Filmmaker Statement

'Lumber' is a story that is very dear to me, not because it speaks to my own life experiences beat-by-beat, but because it tells a universal story that myself and many other gay men can relate to – a story about belonging and finding our place in the world. Growing up I often struggled finding where I fit into the identity of what a gay man ‘should’ and ‘shouldn’t’ be, and even more broadly into what it means to be a ‘man’. I’ve never been particularly sporty, and I can’t change a tyre to save my life, but I’ve never considered myself to be particularly feminine either. I’ve only ever been the person that I am, and I’ve been both accused of seeming ‘not gay enough’ and ‘not straight enough’; and I believe this warped idea of how gay men should fit the societal expectation of masculinity is something many more people than just myself can relate to. 'Lumber' is a film that dissects this idea of masculinity applied to gay men through a symbol that is iconic for both masculinity a