Local Filmmaker Faces Backlash Over Kyle Huff Movie

Writer/director Jagger Gravning wants to make a movie about the 2006 Capitol Hill massacre—specifically, he says, he thinks audiences should be able to have “empathy” for Kyle Huff. Gravning started a Kickstarter to fund the project, titled Wallflower. Here’s his pitch:

People are not pleased. In the comments over at Capitol Hill Seattle Blog, readers/ravers/survivors/Capitol Hill residents are flipping the fuck out:

I am sorry but to make this movie is a slap in the face for each and every one of us who lost someone that night. Just think if you were on that side of the coin, someone killed your mother and now someone wants to make a movie on how we should have empathy for the killer. You wouldnt like it at all.

Please don’t make this. As someone who was directly involved with the incident. Please. I do not think I will every fully recover from this day honestly.
R.I.P

I get that it’s a free country but like, this? Really? Now? And what’s with making Kyle seem less than human? I don’t understand some people’s obsession with this. His family was just as destroyed by this event as anyone else. KYLE WAS A SICK MAN. That doesn’t mean he deserves a movie for his sickness, he deserves peace. I’m asking as a human being to stop this, there’s some other awesome comments but please, this is so insensitive and rude I can’t even begin to make a complete sentence without sounding like a jackass. THIS TRAGEDY COMPLETELY UPROOTED THE RAVE COMMUNITY AND RESHAPED IT INTO WHAT IT IS TODAY. A movie like this disgusts me, and I would hope that anyone with a hint of respect wouldn’t donate a dime to this thing.

And today, Gravning responded with a lengthy letter (so lengthy it’s after the jump).

Thoughts, Sloggers? Exploitative fame-grab or cathartic work of art?

I stopped reading the online comments when some of the people claiming to be part of the same rave community that espouses PLUR started sounding like members of the Westboro Baptist Church—with at least one person literally calling for my death. (And by the way, I am aware that most people in the rave community are very tolerant of people of all stripes—even those they disagree with). I figured if people really wanted to make an impact on me or influence what I am doing then they would contact me directly, since I published my contact info. It’s better than all of us partaking in what fruitlessly amounts to Indignation Theater on an internet comments section. I have found people to be much more respectful face to face, or at least one on one via email or telephone. The only two people who did contact me to speak on the phone, and then to arrange an in-person meeting, were both present the night of the tragedy, and both have come forward in order to officially become a part of the production.

Still, I would like to acknowledge a couple of important factors: I am aware that the anger being directed towards me and this production is ultimately transmutated grief. People are sincerely heartbroken, and that is manifesting itself as anger.

But I am also aware that I am not the person responsible for their grief. The man responsible was Kyle Huff. What I am doing is vividly bringing back the pain he inflicted to the forefront of their minds — because I feel I must.

This is clearly not the first film of this type: Elephant (based on the Columbine shooting) which won the Palme d’or at Cannes, United 93, based on the events of 9/11 (which used real names despite at least one widow decrying the project), not to mention other films based on real-life horrors, like Schindler’s List, and literally thousands of others.

It may surprise you, but I knew one of the victims, Jeremy Martin, for about ten years before he was murdered by Kyle Huff. We were definitely not super close, but after growing up in Mount Vernon we reconnected in Seattle and he had called me several times — the last time I spoke to him I was in Barnes & Noble at University Village when he called to invite me to the event in question at CHAC, because he was thinking about getting a group of people together, doing E, dressing like clowns and “harassing the rave kids”. I turned him down. I was however at the event two weeks prior to the night of the shooting — held at a warehouse that got raided by the cops for selling alcohol without a license. Kyle Huff was also at that warehouse party, because I saw him there myself. I was informed that the afterparty held the night of the shooting was asking for donations at the door to compensate for that previous event’s bust.

The last time I actually saw Jeremy, I was driving in a car with “T” (I’m withholding her name) when Jeremy drove by in the other direction in his blue VW bus. We waved — and I told “T” that I wanted to make clear to Jeremy that I still wanted to reconnect, despite me turning him down literally the last three times he called to hang out.

“T” was also at the house party. She was the person I was closest too, having grown up together since we were 12 and 14 and still hanging out regularly. Though our relationship later deteriorated over issues that are also part of the reason I need to make this film. Through her, I knew, slightly, several other people at the house that night. She was the first person I called when I realized that Jeremy was one of the victims — catching sight of his photo on the front page a newspaper on my way to Trader Joes.

I was also at the first memorial at Volunteer Park, the memorial at The Seattle Center, and at Jeremy Martin’s memorial in Mount Vernon.

Through my association with “T” I attended rave events from time to time, gaining the perspective of an outsider in a similar fashion to Kyle Huff. All of the events in the movie regarding Kyle’s interactions with the rave scene are taken directly out of my own experiences with the rave scene. The conversations and actions of the rave kids in my film are almost without exception taken directly from things I heard and saw people say in my contact with them. They are factual. No one can change that, and no one can prevent me from expressing what I really saw. I am not making this movie for fun, or to be a shockmeister. I am making this movie because I am a filmmaker and I have something to say.

No amount of fear and loathing, or outright threats from those who wish to silence my take on Huff is going to change that. In fact, the blind rancor from some members of the rave community further clarifies to me how vital this perspective is. I propose to present, based on my own personal subjective experiences as well as extensive research, Kyle Huff’s perspective, and I am told that that is the one perspective that must not be expressed.

Have you ever seen BIRTH OF A NATION? It’s the most racist movie ever made. But the fact that the film presents the world from the perspective of the KKK is the most elucidating and original thing about it. It really made me see what was going on through the minds of Southern bigots after the Civil War — they felt like they were being victimized by the freed slaves, and that the actions of the KKK amounted to vigilante heroism. Of course, they were Southern bigots. They were assholes. But seeing how they viewed the world around them is extremely helpful. I would love to see a film that depicts Bin Laden’s world-view. And if I was going to make that film to show the world from his perspective, I would not allow myself to be chained to portraying Bin Laden only in a way in which the most grief-stricken of his victims approved. It would be antithetical to the whole concept.

This was not intended to be a film sanctioned by all the victims and their families. I have something to say, based on what I saw myself, that I believe is important. I say in the Kickstarter video that I don’t want to portray Huff as a villain. I think some people are offended and/or confused by this. He is a villain. He did a monstrous thing. I meant that I don’t wish to portray him in the way that villains or murderers are generally portrayed in film. I want to try and see the world as he was seeing it. I absolutely do not in any way wish to imply that Kyle Huff was right in killing anyone, or that anybody deserved to be murdered. And I think that people claiming that that is my goal are being disingenuous, intentionally distorting what is the purpose of this film in order to attack it and me (Distorting my viewpoint to the minstrel extreme of: “Your friends deserved to die because nobody helped poor Kyle Huff.”). This is akin to Cheney and Rumsfeld saying people protesting the war were abetting terrorists. It is ridiculous. I have something to say.

But I appreciate what you are communicating, that that is what some people are hearing on some level, but the fact is that I am simply making a film from Huff’s perspective. With that as my premise, I believe that there is no way for me to change my tone enough to appease those who disagree with this basic idea. There are documentaries and also narrative films about the Iraq War that put forward a perspective many soldiers, wounded veterans, and widows of soldiers killed say is offensive to members of our military. What should be done about these films? It is an exact paralell to this.

As a public figure who committed what became a part of history, with extensive documentation (The Panel Report on the Capitol Hill Shooting) on public record describing that night in step by step detail, I have the legal rights to tell his story. That much has been sorted out with a lawyer.

So ultimately, it will come down to belief in doing what is right and also finally the concept of one party having something to say, and another party trying to stop it from being said.

I know you can neatly file some of this perspective under the rubric of “free speech rhetoric” in order to more readily dismiss it as self-serving, and I ultimately do think we may simply be at an impasse. I think emotions run too high on this subject for people to be rational — again, the reason why I avoided contacting family members of the victims earlier and asking for permission. Much of my material, as I said is, taken directly out of my own life, so I feel entitled to it.

I agree with you that the story of the victims would also make for a great film.

However, I am making this film because I believe the perspective I am portraying has never been adequately presented yet in our culture. Out of deference to the families, I am fictionalizing Kyle’s victims to the point that they are totally unrecognizable (changing genders, ages, races, everything.) That’s as much concession as I can make. The film is about Kyle Huff.

If I were making a film from the perspective of Bin Laden, his victims/their families would be making the same arguments that you are making now. And they would be equally entitled to express their opinions, and there is justice and rightness in those opinions — just as there is also rightness in what I am doing.

I know this email sounds testy, but hopefully its length is an indication of how much I respect you and your email and that I wanted to respond fully. You have a right to your perspective and I look forward to further discussions with you or other intelligent people like yourself on this topic.

We have to face this. It’s going to make a lot of people uncomfortable. And I’m going to have to endure a lot of hate from people who have a lot of sympathy.

But do you really think the world would be better off if I did not make this film?

In my view, the alternative to what I am doing is letting this issue lie forgotten by the populus at large. And I am not ever, ever, ever going to let that happen.

Best Regards,

Jagger