Cypress resident tackles documentary of Ray Hill
It took a couple big leaps of faith to get Cypress resident Jarrod Gullet where he is today.
“A lot of what I’m doing is new territory for me,” the local film producer admitted. “I’ve gone to places I never imagined — and hopefully the years ahead will bring even more adventure.”
Gullett does not have much time to look back. He’s in the middle of creating a full-length feature documentary about Houston’s legendary LGBT activist Ray Hill while running his media company, Proud Pony International, alongside business partner Travis Johns.
The duo celebrated their fourth year in the saddle at Proud Pony in January and is now 2½ years into the making “The Trouble With Ray.”
“The documentary came to us by chance,” Gullett said.
Gullett and Johns met Hill at a party and were enthralled with the
stories he told.
“When Travis and I walked away, we said, ‘We must find a way to record these stories,’ ” Gullett said. “We were afraid that if we didn’t, we’d lose this history forever.”
They started in May 2013 by making a threeminute short about Hill in response to a call from Comcast for its Houston Voice channel.
“We used our own money, our own resources and our own time,” Gullett said.
The investment paid off when the film was selected for the Houston Film Commission’s Texas Filmmaker’s Showcase, which highlights the best Texas short films each year.
“That screening was at the Director’s Guild of America Theater in Hollywood,” Gullett said. “It was a dream cometrue.”
The film later won best short documentary at Chicago’s Reeling LGBT Film Festival and Dallas VideoFest and was nominated as one of the top five best short documentaries in the world at London’s Raindance 2014. It was included in International Documentary Festival Amsterdam in 2014 and screened at American Documentary Film Festival in Palm Springs in 2015.
In the film, Hill, known for his outspokenness, says, “Everybody says it was courage, the courage to be honest. But I think that the line between courage and insanity or madness or stupidity might not be very thick.”
In another part of the film, Hill says, “We haven’t always thought about gay people the way we do today. We think a lot differently about them. And you’re welcome, I’m glad to have played a role in that, and I certainly didn’t do it bymyself.”
Said Gullett, “Everywhere we went, people were saying they wanted to hear more of the story.”
So, the business partners decided to pitch a fulllength version to an industry panel at the American Documentary Film Festival and were selected to receive a $5,000 grant from the organization.
With the grant and their own funds from producing commercial projects with Proud Pony, Gullett and Johns moved forward on making the feature film. They wrapped the first half of shooting in September.
“Then we ran out of money,” Gullett said.
They decided to launch an ambition Kickstarter campaign, asking for $50,000 to continue the filming.
“Down to the last moment, we wondered, ‘Can wedo this?’ ” Gullett said.
By Dec. 9, 2015, they raised $51,589 with 333 backers.
“The untold story of Texas LGBT history resonated with a lot of people,” Gullett said.
Austin-based film consulting company, Production for Use, helped guide Proud Pony through the fundraising process.
Annie Bush, principal and senior consultant, said the film appealed to her for many reasons.
“What drew me to this was the fact that it’s in the South and it was the last place you’d expect to see this type of activism,” she said. “Ray Hill had the guts and drive to shake things up.”
Bush said that Hill is a complicated character.
“He’s very unapologetic about his flaws,” she said.
“I’m a fan of the outlier, someone going against the grain,” Bush said. “I like supporting outsider culture.”
She added that Gullett is, in his own way, a bit of a rebel.
“He’s a champion for film in Houston, and he’s making great content,” she said. “The pitch video alone is one of the most creative I’ve ever seen. I’m looking forward to seeing where this film takes him.”
Now the filmmakers are back in business, planning local shoots throughout February, then heading to film in Los Angeles in March. They will move into post-production work, then marketing and distribution.
For Gullett, who wanted to be a filmmaker since childhood, it’s a dream cometrue.
He studied theater in college and worked a number of odd jobs before starting Proud Pony with Johns. He moved into the business full-time two years ago.
“There was nothing else I had this passion for,” Gullett said. “Creating film and video is what makes me happiest.”
The last couple of years have been a blur of activity.
“We’ve traveled around the world, met a million different people, created content we’re proud of and created a company that our clients trust,” Gullett said.
He looks forward to continuing to grow the company further and embarking on new creative projects.
And Gullett is equally excited about getting the story of Ray Hill out into the world and sharing the message that the activist represents.
“You just have to stick with it against all odds,” Gullett said. “That’s the story of who Ray is, and it’s incredibly inspiring. How do you make a change in the world? How do you give hope? What’s it like to give a voice to the voiceless? He was the ultimate in powerlessness, and he affected change in every direction.”
In an email message, Hill said, “Being the subject of any artistic endeavor is in the first order of flattery and this is not my first time but it is the one I am most excited about.”
He said his previous experiences being in front of adocumentary camera including one of mutual dislike and others in which the filmmakers “thought too highly of me and my work and tidied meup too much” or “seemed over impressed with what I was doing.
“Given that background, Proud Pony has been assuring,” Hill wrote. “There is much to be told and sometimes I get the impression they question my veracity, but Jarrod does his research and finds it close enough, mostly. So far it has been fun.”
The feature-length film allows the filmmakers to also shine a light on other figures who were part of Hill’s journey.
“Ray’s story is beautiful, and the story of all the Texan LGBT heroes is remarkable,” Gullett said. “It feels good to be telling that kind of a story. The film is not just about the past. It’s also very much about looking forward.”