Tim Kirkman
Directing
Biography
Tim Kirkman received Emmy, GLAAD, Gotham and Spirit Award nominations for his feature doc, DEAR JESSE, also named Best Documentary by the Boston Society of Film Critics. He wrote and directed LOGGERHEADS (Sundance) and LAZY EYE (Netflix) and directed THE NIGHT LARRY KRAMER KISSED ME and 2ND SERVE. With Todd Shotz, he co-founded T42 Entertainment with a mission to amplify LGBTQ stories and voices. Tim also directed the shorts "Jasmine" and "Freeman Vines" (co-directed with André Robert Lee). He is on the cinema faculty of UCLA's Department of Film and Television and USC's School of Cinematic Arts. In addition to writing and directing, Tim was a designer for over a decade at Miramax Films.
Known For
When her fiancé dies unexpectedly and she loses her job, 40-something music manager Alice Kendall inherits half ownership of The Grotto, a struggling nightclub in the California desert where she discovers eccentric performers and a heartbreaking secret.
The Grotto
(Long Synopsis) "When former tennis pro Owen “Game Set” Match gets fired from his cushy job instructing at the affluent Fountain Club, he’s forced to take a position at the gritty public courts of the Derby City Recreation Center. There he contends with his new co-workers, a ragtag group of tennis pro misfits; his boss Sherry, a strong-willed, single mother; and her son Jake, a goth teenager and secret tennis hopeful. Slowly Owen begins to win over his colleagues, mend his broken friendships and help Jake fix his serve … and develops a romantic connection with Sherry, despite her insistence that she doesn't date tennis pros. Just when things seem to be looking up, Owen’s former boss and court nemesis challenges the Derby City club to a showdown in the annual Combo Cup tennis tournament. As he leads his team of oddball amateurs, Owen learns the most valuable lesson of all … On the court or off, everyone deserves a second chance!"
2nd Serve
Passions reignite and hidden secrets revealed when a graphic designer in Los Angeles reconnects with an ex-lover he hasn’t seen or heard from in 15 years. Over the course of a weekend at a vacation house in the desert, they must determine whether or not they have a future together.
Lazy Eye
A troubled woman seeks out the child she gave up for adoption; a gay motel owner takes in a handsome drifter; and the wife of a preacher frets that a gay couple has moved in across the street. All of their lives will intersect as Loggerheads subtly draws out their secret losses and desires.
Loggerheads
In 1996, at age 30, native son Tim Kirkman returns to North Carolina to explore the parallels and differences between himself and Jesse Helms: they're from the same town and college, with media interests, from families blessed by adoptions, Baptists by upbringing.
Dear Jesse
Freeman Vines built his first guitar when he was a teenager. Now 82-years-old and battling multiple myeloma, he's desperately trying to make a guitar that can reproduce an elusive sound the instrument made decades ago.
Freeman Vines
From the late-night club crawl to the buff-bunny gyms, from the threat of anti-gay violence to the place where condemnation, compromises and closets are a thing of the past, the film exposes the sexual, spiritual and political yearnings at the heart of gay America.