Krit Komkrichwarakool’s Live Action Short Film contender, Auganic, is unlike any other film in this race. It depicts a loving, sexual relationship between a gay couple as a unique physical phenomenon opens up a possible rift in their relationship. There are questions about security and gay safety baked into the story. This film swirls together a marital drama with some absurdist humor while exploring the notion that we may feel insecure in our position as a devoted spouse while posing that age old question: can money solve all of your problems?
During a night of passion, Nick and Kai experience a bit of magic when Kai ejaculates pure gold. Seeing something like that come out of your body would concern anyone, so they head to the doctor and discover that the substance is, in fact, legitimate. The couple is experiencing some financial hardship, and a company steps forward to compensate them if they can prove that it will happen over and over again. For some, it might seem like a dream come true, but Kai, an artist, is seen as a joke or a sell out. Komkrichwarakool’s script presents us a modern story with a slight folk story lean, and he wanted to explore his own reluctance with writing about gay men in previous works.
“I wouldn’t call it ‘gay folklore’ necessarily, but that’s part of the inspiration,” Komkrichwarakool says. “The reason why I made it LGBTQ at all was because there was a time that I felt so uncomfortable making a film about gay men in general, and I started to ask myself why that was. Looking back at growing up, I did feel like we got pigeonholed into telling certain types of stories. We were either going to be in a story that was very tragic or the gay character was going to be very comedic on the side. Of course, some of those subjects are very important to talk about, but I feel like there’s more stories to tell. In writing this, I wanted to talk about the lighter side of our community that remains very hopeful in terms of queer cinema.”
“It’s not a conventional queer story, and I think what I have learned as I produce is looking at what other aspect of the queer community can bring something different to an audience,” Palomo, the film’s producers, says. “Auganic brings a lot of unique things to the table. We have seen the gay best friend or bullying and homophobia, and those films are important, of course. What attracted me to this story is the innate nature of the relationship at the center. They are having financial strain and they are very much still so close, so I was interested in being a part of something where they explore the friendship of their relationship. Krit didn’t pitch it to me as a “gay film.” It’s just about two people in love and have this very particular trouble.”
I quite enjoyed the visual language express in Auganic. At home, the space is warm and inviting with browns, greens, and yellows inhabiting the frame, but an examination room feels colder with its overhead lighting and light blue hues.
“I spoke so much to my cinematographer, Joseph Schweers, about how we’d like to shoot it, and we came to a conclusion that we see power in the simplicity of it all,” Komkrichwarakool says. “We’re not using too many shots, and we stay at one angle most of the time. As the film progresses, we get closer and closer to Nick and Kai. That allows the characters and the audience to absorb them more and to take it to these quiet moments where we can take things more seriously. The doctor reacts to the situation in a practical way but there is something whimsical about it as well. Even though we are dealing with this absurd situation, we wanted to find the humanity in it.”
The casting of these two characters is essential to the film’s success. Nick is comforting and level-headed while Kai is more fearful and anxious as he awaits his tests results. His anxiety also gives way to larger issues in him and Nick’s life together. Kenny Brain and Matt have an intimate, soft chemistry that secures us more into the story–they are great together. Palomo even divulges some trivia about bringing in these two actors.
“Some production trivia is that Matt was originally cast in Kenny’s part, as Nick,” Palomo reveals. “Originally, we didn’t know if Kenny was going to be available since he had moved to another province, Alberta, at the time. We didn’t know if the scheduling was going to work, and we discussed having a backup. Since Krit and I are both Asian, we were looking for an Asian actor to play this role to have someone look like us. At the end of the day, it’s a POC, queer film. At the time, in Vancouver, Avatar was really big, and Godzilla was in production back then. There’s a lot of Asian-centric productions happening in Vancouver. When we saw Matt’s self-tape, I turned to Krit and knew that he was perfect–he fits the role so wonderfully.”
“I worked with Kenny [Brain] on a previous film, Plantonic, so I had an idea of what he could bring to the role,” Komkrichwarakool says. “I pretty much wrote the character somewhat for him, so when I asked him to do it, he said yes. Finding Kai, though, took a quite a bit during the audition process. We did a chemistry test between Kenny and Matt [Dejanovic] since it is about a gay married couple, and we wanted to make sure that they would read on screen as two people who have been together for a long time. We got so lucky with these two, because that chemistry test blew me away.”
I admitted that upon several rewatches of this film that I kept finding glints of gold throughout Auganic. There are flecks in the set, and Nick’s wedding ring is a thick gold band. It showcases how Komkrichwarakool was dedicated to steeping us into this story even more than we expect.
“With the ring, it was a really [bright] gold,” he says. “We tried to slip some gold elements in the production design but not make it too obvious. The bedroom feels very yellow, and that’s how the gold was created in there. There’s also an element, at King’s suggestion, in the sound design that we didn’t push too hard that reinforces Kai’s fear of running out of time. He feels so insecure about being known for something like cumming gold rather than his artistry.”
Auganic screens at the International Queer Film Festival Merlinka on December 12.
