Filmmaker Statement

This is why, without a doubt, Like You had to be made in Salida, Colorado, a small town in the Arkansas River Valley where I grew up spending my summers in; both home and a getaway. To me, it was the ultimate place to have a dreamlike gay romance. Seeing my crew feel the same way as we drove up to the big Salida “S” on the mountaintop, overlooking Main Street was incredible. Concerns within the cast and crew that the film would operate too much within the “closeted boy in a conservative town” narrative melted away — they saw what I saw, and knew. There’s too much wonder out there to feel completely hopeless. The obvious outside challenges to this kind of relationship exist, but “Like You” does not revel in gay cinema trauma tropes, it rests in the small glistening details of good memories, for those lucky enough to have them.