American Nudist: Behind the Scenes

Pre-production has begun for a concurrent film, "Real American Nudist" while Screening Room is nearing post.

CREATING A CHARACTER

Usually when a writer creates a character, he bases it on someone from his life. Usually someone who has had a major impact on him or her.

I did something totally different for American Nudist, something I never thought I'd do.

When I was in 26, a girl I'll call "Jenny" here stood me up on Valentine's day. It left me traumatized, emotionally devastated and scarred for the rest of my life. I never truly recovered.

Jenny inspired no less than 12 "F*ck You Bitch" poems, one of which got me temporarily banned from Borders.

The experience inspired an award winning play and I even incorporated it into my sci-fi novel.

But enough was enough.

I was instructed to create a past love affair for my main character, Taylor Kong. But no woman from my past had any real impact on me. Especially from Hawaii, which I used to call the hotbed of celibacy.

So what did I do? I asked myself, What if Jenny didn't stand me up? What if we had met that night and we had this wild, animalistic love affair which inspired me to create more positive plays and films. What if loving her gave me more insight to love and relationships right then and there? Instead of waiting years to find out what I'd been doing wrong, and not being able to do anything about it.

What if Jenny were my muse?

So a character was born. This Jenny Chan is nothing like any local girl I've ever met. She's smart, insightful, very spiritual and mature. She knows herself and can see through the hypocrisies of the naturist lifestyle, when Taylor himself could not.

She even gets to the front door of the nudist party before she bails, not because she doesn't believe in it, but because she sees naturism as a young person's game, and when she doesn't get that, she makes her opinion known.

She inspires Taylor, though she hurts him at the same time. But one lesson Taylor will never learn as I had, 'tis better to love and lost than to never have loved at all.'

The real "Jenny" never taught me anything except how to hate. To be honest, she was an immature slut and I wasted years envying her for her sexual prowess. The fictional Jenny forced me to recreate myself in a way that the real Jenny did not.

The real "Jenny" admitted she didn't believe in love. The fictional Jenny understands and can only give love, but not irrationally.

The real "Jenny" and every other girl from my hometown will probably never read this. That's just as well. I don't want to pay her any royalties, but then again, she didn't create the character.

I did.

And I credit those who create something that is timeless and beautiful, not those who try to destroy it.

No Nudity in Manoa Valley Theater's production of "Hair"

This is reprinted from their Audition notice:

nudity: The script does not stipulate the use of nudity and the MVT production will be produced without nudity. Nudity is not integral to the "telling of the story" in Hair.

I come from Hawaii, and I feel ashamed for this. Lack of the nude scene in Hair is an insult to the original artists and though I've been told by at least one director that Hair has nothing to do with the nudist movement, I agree in part. Act One where the nude scene is placed is not consistent with the nudist ideals.

Act Two however, particularly within the context of the song, "Walking in Space" is very consistent, and though I do not credit the hippies with anything related to nudism, I remind them of this lyric:

"How dare they try to end this beauty. How dare they try to end this beauty."

This is all I will say on the matter. I have lost all faith in the artists in Hawaii at this point. Quite frankly their conservative mindset has, then and now, made me sick to my stomach.

The Naked Mile

Truth to tell, American Pie: The Naked Mile is not a nudist film, nor does it pretend to be. Still, the Naked Mile is considered a real nudist event, so I thought I say a few words about this movie here.

It's a very cliched movie with forced gross out humor, but the one thing I noticed was how natural the Naked Mile scenes were. College kids having fun, despite the script trying (and failing) to "sex it up."

There was only one guy with a keg of beer. The stripping scenes were matter-of-fact and the sexiness of it wasn't very natural.



Oddly enough, it was the underwear dance party that had any sex appeal at all in the whole film.

But in the spirit of nudism, the fifty-something extras did a great job in capturing this event. Some of them, from what I gather in the bts documenatary went totally nude. Most of the men wore socks and at least one girl wore pasties. All three main college girls (the female leads) went topless, which is something I have yet to film. So kudos to them.

I've included some pics. Again, I do not own these photos and if requested, I will remove them. I will put together an article about the real Naked Mile in my next blog

The real problems with nudism

I have often said that nudists are so busy fighting problems that don’t exist (i.e. public misconceptions, child predators, people with bad hygiene) that they often neglect problems that do exist. The following letter from my internet friend, Dario Western, best describes this problem. I share this on my filmmaking blog to show my potential audience a brief glimpse into the actual lifestyle and the conflicts therein. It’s been edited for space.

“Youth is very much into nudism but at their own pace and comfort zone. I operate a male retreat for nudists in the Sunshine Coast hinterland and the young guys who come here ask for an exclusive use for the day which is fine by me. They want to be on their own with people of their own age group which is fair enough.

“At the other end of the scale are the seniors and neither group have anything in common apart from nudism. In the middle you seem to have the 'part time ' nudists - these are the nudists who get naked once in a while. Then we have the fitness guys who take great pride in their bodies and fitness and they are great visitors.

“Unfortunately I have to say that the older community are the most difficult. They expect everything for free – “why do we have to pay - we're also nudists!”.

“When we explain that advertising, upkeep such as chlorine, mower fuel, outdoor furniture costs money, they seem to think that that should be provided by others and not them! Our day visitors are by donation and most older folk wait until I am out of the way and they depart so they do not have to donate!

“One of the worst examples was one grossly overweight guy who simply flopped down into our outdoor chairs - breaking two and then landed on our lounger beds and broke two of those. When the other guys around the pool said to this guy to be more careful he merely told them to “mind their own f—business,” and then flopped into the pool causing a tidal wave that swamped everyone around the pool. He laughed and said, “get over it” and promptly left - with no donation!

“Primarily, it is this attitude of some that nudists can do anything and go anywhere irrespective of the feelings of others that I think [it’s] causing [a] general lack of new nudists coming to venues.”

Ed. note: I do have to agree with him regarding the overweight "gentlemen." Most of my overweight friends are friendly and considerate of others and do not go around breaking furniture or drenching other pool users with an impromptu cannonball dive.

My Most Beautiful Nudist Experiences

People say that I'm negative in my naturist work, and that the only nudist stories that I've written are saturated with anger and frustration. This film contains many of those experiences.

But I wouldn't have stayed in the world of naturism (such as it is in Los Angeles) if I did not experience moments of true beauty. Moments that reveal the true nature of people, and what life could be like if we did not live under the metaphorical umbrella of guilt and shame.

So I present five stories of things I've seen in the nudist world that made me realize that nudity was something that is beautiful, and that it is a world to be cherished.

1. At Rawhide Ranch, (Laguna Del Sol) A little black girl in a swimming pool playing with a white Barbie doll. Her playmate was white, about the same age as her. Both were eight, I believe. Only the white girl was playing with a black Barbie doll. And the two of them would have the two Barbies swimming together. The girl's name was Sparkle. I didn't want to disturb them. That moment was too precious.

2. I was 18 when I first went to Lupin. The first nudist family I met had three or four children. It was the mom who told me a story about how her 11 year old would call Lupin Naturist Club, the "Naked Place." That's how I came up with the title. This moment happened when I first entered the hot tub to see, for the first time in my life, a pre-adolescent girl nude. And she actually had pubic hair. I was shocked at first until I realized that I had pubes at age 11. But I just never saw anyone else's, least of all a girls'. It embarrassed me that though I was an honors' student but didn't know this simple fact.

I'll never forget her eyes, behaving like a typical teenager checking out the boys. But in this case, surrounded by her family, she was in a safe environment, and those feelings were natural. And I remembered how she smiled at me, very likely because she probably never saw an Asian man in a nudist resort before. But I can still recall the changes in her body as she was on the cusp of womanhood. It made me realize how fragile such a change was. And it was then did I realize that such beauty should never be violated.

3. At Rawhide, I played pool with a teenager named Tiffany. We both kept our towels around our waist. After a while, I forgot we didn't have clothes on. We were simply two youths playing pool. It's not that a guy wouldn't notice a girl's bare breasts, but body parts become part of your costume, in a sense.

4. At the Hawaii Skinnydippers, I had the pleasure of welcoming our first young couple. The woman, Kim, had a gorgeous figure, and this was the only time I actually felt excited about seeing a nudist in the nude. I wasn't able to play volleyball because of some injury, I think, so I just watched the game. Seeing her body move was simply poetry in motion.

5. At the Hawaii Kai Nudist Party in the year 2000. I was pretty jaded by then, and the experience became the basis for my short film, "Kelly Deerdale." Well, there was a moment when "Kelly" (aged 12) was in the changing room, and a beautiful Asian woman disrobed. Kelly looked at her as though she had just seen a goddess. Her face lit up and she smiled. I assumed the only Asian American women in her life were her teachers or her neighbors, and I'm sure, as naturist children do, she wondered how these darker, golden hued women looked like in the nude. It's only natural. So here she was, in all her glory. And for me to see this through her eyes was, not to sound too corny, just magical.

I remember a poll I once read in a naturist magazine asking about one's attitudes regarding children and nudity.

One of the choices was "the human body is disgusting. Children shouldn't see it."

I actually laughed out loud when I read that. Little did I know that there were people who actually felt that way. But if anyone could see the look on Kelly's face, one would be convinced that nudity can be a positive effect on a child's well being. It's all in the context.

These are moments that have inspired poetry and my early screenplays, but will not be in my current work. I'm sure my readers will understand why. Like Sally Mann's work proved, childhood innocence no longer communicates.

It's sad but it's the state of the world, and probably always has been. But had it not been for moments like these, I wouldn't have stayed in the naturist world for as long as I have. Keep in mind, nudists are not artists. Most of the ones I've met have no concept of art. The current artists who photograph nudes today are not nudists themselves, though their subjects may be.

I hope this situation changes because we need more filmmakers like Jan Gay and less Russ Meyers. And admittedly all of my beautiful moments involve nude girls. I simply think they are more beautiful than us men. But I hope other women can share their beautiful experiences too.

I encourage readers of this blog to contribute their "Naked Memories." And before anyone asks, none of these stories are actually filmable, not even the Barbie story, so it will not appear in the Screening Room.

Diary of a Teenage Nudist

One of my major influences in writing the Screening Room was the Brit documentary, "Diary of a Teenage Nudist" a well made, thought provoking film much maligned by naturists and non-naturists alike, and underrated by the community in general.

Amanda is one of the teens encountered by our protagonist, and when she turned fifteen, she started participating fully clothed. There is no doubt she still calls herself a nudist, and she states there have been many times when she would feel more comfortable nude, but being the only teenager made her feel very self conscious.

Most teens wonder why everyone is looking at them, because at that young age, they wouldn't believe anyone would be interested. This only turns them off to the lifestyle, and without proper education about the history of naturism and the legacy of the Wandervogel and the Natural Healing Movement, they would not feel inclined to return.

I do not own the above image, and if there are any complaints by the BBC, I will take it down. I regret I have to crop it, but I'm not familiar with the rules here on his blogspot.

Naturist Art (by Fidus)