Almost three years ago, Toledo photographer Joseph Vogt was sitting with his family enjoying Christmas dinner. His grandmother was reminiscing about a favorite recipe, but Vogt was distracted by the constant interruptions from his mother and aunts. Sometime after the meal was over, and considering the scene he had witnessed, he began thinking, “Wouldn’t it be hilarious if Grandma got up and killed every one of her daughters?”
That idea blossomed into his debut film, See You Next Tuesday, which will be shown at the Ohio Theatre on Saturday, November 16.
Nearly three years ago, Vogt began production on See You Next Tuesday, his first film. He finished a draft of the script just two months after that Christmas dinner with his grandmother, then spent the following six months securing producers, locations, his crew, and his cast. Filming would take more than two years. Vogt and his crew filmed throughout the Toledo area and in Grand Rapids, Waterville, and Perrysburg.
All proceeds from the screening of the film will benefit Pride 419, a fledgling Toledo nonprofit, championed by the star of the film, Ms. Gina Arnez. Mr. Vogt has worked in Toledo throughout his career as a fine art photographer and artist, and is proud to release his first film here. He boasts “this film is completely organic to the 419. There’s no element that we’ve outsourced away from that. If anybody wants to support Toledo art, this is their chance.”
Drawing stylistic influence from Alfred Hitchcock, Quentin Tarantino, John Waters, and Federico Fellini, See You Next Tuesday is simultaneously a slasher movie, an LGBT art film, and a think piece about anxiety and family perspective. Vogt describes the feel of the film as “very David Lynch.” Leading actress Danielle Welty describes it as more “f-ed up love story” than horror flick. Vogt himself thinks of it as “very ambiguous”.
Family dynamics
Family dynamicsThe film focuses on the unique dynamic between a mother and her daughters, but the plot is open to interpretation. Vogt wants to make his audience question where their sympathies lie. Some viewers will identify with the long-suffering mother of an intolerable daughter, while others will inevitably side with the character shedding the most blood. Vogt wants his audience to think about their perspective while they watch the film.
Vogt has been exploring the question of perspective throughout his photography career. He has shown his incisive portraits and still lifes in the Secor Galleries four times since 2008, at the Toledo Museum of Art twice, and most recently in New York City in The Story of the Creative. He maintains a studio in the Secor Building and often builds relationships with his models who confide in him, an impulse he doesn’t always understand. “I don’t know why people tell me their stories, but I’m grateful for it.” This honesty feeds his innate need to connect with people, which is deeply connected to his drive to create art. “People tell me their stories, and I use that, not as a crutch, but to make them feel comfortable, to maintain the best possible relationship. That’s where true happiness is, in the most open relationships.”
Casting and control
The open relationships he formed through his photography led directly into the creation of See You Next Tuesday. The first cast member Vogt approached for the film was Ms. Gina Arnez, a star female impersonator of the Toledo drag circuit, and a mainstay of the area’s LGBT community. She remembers their first photo shoot as “magic,” and says “Joe told me that he wouldn’t do the film if I wouldn’t sign on.” He wanted her because he “knew that she could pull off a very 1950s look, very beehive hair and pearls, very ‘mom.’ I wanted to keep that kind of fifties-sixties vibe.” She says they filmed See You Next Tuesday in weeks-long bursts spread over the last three years, and laughs about the impromptu film schedule. “Joe could call me tomorrow and tell me we need to shoot more and I wouldn’t be surprised. He’s a perfectionist.”
Danielle Welty, a local actress, plays the daughter to Arnez’ mother. She had posed for Vogt “more times than I can remember” and was eager to act under his direction. Many of her scenes were physically strenuous, including one she refers to as “the beating sequence.” They filmed this scene on a cold November day in Ottawa Park. Welty says it was “fun,” and that “the funny thing about Gina is that she was afraid to hurt me.”
The cast and crew got used to his Kubrick-like directing style while working with him. Welty says that when they filmed in Ottawa Park, Vogt “spent an hour rearranging the leaves on the ground because they didn’t fall right.” Vogt is unapologetic about his attention to detail, saying he “absolutely adores Shelley Duval in The Shining, because she was more broken than any other pony you’ve ever seen. [Kubrick] just mentally fragmented her, and she was a product that he had absolute control over, and that fascinates me. I’ve broken all of my actresses. All of them. There’s a part of the film, probably the most physically strenuous scene, and Danielle did it 45 times. When she didn’t get it right, we had to re-do it. As a director, you have to get it right.”
His pride in the final product is obvious. “It’s not for me to say if it’s good or not because you’re not going to believe me anyway. You have to see it and decide for yourself. I like it.”
Saturday, November 16, 8pm. $5. The Ohio Theatre, 3114 Lagrange St. Tickets are available for $5 online at brownpapertickets.com, where you can download your ticket directly to your phone to show it at the door. View two trailers and a brief synopsis of the film at jsvogt.com.
