Author | Winter Mendelson
Sorry You’re Sad is a web series created by Jamison Karon and Yoni Shrira that is adapted from the narrative non-fiction novel Confessions from my Tiny Black Heart. The episodes explore chance encounters and lost opportunities outside of stereotypes and queer clichés. I found the series to be delightfully vulnerable and left me rather curious. Jamison was kind enough to give us more information (see below!).
Tell us about how your web series is adapted from the non-fiction novel Confessions from my Tiny Black Heart?
The concept was stolen from a guy I dated in high school. He wanted to create an autobiographical account chronicling his sexual conquests. The idea was to write a chapter for each intimate experience, rename the men, and exploit the stories. Four years later I was sending my own finished manuscript off to publishers. After fruitless efforts to get the novel picked up, I realized it needed to be re-written before moving forward. At that point I was ready for a different project; creating a web series was my way of starting something new without throwing away what I had already created.
What is your background and what made you want to create this?
In 2013 I graduated with a BFA in Musical Theatre and a minor in Gender and Women’s Studies. I moved to New York with a very real expectation of being on Broadway before the next winter. By the time spring rolled around I was way off-Broadway, scraping for any artistic outlet. My best-friend’s boyfriend, Yonatan Shria (the cinematographer), had just graduated from film school and volunteered to shoot some scenes for my acting reel—he was looking to build his portfolio. Rather than film random scenes, I took the opportunity to create something meaningful, something people could sink their teeth into. After brainstorming for a few weeks, we decided to adapt my unpublished manuscript.
Do any of the episodes reflect personal experience for you?
Yes, all of them.
Please describe a couple of queer clichés that you are tired of seeing in the media? What void in the queer community are you trying to fill?
I’m tired of the community being portrayed as one stereotype; there are so many different types of queer people! The whole here queer and fabulous cliché is fun and great, but it’s just a glimpse into the culture. Films like Not Another Gay Movie and series like Queer as Folk were progressive for their time, but the movement is constantly evolving. Now there is room for more depth. Sorry You’re Sad focuses on the real, funny, busted and sad versions of queer life that haven’t been told yet. It is just one queer voice, one that came from my own experiences, but hopefully it will inspire others to tell their own story, and we can work to fill the void together.
Can you give us some further insight on how “Sorry You’re Sad” focuses on life as an aesthetic rather than a stereotypical gay experience?
I wanted to stray away from the typical camp quality that has become so infamous in queer cinema, to focus on the story without the kitsch. The style is more of an artful realism than what you’re used to seeing in queer film/television. Yoni did a great job with capturing that essence: the opening scene of episode two is raw, unfiltered, which to me makes it beautiful—that’s Yoni’s favorite scene, too. I wanted to take the emphasis away from the series being qualified by its queerness and just tell a story where the main character happens to be gay. Even when marketing the series, I never describe it as queer.
For additional information and episodes visit www.sorryyouresad.com
