Wash West

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Wash West (b. March 4, 1966) has recently emerged as a nationally-known independent film director with his 2006 release, "Quinceañera," which had a double Sundance win (Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize), and also picked up the Humanitas Prize, and the John Casavetes Spirit Award. In his early career he was considered one of the most innovative and daring directors of gay pornography. He has also directed under the names Wash Westmoreland, Bobby Dazzler and Bud Light.


Contents

[edit] Biography

Wash West was born Paul Westmoreland in Leeds, England on March 4, 1966. [1]

He was named after a member of the The Beatles and received the nickname Wash as a child[1]. Westmoreland earned his college degree in Politics at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne graduating in 1990. He emigrated to America in 1992. He had a burning desire to make films but began doing menial work washing dishes and cleaning houses.

[edit] Early Career

His first work in film was in gay pornography. Toolbox and Dr Jerkoff and Mr Hard were his first significant films both for BIG Video, a minor label and directed under the name Wash West.

He wrote and directed Naked Highway for BIG Video. This film received high praise from many critics. The film is about one man's across country trip to find his boyfriend and meeting an outlaw in a stolen car. They decide to ride together. The film was filled with daring music, deep saturated color alternating with washed out sections and black and white sequences. The lead performances were engaging and the film was made for a fraction of the budget of most major porn releases of the time. The film was also released in a softcore edit and made available in more mainstream outlets.

In 1997, he won the award for "Best Video of the Year" at the Adult Erotic Gay Video Awards for this film. He also won directing, writing and videography awards at the 1998 AVN Awards, the "Best Gay Video" award. West also won an editing award for his work on Dr Jerkoff and Mr Hard and lead star Jim Buck was honored as the "Best Actor" for his performance in Naked Highway, "Newcomer of the Year" and "Performer of the Year" awards at the same ceremony.

It was also during this time that West started to make his presence in mainstream films felt. He appeared briefly in Velvet Goldmine by director Todd Haynes. Haynes would go on to work with West as a producer on Quinceañera.

West went on to direct the cat-and-mouse thriller Animus for All Worlds Video, which channelled the millennium fears of the time (1999) and featured performances from Blake Harper and Thomas Lloyd, who both won GayVN Awards for their work.

[edit] Comic work

West began to direct a series of comic videos for All Worlds Video under the name of Bud Light. Of these, The Devil is a Bottom won the 2001 GayVN Award as Best Sex Comedy and was surprisingly listed as one of the LA Weekly Critic's Top Ten Movies of the year. .

[edit] Mainstream

West then directed the mainstream film The Fluffer, a film which was set in the gay porn industry but contained no explicit sex. The film received generally favorable reviews and was successful enough that West proved he could helm more mainstream films. He co-directed this film with his professional and personal partner, Richard Glatzer.

[edit] Later Career

The same year he also directed the gay porn film, Seven Deadly Sins Gluttony for All Worlds Video. The film was based on Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and won the Best Gay Video Award by the 2002 GayVN Awards. West was recognized as a director, writer, editor and videographer at the same awards ceremony.

Wash went back to Gay Porn for a gay parody of the horror film The Ring called The Hole for Jet Set Productions which dealt with a videotape that would turn those who watched it gay in seven days. Wash picked up the 2004 GayVN Award for Best Director and the film won the Best Gay Video Award. The film was also released in a softcore edit for more mainstream outlets.

After this, Wash and Glatzer made a documentary called Gay Republicans about Gay Republicans' reaction to Bush's ban against gay marriage.

His latest collaboration with Glatzer is Quinceañera about a 14 year old Hispanic girl discovering she is pregnant and being kicked out of the house. The film also received generally favorable reviews and has won several audience favorite awards at various film festivals including the Sundance Film Festival where it picked up the audience award for best narrative feature as well as the Grand Jury Prize.

Quinceañera also received the Humanitas prize for best screenplay of an independent film and the John Cassavetes Spirit Award for best low-budget independent movie..

[edit] Filmography

  • (2006) Quinceañera (as Wash Westmoreland) writer, director
  • (2005) Jet Set Direct: Take Two (as Bud Light) writer, director
  • (2004) Gay Republicans (as Wash Westmoreland) writer, director
  • (2004) Jet Set Direct: Take One (as Bud Light) writer, director
  • (2003) The Hole writer, director
  • (2003) Totally Gay director (for VH-1)
  • (2002) Porn Academy (as Bud Light) writer, director
  • (2002) Rubber is Natural (short) (as Wash Westmoreland) director
  • (2001) The Fluffer writer, director
  • (2001) Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony aka The Porno Picture of Dorian Gray writer, director, videographer
  • (2000) Brothers in Arms (as Bud Light) writer, director
  • (2000) The Devil is a Bottom (as Bud Light) writer, director
  • (2000) Florida Erection (as Bud Light) writer, director
  • (1999) Animus writer, director, videographer
  • (1999) Technical Ecstasy writer, director
  • (1999) Lost Exit videographer
  • (1998) Velvet Goldmine actor
  • (1998) Red Hot and Safe writer, director
  • (1997) Naked Highway writer, director, videographer
  • (1998) Toolbox writer, director
  • (1996) Dr Jerkoff and Mr Hard writer, director, videographer
  • (1996) Hustler White actor, videographer
  • (1996) Taking the Plunge! (as Wash Westmoreland) director, writer
  • (1995) Squishy Does Porno writer, director

[edit] Awards


In addition, Wash West directed the following winners for Best Gay Video:


He also directed the following Best Sex Scene Winners:

  • 2000 GayVN Award Sex Scene (Duo) - Sam Crockett & Chad Kennedy - Technical Ecstasy, Men of Odyssey
  • 2000 GayVN Award Sex Scene (Threesome) - Tanner Hayes, Zach Richards, Jack Simmons - Animus, All Worlds Video
  • 2004 GayVN Award Sex Scene (Solo) - Tag Eriksson - The Hole, Jet Set Productions

[edit] Trivia

  • Wash West's brother Micko Westmoreland often writes the music for West's films; usually credited as "Bowling Green".
  • Wash West often includes references to gay culture in his films. These include:
  • In Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony, Tanner Hayes wears a The Smiths t-shirt during his opening narration. The Smiths were a notoriously ambiguous/gay rock group.
  • In The Hole, Tag Eriksson pulls the mysterious videotape off the shelf from between the titles Velvet Goldmine and Boys Don't Cry. Other titles on the shelf are Trash (1999), Arlington Road and Artemesia.
  • In The Fluffer, some of the fictional porn titles are Citizen Cum, Poke-A-Hot-Ass (the lead character is dressed as a Native American on the cover), Cocky III (as a boxer) and Tour De Ass (as a bicyclist). Also a series of films with titles that knowingly parody porn star Ryan Idol film titles Rebel Army, Rebel Inferno and Rebel Rebel.
Awards
Preceded by
Jerry Douglas
for Flesh and Blood		 AVN Awards for Best Director-Gay Video
for Naked Highway
1998		 Succeeded by
Kristen Bjorn/Gino Colbert & Sam Slam
for Man Watcher/Three Brothers
Preceded by
Chi Chi LaRue/John Rutherford
for Echoes/Out of Athens		 GayVN Awards for Best Director
for Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony
2002		 Succeeded by
Chi Chi LaRue & John Rutherford
for Deep South: The Big and the Easy
Preceded by
Chi Chi LaRue & John Rutherford
for Deep South: The Big and the Easy		 GayVN Awards for Best Director
for The Hole
2004		 Succeeded by
John Rutherford & Jerry Douglas
for BuckleRoos 1-2

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Prestigiacomo, Jennifer (February 21, 2002). "Fluffer explores most difficult job in porn industry". University Wire.

[edit] External links

Caution: many of these websites contain graphic pornographic images

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