ONE DEGREE
It’s all about who you know...
LOGLINE
Lost in Hollywood, a rebellious young actor uses the world of online personals to flesh out a new identity for himself.
THE STORY
One Degree has everything an audience could ask for: a hero’s journey, a romance, a rock band, an underground club scene, go-go dancers, drag queen divas, shirtless men, fashion, sex, a behind-the-scenes look at L.A.’s wealthy and connected…
But the questions it asks are unlike anything audiences have seen before. One Degree picks up where most gay coming out stories end. It takes the sexuality of its young protagonist, RICK VOGEL as a given and asks, “Now what?” Coming out is just the first step. Finding your voice is another matter entirely.
By all Los Angeles measures, RICK VOGEL is a nobody—another young, out of work actor/waiter trying to make it. In a city where first glances are often all that matters, he is proving to be a brilliant failure. And while Rick is openly gay, he cannot find a place for himself in the West Hollywood scene. The simple life of socializing and materialism would ring hollow to him, even if he could afford it.
Rick blows audition after audition, and when a tableful of drunk, card-carrying members of the gay power-mafia insults him at work, Rick’s sharp tongue lands him on the unemployed list. So Rick stops auditioning and starts posting online ads on LA-List (a Craigslist-type site), reinventing himself in a variety of roles to suit the needs of those willing to pay. Along the way he acts out many of the “identities” available to gay men today—queer rocker, drag queen, hustler, preppie, jock, twink, even S&M master…
He’s brilliant at these transformations, and his on-line adventures range from the humorous to the devastating. But ultimately he realizes that all his characters, no matter how well played, are just masks keeping him from facing his true self. Beneath the flash and glitz of gay culture, he learns that we are often our own worst enemies; that each of us has a secret, an addiction, or a weakness that stands to bring us down. In short, the one degree of separation that keeps us from living our wildest dreams, from reaching out to another human being, from becoming part of community…is ourselves.
This personal yet accessible film culminates in a series of startling events. Rick and the three other supporting characters are all forced to step out from behind their respective masks. In the harsh light of reality they discover a way of moving beyond their own defenses to more honestly connect with each other and the world.
One Degree calls upon each of us to embrace our multiple, perhaps contradictory selves; to realize that, actors or not, our lives are comprised of a series of complex performances. But only we can decide when we’ll stop rehearsing the past or auditioning for the future, and instead, seize upon the blind courage to simply act in the now.
