About a month ago, we all lost a dear friend and colleague in the beautiful and incomparable Doug Jones. I haven’t had much emotional bandwidth to talk about it and I’m not going to go post about my feelings, but I wanted to share a few things about him.
To use any adjectives like generous and thoughtful would be true, but would also be an understatement and not even do him justice. I think back on the sixteen years I knew him and remember how much he gave to those around him. He would let me and my friends, whom he had never met, sneak into shut down parts of the LAFF Westwood campus and hang out with us, sober, until 5am while we drank and chatted, for him only to return to work at 9 in the morning to introduce films. He would come to my band practices and bedroom recording sessions, just to chill and be part of what was happening. He would sit with me in my Toronto hotel room in my early days at the Philadelphia Film Festival and act as my sounding board while I moved Post-Its around on the floor trying to schedule the fest. Giggling together in the back of countless P&I screenings all over the world. Solving so many escape room puzzles. All day trips to Disneyland with half a day’s notice. And, honestly, it wasn’t just me. He was seemingly up and available for any adventure that any of his friends were taking part in at any time on any day. When a community of us began to form over Zoom at the beginning of lockdown, Doug dove in head first, spending often 72 hours watching movies, playing games and sharing jokes with a group of people he barely knew or didn’t at all know before then. Some of those people he spoke to every day as their adventures continued irl up until he died. So I guess the adjective I would use to describe him and his magnanimous friendship gestures is “down.” Doug Jones was down for anything.
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In 2011, we set out on a journey to tell the fictional story of real singer/songwriter Goh Nakamura and his relationships in Dave Boyle's SURROGATE VALENTINE. We had so much fun that we had to do it again in 2012 with DAYLIGHT SAVINGS. With great pride and excitement, I'm happy to report that, as of yesterday, the trilogy is complete with Lynn Chen's directorial debut, I WILL MAKE YOU MINE. Available now (along with the re-release of the other two films). Visit to rent or purchase.
