.600 --> 0:23:37.000