By Gregg Shapiro

Contributing writer

Jonah Markowitz, the gay writer/director behind the acclaimed movie “Shelter,” is a 1999 graduate of Emerson College in Boston, where he studied film. “Shelter,” the film, is a tender portrait of family, traditional and otherwise, and handles its subject matter with sensitivity and poise.

Gregg Shapiro: “Shelter” is your well-received directorial debut. It’s won prizes at festivals, including two for your direction and the reviews have been favorable. How does it feel for you to have that experience right out of the gate?

Jonah Markowitz: It’s amazing! We’re obviously really excited about how it did on the festival circuit and now we’re just waiting to see how it does in wide release and see what the differences are with those two experiences. I’m really excited. I think that everyone involved with the movie really wanted to make something that would touch people and something that people could relate to. To see that it actually did is more than we could have ever hoped for.

GS: The movie is set in San Pedro, Cal., a town immortalized in song by Mike Watt and the Minutemen. Why did you choose to set it there?

JM: A couple of reasons. Obviously, surfing is a big part of the story. But it is also a very urban story, especially Zach’s world. So I needed a place that was both urban and also coastal and beautiful, as well. San Pedro fit the bill on that…

GS: A lot of people in the gay community have been fans of Tina Holmes since “Edge of Seventeen” and might find it difficult to watch her playing such a difficult and homophobic character. Can you say something about working with her?

JM: Tina is a phenomenal actress. I think she approached that character in the only way it could have been to in order to keep it human and to keep her from becoming this evil character. I think she handled it beautifully. She’s a very difficult character, but she’s very real and there are motivations for why she does what she does. And although she’s homophobic, I think it’s different than a lot of the homophobic characters that we’ve seen. She doesn’t kick him out of the house, she’s just real manipulative. I have so much respect for her (Tina) and I think she did a great job with it.

GS: In the scene where Zach and Shaun (Brad Rowe) are hanging around after surfing and drinking beer, and they end up play-wrestling, “Shelter” has one of the best evocations of sexual tension since “Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss,” a movie in which Brad Rowe also starred. Did Rowe’s performance in that movie have anything to do with him being cast in “Shelter”?

JM: It didn’t, actually. I (laughs) probably shouldn’t say this, but I hadn’t seen “Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss” when we auditioned Brad. Brad just read the script and really understood the character, knew exactly what I was going for and had ideas about the character that I hadn’t even thought of yet, to be honest. I felt like he was in the right place and was in a different place than what Trevor’s (Wright, who plays Zach) read was on his character, which I thought would work really. He was the best for the part.   

GS: “Shelter” is being released in what has been described as a “unique and unprecedented platform involving three different mediums in three months” which involves the movie opening theatrically in 10 major markets (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, Boston, San Diego Palm Springs and Ft. Lauderdale and others) throughout March and early April, followed by its premiere on the gay cable network here! in mid-April, and then a DVD release in late May. How does it feel to be exploring this new frontier in this manner?

JM: To answer that, it harks back all the way to the inception of this project. It’s quite revolutionary and quite an honor to be part of it, because this film was financed by here! as part of their independent film initiative. Making a film on this budget level, especially making a gay film on this budget level, there are very few options for filmmakers to get this done short of mortgaging your house, if you’re lucky enough to own one in California, which most aren’t, and funding it yourself. So to start with them even funding the film was totally amazing and revolutionary and hopefully they’ll keep doing these films, which is their goal. Also, to have it distributed theatrically through Regent, their film distribution partner, and then to have it on their channel and on their DVD is so much more exposure for these types of films, which I think is so important for filmmakers and for future queer filmmakers. And hopefully they’ll set a precedent and an example that there are people who want to hear these stories and they need to be told.