Original subtitles

all right you said here's the

documentary take one started as a small

thing but now it's behind like this huge

community of people not only the people

in the show but also the fanbase I think

it's amazing that we haven't had

something like it before but I guess

when something really cool is created it

just seems like it always should have

been there if you don't like the answers

create content where no one can tell you

no because you're the boss this is a

legendary show everyone from coast to

coast knows about the show and talks

about it it just kind of really really

goes there sort of an iconic series in

the LGBT world it's built from within

the community gay people telling their

version of gay stories East Siders is

gay gay gay there's so much gayness in

the show it's making up for the decades

of having not enough gay representation

on television so it's basically like a

big karate chop

flying twisting triple salchow bleep and

just smacks him in the face with gay

homosexual propaganda my biggest

takeaway was fuck the motherfuckers who

don't get you and just make your own

shit I'm wait for them to catch up

when we put the first two episodes of

East Siders on YouTube back in 2012 I

couldn't even imagine the journey that

the show has gone on from YouTube to

logo to Netflix subtitled in over 30

languages it didn't even seem like a

possibility to me

[Applause]

[Music]

cheers queers

[Music]

let's be real nobody makes a webseries

because they want to they make a

webseries because they have to because

it's the only way that that story is

going to be told because everybody in

Hollywood has slammed the door in their

fucking face hi my name is kit

Williamson and I'm the creator writer

director and producer of East Siders the

series I also play cow I grew up in

Jackson Mississippi I had a really

loving family but uh I was also raised

religious and in a community that didn't

accept LGBT people is really really

challenging for me when I realized that

I was gay and that honestly I decided

that I would have to leave that there

wasn't a life for me there I came to Los

Angeles to pursue my dreams of acting in

television and film I got here and I had

a year of intense auditioning where I

went out for everything I could possibly

go out for as the New Teen Dream the

Melrose Place reboot 902 1o Teen Wolf

and book - none of it and then my agent

and manager both dropped me

that's good drunk and I had no idea what

to do with my life I was waiting tables

at a diner in Sunset Junction it was

really really dark and it really seemed

like there was no entryway into the

industry for me Wow love is dead because

you just killed it

so honestly I hated LA when I first

moved here I always laugh because I feel

like I'm the only real Eastsider on the

show because kitten John's still go to

the gym in West Hollywood but then I

discovered Silver Lake through my friend

Bria grant we just sort of bond it

because I think we were both still

really we were really motivated to get

out there

he was auditioning a ton and we would

coach each other and help each other out

I met my first month in LA in an acting

class where I also met Constance Wu Shan

Mar and a bunch of other actors that

appeared in the first season of these

ciders then he moved to Silver Lake

which is where I lived and that made it

even more convenient to hang out that's

the key to LA friendships it's living in

the same neighborhood I fell in love

with the neighborhood it just seemed

like this was the place that I was

supposed to be at that time was a really

vibrant artistic community where

everybody I met it seemed like was a

filmmaker or writer an actor and not in

a gross way I love California

just the weather the culture the gay

rights and East Siders really began as a

love letter to my neighborhood he said

this is a darkly comic look at when gay

couples struggle with infidelity in

Silver Lake California

it starts three-time Daytime Emmy

nominee van Kansas Matthew Kelly and

Steven Wario John Hall back an

introducing conference room chairs

I'm glad you even all have a bad pant

situation hmm because well there's this

pretty detail but I'm too short for it

to show you know just gets covered Japan

game is not tight my pant game is not

tight what's underneath them though hi

bitch like talk about these centers and

talk about the last six years cuz we've

been doing this for six but nothing's

happened to me in the last six years

I've got nothing to talk about boa snake

out straight it was such a trip getting

to know her

first I thought kid was really hot and I

was like little hot guy and I didn't

actually know he was gay I didn't think

he was I hope you what you know what

I've heard this story a million times

mom tell me another one we like the same

shit we hated the same shit we like

could geek out on like poetry and like

Faulkner and my son both song of joy

alfred Prufrock all that like

pretentious fucking shit that made us

feel like we're hot shit together you

know what interviewers asking me a lot

what what character I most like that

I've played and they all think I'm gonna

say Jess come on I'm like you know Kathy

these ciders this is not thing to be

proud of but I think it is a great honor

and distinction Kathy's one of my

favorite characters that I have ever

written yeah she's not exactly gotten

her shit together there's you know where

it's like the second I get my makeup on

I just pissed it right off so you know

what I do I calm down I clean up I

reapply which makes me remember why I

was fucking crying in the first place

and then there she blows and I just cry

all over again you know all I've done

today except I don't think I would try

to have a conversation with my best

friend while I was on the toilet with

the door opens how old am i Cal I am 25

people do not get married when they're

25 unless they live in Minneapolis I

don't know how to live in Minneapolis

we were babies in season one that season

one hair oh my god and the relationship

between Cathy and Cal in East Siders was

really inspired by my real life

friendship with Constance these ciders

had very humble beginnings it really

started because we'd come from New York

having both done Broadway shows wrongly

assumed that Los Angeles would care

about that and found that we had a real

uphill battle trying to get anyone to

take us seriously without any footage

you look great

I think a lot of people assume that the

show is autobiographical and they're not

entirely wrong but it's not necessarily

the parts that they assume are

autobiographical

obviously my husband and I produce the

show together it's about a gay couple

living in Silver Lake California with a

cat in this apartment and we are a gay

couple living in Silver Lake California

with a cat in this apartment so I think

it would muddy the waters even more for

us to have played these on-screen

versions of ourselves in people's heads

you know so I kind of put him as far

away narrative Lee from my character as

we could have gotten right

you dated another Asian girl yeah she

Chinese huh Don and Sarah both Korean oh

there's definitely a lot of parallels

between our lives and the characters

lives but Cal and Tom are not KITT and

John their journey is far more dramatic

than ours it's the plot of season one

especially is not autobiographical I

mean neither of us have ever cheated on

each other to my knowledge but there are

a lot of things that are drawn from our

lives and our friends lives or I've

observed in the LGBT community but this

is the first time I think I've seen main

characters depicted over the course of

six years navigating an open

relationship wait are you talking about

an open relationship yeah no it doesn't

work I'm trying to tackle things that

are happening in the moment like prep

pre-exposure prophylaxis and HIV stigma

and getting tested just gonna feel a

little prick okay which I can assure you

it's a sentence you will never hear me

say outside of these four walls my

signature scent is undetectable mace of

demand because I make you take your

pills making sure that it's reflective

of queer life right now I know firsthand

how important representation is because

growing up gay a necessity I didn't have

anybody like me around me and it's it's

really easy to believe the lie that

you're never gonna be happy when that's

all you hear so I just decided to do it

myself

no well why is that have to be up to me

why do I have to decide everything that

sort of do-it-yourself mentality is you

can't not have that in this business

anyone that I know that has done really

well they've written their own parts kit

said you know what I'm just gonna make

this not out of any like ambition or

trying anything I'm just gonna make it

as a birthday present to myself because

I haven't seen stories like this and I

want to make a story like this

characters with flaws and complexities

were allowed to fuck up their lives and

relationships in the same way that we

afford those flaws and complexities and

mistakes - straight characters and I

wrote the pilot not really knowing how

to write a pilot or what rules I was

breaking fuck I'm trying we had the good

fortune to cast van Hans's opposite of

KITT he needed somebody for Tom I was

like I don't have web series ah that's

the web series

but then I read it and it was one of the

best things I had ever read I

immediately connected to all of the

characters I thought was hilarious I

thought was touching I was like fuck it

I want to you know if they'll have me I

want to be a part of it i self-financed

the first two episodes of East Siders

back in 2012

most of the crew was volunteering their

time they all took turns holding the

boom in the beginning just the fact that

we had a team of five six seven people

there to make it felt like oh this is a

this is a Hollywood thing it was a tiny

crew craft he was pretty much as John

mob off buying stuff

store we are a 100% independent project

which means you don't have any support

from a major network or studio we do

everything ourselves and we want it to

stay that way on lower budget projects

and passion projects the people that are

on the set actually love the content

and/or the people around them or else

they wouldn't be doing it I've worked on

so many shows where people we're just

getting paychecks you know and this is

one where people are there because they

love the family vibe all the way just

really authentic people that are there

for a purpose because they believe in

what they're doing they have passion for

it even though our budget was very

meager the first season it didn't feel

meager because it didn't feel like we

were being anything other than ourselves

it's almost like when we were in acting

class together we're just like working

out scenes we're improving we're like

finding the characters and doing the

thing we love which is you know

exploring our craft I knew what you know

I knew obviously the pregnant are crazy

it's really the either/or thing no cow I

have a life growing inside my womb

incubating like a wasp egg inside of the

caterpillar first season I think he made

for like like three dollars in a

shoestring or something like that and

call all his friends and called in a

bunch of favors

I was waiting tables at a restaurant

called Mohawk Bend and almost every

single person that I worked with at the

time was an extra at some point the

restaurant let us shoot there for free

good thing you got your brunch shift

covered how many you both

used to work for this restaurant and now

we've shot five scenes yeah going all

the way back to season one one of the

coolest things about making the show is

that we've shot it in our apartment so

now every season of our show is really a

time capsule of our life in this

apartment that I love so much I'm gonna

be take a closer I think a lot of people

bristle at the idea of being called a

gay filmmaker or having a show be called

a gay show I don't really take umbrage

with that myself

these make great coasters they're also

good for door jambs kindling and of

course you can bludgeon a homosexual

up yes okay very cute very cute hate

crime I think it can be very empowering

to say for example hey like this is a

good show you know what the creators are

gay I'm gay

I feel like there are some people who

might not even be gay who can see

themselves and certain characters or

certain circumstances and you late great

going right away

I love it this is awesome it becomes

universal these stories of love and

relationships and failures and breakups

and cheating all that good stuff

who love you threw a football and we put

the first two episodes on YouTube not

really knowing what to expect and every

gay blog picked up the show run towards

we're me up new now next was looking at

USA Today and seeing my little web

series I was shooting in my living room

recommended to the entire country felt

like they went viral and I knew that I

had to continue it the only problem was

I hadn't written any of it so over

Christmas break I sequestered myself

away and I wrote the entire season and I

just kind of like came out into the

sunlight a week later and I was like oh

we have a show Letson let's make the

fucking show and we decided to do a

Kickstarter to fund the remainder of the

first season but now we need your help

to take it to the next level and produce

a full season these ciders this year and

our goal was $15,000 which seemed really

ambitious at the time $15,000 may seem

like a lot of money but it's actually

the bare minimum amount that we need in

order to finish the season and we raised

that in four days and blew past our

crowdfunding ball almost immediately we

have some amazing perks for you which

you can read about below

I like that one that's a good ideas what

I'm offering my backers is my life

I am willing to wake up in the morning

with single-minded focus on telling

these kinds of stories until I go to bed

in the evening that's what I have to

offer and hopefully you down for that

journey and in the midst of that

Kickstarter is actually when we got

approached by logo wanting us to be a

part of their online platform so that

was another like Oh fancy

we're Seban see screw you too we don't

need YouTube I think there was

definitely a time where we said we're

not gonna do a season two we thought

season 1 ended really perfectly and we

didn't know how we could possibly

continue this story where could it go

uh-huh but then kit came up with some

ideas about that and we decided to do

what turned out to be way too ambitious

Kickstarter to raise money for it he

said there's Kickstarter she taking one

every season it seems like we need more

money because every season we learn just

how many things we're doing wrong season

one we had only gone for $15,000 and

then I guess we thought we'd developed

quite the fan base because we decided to

go for a hundred and twenty five

thousand dollars which was quite the

leap to make but there were many many

dark days in the middle of the campaign

where I was convinced that we weren't

gonna make our goal where I was

literally writing to every single person

that I had ever met Hey

Oh everything's been good since seventh

grade I see you have two children now

would you like to give five dollars to

this gay webseries or at least share the

link I have never felt so exposed III

felt like a fraud I felt like I had

overestimated our audience but then

people came through for us and over a

thousand people came together to make

season two habit

and I'm forever grateful I'm forever

grateful to our Kickstarter backers

because I would never career I would

never show oh my god

[Music]

content like East Siders is made

possible by drag queens like you because

like we would not have East Siders and

other fans we've crowdfunded every

single season and the fans have been so

supportive we're not answering to

network executives we're answering to

our fans and you can come and visit the

set and get to talk about what's

happening on the show and get to keep

input on scripts thank you all of our

Kickstarter backers who made this season

a reality we seriously could not have

done this without you late literally

this would not be happening without your

healthy being to be able to part of this

show and this experience and this

wedding with this group of people is the

best day of my life so far it's

inspiring to see that a community come

together and create a forum and a

platform where they're queer stories can

be told we're so thrilled to welcome

back the entire cast and crew for season

two and we'll be introducing some

exciting new faces see you over the next

month as well season one is a really

intimate chamber piece it's just about

really three relationships and in season

two we wanted to expand the world of the

show to really be an ensemble of all

kinds of different queer relationships

as many as we could fucking get into the

show at the same time while still

honoring each of the stories and having

it feel like a complete park essentially

kit is an incredible producer director

and wanted to kind of use people from

the community that he knew were actors

and kind of give them a platform yeah we

know it takes a long time to look that

cheap that's when we introduced Williams

character Willam plays an aspiring drag

queen named Douglas I like you I think

you're great as Marcia Gay Harden I'm

has been Dinah AIDS for a week fine

that's horrifying

I want to date Douglas okay okay who is

navigating life and starting a new

relationship both in and out of drag I

only read the parts that had my

character on it

and I liked it I thought it was a good

script I used to call it hot people

talking that was my subtitle for the

series because it was a lot of hot

people talking

[Music]

can we do one slight variation when we

do the waiting on the same love to not

be

love is right after you

so I'll take it back to right before

their I don't know miss assume that I've

ever seen a love story between a drag

queen and her partner I don't think I've

seen that story unfold and kind of the

small subtleties of the issues that

specifically impact Williams character

what are the unique challenges of dating

a drag queen or of being a drag queen

and trying to date somebody who maybe

doesn't want to be seen in public with

you in drag just want to keep you

company

we always think that like drag queens

like they just live as these you know

glitter women but you know we take up a

stuff and we have relationships and we

have our daily lives and we deal with

with regular things like a regular

person because believe it or not there's

a real balding 36 year old man that he

has herpes that's okay a little bit more

gonna do or say we're just gonna do

improv he wins faces Willam for example

is an incredible actor an amazing singer

and a hilarious comedian dude your baby

just kidnapped

cuz bitch you just got him brother male

with like cut cut cut he does all of

these things while doing his own hair

and makeup and creating these incredible

head-to-toe looks

hi my name is Blake I'm a fashion

designer you may know me from Project

Runway Season 14 and I made Williams

wedding dress we did a corset in it and

we got our waist down to a 21 inch waist

so super tiny am I wrong

we can pick it up

that honestly I couldn't in a million

years come up with working with a team

this specific role that it created for

me has allowed me to craft my own

perfect onset experience because I know

what I'm gonna be wearing because I deal

with it I know what the hair is gonna be

because I deal with it and you know

that's nice because a lot of times you

don't have that control guiding sluttier

these are the kinds of stories that I

haven't really seen people tackle and I

wanted to tackle stories that are unique

to the queer community it's not just the

the honey gay guy that makes a few

appearances or or the drag queen has the

the one-liner there's a depth and

sometimes an ugliness all wrapped in

into humor my makeups ridiculous my

incredible party's ridiculous

alright now you're just wasting good

chicken shows like these ciders about

will allow for a more authentic

treatment of somebody like me which is

spoiler alert season 2 ends with Tom and

Cal moving east all the way to New York

City and double spoiler season three

begins with Tom and Cal deciding it's

time to move back West to Los Angeles

they set out to have the road trip of

their lives but nothing with Tom and Cal

is ever simple so they're bounded we

have two bumps on the road I remember

staying up late one night and just sleep

writing and writing and writing and

conceptualizing the idea of a

cross-country road trip from New York to

Los Angeles hauling a vintage camper

trailer from the 1960s

[Music]

and really seeing America and be

claiming America for here audience

the road trip was so hard at the time it

was the hardest thing I had ever done in

my life I was very nervous about the

road trip season and I wasn't wrong cuz

it was not fun just wish that we hadn't

been thinking about getting back to

California from the moment we got there

it was forward maybe didn't have to be

maybe it did the stakes were high from

the very very beginning of the trip we

had one day to film in New York City

before we had to get on the road cuz we

knew that if we fell behind that day if

we delayed our production by one day we

were fucked kit doesn't take no for an

answer and I think is not always

realistic about how difficult something

is going to be or how possible something

is going to be we put the camper trailer

on the Subaru Outback and quickly

realized we couldn't go over 40 miles an

hour

we were originally supposed to get into

Pittsburgh at 11 p.m. we didn't arrive

till 4:00 and there was mutiny in the

crew everybody was ready to quit

basically I got a text message from for

my director of photography saying this

isn't what I signed up for if this is

the way the rest of the shoot is gonna

be I'm gonna have to replace myself in

Idaho look replace yourself in Idaho

with who with a fucking elk No jesus

fucking christ it was a moment where

John and I really looked at each other

and said have we bitten off more than we

could chew like is this actually

possible for us to achieve on this

budget level either way there's one

thing that I don't have anyone Expo

that earlier with you eventually we did

you know kind of come back together and

make it work then finally on day three

it clicked

[Music]

I feel like we really are the Midwest

just like would you like a seat honey

baby honey baby would people know you

don't call you baby that much in New

York I like that you made her both

southern and slutty well she was we got

some really really beautiful footage

snowing outside of Yellowstone see two

gay guys kissed in front of Mount

Rushmore come the fuck on who does that

in her web series season three I did we

lost several locations when people found

out what the show's middle in there yeah

Idaho was surprisingly welcoming and so

we just specifically picked campgrounds

we were trying to shoot at we lost

multiple ones it was all confirmed rates

were negotiated and then all of a sudden

they were unavailable and the only thing

I can think is that that's when the name

of the show came into existence I'm not

just unavailable unresponsive so we had

a pseudonym for the show after the first

two times I have is crazy we changed the

slate to say go west and we told people

like at our locations it was about two

friends going across the country Wow

I don't want to go back to real life

this isn't real life got a jobs you got

to get the cat back from Hillary the cat

stole I've gotta find a place to live

before compared to other gage shows I

think East Siders has the most heart

because it's not controlled by a studio

or a network or seven circles of hell to

tell you what you can and can't do I

feel like this show has the freedom to

do whatever the hell it wants within

budget nobody has taken the concept of

East Siders and given me ten million

dollars to make a season what we've been

able to do however is find that audience

on Netflix starting with season three

our distributor wolf video was able to

broker a worldwide streaming exclusive

that was really the like the satisfying

this is my opening night on Broadway

feeling like alright maybe this is all

done worth it we are yes

I people who are you know screen

grabbing me from all over the world

watching the show in their home country

in their language we've literally had

people write to us from Saudi Arabia and

Nigeria and China and places where it is

inhospitable or illegal to be gay saying

that the show made them feel less alone

I can't understate the significance of

that to me I grew up in a really

conservative family and would sneak off

and like watch like the gay Netflix

shows that were on so back then yeah

yeah but like you you know you like by

the time season three came along we

really had a good enough audience that

was hungry and ready for more episodes

of the show that when season three came

out it felt like a really big deal hey

Jon I'm kit and we are here getting

ready to go East Siders is up in six

categories and we got a lot of our

parents with us

[Applause]

[Music]

- remember when you watched the first

episode of East Siders in 2012 yes I do

I remember being very very proud and I

remember thinking this is what not

giving up looks like to be able to share

this with you no conservator huh it was

really hard getting the gang back

together people wanted to do it people

said they wanted to do it I think

everyone is gonna be really excited when

it finally comes out but in reality

getting all those people together on

that set for that entire month was

really hard I would say it's harder on

these friendships and these

relationships than it is on our

relationship well maybe we're just

dealing with the fact that pretty much

everybody involved in this is a little

bit too old for this shit you know it

was it was one thing in our early 20s to

just kind of set ourselves on fire for a

web series for footage for our reels for

an opportunity to get our name out there

and to have exposure a lot of these

actors don't really need exposure I

think the show made me even better

friends with with care and John and Bria

and not for the reasons you think it

might not because we just had like the

best honky-dory time because there were

times where like we were at odds because

of like scheduling or availability and I

know that I'm super annoying and I know

I'm totally fucking you over by taking

this job because I know that you're

gonna miss me a lot because I'm gonna

miss you I think the test of a

friendship is how you navigate

difficulty together and I think that's

more real than a friendship where

everything is just candy and I feel like

the truest relationships I've had

nourish me in a way that candy doesn't

and that means sometimes you have to

like I don't know eat something that you

don't like I mean you also need stuff

that you really like that makes you feel

nourished and full and happy it's a

complete meal kidding just the snap he's

a complete meal that's a nice thing I

decided to end the show with season four

because I wanted to end the story the

right way it's never gonna end stop it

no it's gonna be like fucking

supernatural and go for like thirteen

seasons

stay tuned for season five logistically

I don't think that a season five would

be possible on this budget and to put it

in context five minutes of a show like

looking has a larger budget than four

seasons of designers how far can we use

our our relationships to get favors and

I think four seasons is our limit I

think that's where we're at I think that

we've reached the ceiling of what we can

achieve independently and I'm happy with

the success that the show has had but

ultimately I don't want the show to just

kind of go out with a whimper fuck that

shit we're going out with a bang okay

who are all these people the wedding

party but you knew the model okay

something this is gonna photo shoot for

mr. Tuerck which is a gosh quiet Jimmy

yep Jimmy hi

this is a shot in the series so far

involves like 15 actors three drag

queens three Instagram influencers there

are a lot of different uses that have to

be done via headset but the factors you

can't see each other and disease to time

how fucking perfectly so it is the giant

flaming hoop of the center season four

and I have no idea what you it or now we

have all of these incredible wonderful

drag queens that are also all super

fucking successful and get flown around

the world to do shows in Dubai and

Brazil and have very difficult schedules

to pin down the vector they're all

coming together in the same space to

tell this story isn't it's just

incredible I am so excited to be acting

on a set with a big group of people

making magic and are it's really

inspiring to me so I'm gonna miss

everyone on this set

putting all the drag queens so you guys

will stay at the end of the season but

they'll intern Jo in the two of you as

top of the season a huge fan of the show

and it's just so thrilled to be on that

right now like the life look pretty I am

so honored that I got asked to be here

to be a part of the last season I can

say hey I was in the last season of

these centers

you're it's fantastic it's gonna be a

great shot yes it's a dream for me

anytime somebody tells me that

eastsiders inspired them to tell their

story that's the most rewarding thing to

me to know that your work can inspire

others the teenagers who are watching

this show now and seeing a depiction of

who they are gives them permission then

I think to tell their own stories

and that is the picture honestly the

show has always been about love it's

always been about the challenges of

human connection of relationships

sticking it out through adversity you

know this idea of not knowing where

you're going but knowing that you want

to go on the journey with the person

next to you very very cool seven years

he's had those over for sure it's really

sad thinking about this being the last

time getting these people together and

I'm sure it's not the last time we get

these people oh yeah I mean we'll do a

concert at Carnegie Hall for sure coming

to our Carnegie Hall concert everybody

little bit back