I love that so much. So I’m also deeply interested in the relationship that artists have to the environments in which they develop their art. And in “The Watermelon Woman,” Philly gets to be its own character. I’d love to just hear you speak on that.

Right. Right. Well, Philly has been the home of so much culture. Queer culture, to boot. People don’t even know that. And then so much to me as myself as an individual that, “Why not?” This is rich to me, it was the perfect place to bring to life. All the way back to the city that people escaped slavery and were free citizens in Philadelphia. And that history, going back to the Black churches, and museums, and places where Black people could be free.

I want to be in a community in a city that gives me agency. I can see people like myself who have agency, who are able to walk, who are making work, who are tipping their hat, doing their thing. And I’m tipping my hat back because we are all productive in that bubble of life. So Philly was the one that did it for me. I knew those streets. I worked at McGlinchey’s, the Irish Pub with punk rockers and serving green beer for $1.25 a mug or whatever. I rode a bike messenger. The city fed those Stories. So I had to pay homage to that part of me. The cheesesteak in me. And boy, did I have a lot of cheesesteaks in me [laughs]. And I want one now!

I have such an affinity for films, especially queer films, that are set outside of the major New York, L.A. sort of metropolis because I’m a Midwest kid by way of Chicago and Cleveland. So seeing queerness exists in a world that is not New York or L.A. is always very, very exciting.

Yep! And I live in Oakland right now. I’m trying to do the same to set stuff up here. I mean, we’re only 45 minutes on a plane, six hours away from L.A., but everybody’s like, “Whoa, where are you?” Oh my God. I’m like, “Right here!” And there’s such, I mean, this is a great Chocolate City, very much like Philly. Lot of politics, Black Panthers, whatever’s here, tons of stuff. Boots Riley, who just popped out this week with his “I’m a Virgo.” So we’re collaborating, trying to get a thing called Cinemama up here that’s going to be something for the Bay Area filmmakers to support them. So Boots, I, and a few other folks are kicking off ways to make it vital for filmmaking to happen outside of those bubbles. And I’ve hosted a Happy Hour. Boots showed some work and other people’s work at the Grand Lake Theater a couple of weeks ago. So we’re on a path to making other places tell stories and have stories to tell.