No Accident. Doc and Book Capture Queer History through Archival Photos

When longtime couple Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell discovered a vintage photo of two men who appeared to be a couple, they thought at first that it was a unique item –�a rare artifact of a love that, until recently, was criminalized in America. They never expected to find another photo like it.

But then they discovered a second such antique photo; then a third; then more after that. Many, many more – in fact, now the couple have amassed a collection of more than 3,000 such images spanning more than a century. Last year they assembled some select photos from their collection into the book "LOVING – A Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850s – 1950s," and saw the volume become an instant best seller.

Now, thanks to director David Millbern, Hugh and Neal's collection has become the subject of a documentary film for Here TV. Titled "100 Years of Men in Love: The Accidental Collection," the hour-long doc is scheduled to premiere on Here TV on March 25, and it possesses all the power, tenderness, and emotion of the book.

Featuring well-chosen music, quotes from an array of influential gay writers (everyone from Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau to Truman Capote and Andy Warhol), the doc also features Millbern's own line readings as he interprets inscriptions written on the backs (and, in some cases, the fronts) of the photos –�inscriptions that openly identify the men in the photos as being in intimate, loving relationships. (Millbern is an accomplished actor who's shared the screen with the likes of Ian McKellen –�in "Gods and Monsters" –�as well as an Emmy-winning producer of Here TV's "Girls' Voices Now." Millbern a busy writer and director.)

EDGE caught up with Millbern to hear about how he made his own opportunity to write and direct "100 Years of Men in Love," what went into bringing the stunning collection of still images to motion picture life, and his own surprisingly personal connection to the antique images of men in loving relationships.

EDGE: How did you come to make this documentary, which is based on the book?

David Millbern: Here's the story: As a kid growing up, I encountered a tintype of two men sitting together... and I have it right here. [Shows the photo.] Two men sitting beside each other with their legs crossed towards each other, with their arms folded towards each other. And it says, "Bourbon fair, 1908." My mom wrote on the back: "It's Noah Anderson, it's your great-great-great uncle," or whatever. My dad was born in Bourbon, Indiana, in 1926. So, this is 1908. When my parents passed on, all those photos came to me, so I reinvestigated this tintype, because as a kid it was held such wonder for me. It was like, "Who are these really handsome men sitting so close to each other in 1908? And it says that it's my great-great-great uncle." It always held such fascination. I didn't know I was gay.

Then I was reading some magazine articles about Hugh and Neil's collection, and I just said to myself, "This would make a really good documentary. This would make a really good film." So I contacted them. I just called them as a cold call. I had won the Emmy at that point, and I think they trusted me.

We talked very specifically about the vision I saw for this film, their collection, and they said, "Let's go for it." I was so honored, because these pictures have never seen the light of day, really. These couples went out on a limb back then to take these pictures. I thought to myself, "That's really amazing back then, but it's also amazing now to get these relationships, to get these commitments. These gentlemen had the balls and to risk everything to show their commitment to each other." I felt such responsibility to make it right with this film. I told Hugh and Neil at the time, "You know, this film is going to be about the subjects. It's going to be about the pictures."

EDGE: Unlike most documentaries, it's not talking heads all the time. Hugh and Neal point things out, but mostly you allow the images to take the spotlight. It's lovely how you let the viewer spend some time with these photos.

David Millbern: I wanted to linger on the shots, so that the audience will get the relevance of the shots and will be able to sense the couples' commitment, get some time to realize the relevance of what they did then, and how it is relevant today. It wasn't going to be just this montage of photos. We were going to investigate it. We were going to have the time to spend with each photo to fantasize on our own, as an audience, to try to time shift back then.

I love the ones with the umbrella. That was kind of like the rainbow symbol back then, and also, if you think about an umbrella, it's very encasing – it's very exclusive, if you will, so they were able to shelter themselves from any peering eyes. It's like, "Oh, well, we can do whatever we want. We got the umbrella."

It's the same with the photo booth: When that curtain is closed, those loving partners can do whatever they want and express freely, because there's no photographer, no processor, the curtain is closed, those photos will be spit out and they'll go right into their hands. I thought that the whole phenomenon of being able to shelter, yet show, was so interesting.

EDGE: In the film, Hugh and Neal explain that the tintype was basically the Polaroid of the day. They just did a one off; it was very quick, and there was no negative floating around, no extra copies.

David Millbern: It's yours baby, it's yours! Hugh and Neal told me that they found some that were creased, and some that were obviously put in a wallet. Others were pristine. In the film we tried to show them exactly how we got them. We didn't gussy them up. If there were marks on them, or if they were creased, or whatever, that all added to the authenticity. This particular tintype, at the end of the credits I honor my family with showing my family tree, dedicating it to those who have gone before me.

EDGE: It does look like you added in some texture, some water stain type of texturing and coloring, and some scratchy lines. It gives the movie a vintage look, too.

David Millbern: We did. I call that the champagne, bubbling effect. They're over 100 years old, and I wanted to make them live and be vibrant, and that was the technique to do that while we're fantasizing about what these guys' lives must have been like.

I felt such an honor that I would now be able to share what they couldn't share – their love, which they couldn't be open about. Now the world gets to see what they had and celebrate it. I think it's a very joyful film. The joy that's expressed by these partners is tactile, you can feel it in the picture. They probably only shared it with each other and with their close relatives, but now we're sharing it with the world. I think that's the real message of this.

EDGE: I knew some of the photos from the book, and then there were some that I didn't recognize. Had Hugh and Neal added to their collection in the meantime, or did they give you free reign to take what you wanted out of their collection of more than 3,000 vintage prints?

David Millbern: It was very hard to cull the pictures, because I loved every one of them. But there were ones that are not in the book that I thought were even more tasty. For some reason [they were not included] –�I don't know how book editors choose what they choose, but I knew what I wanted for the film. They gave me many, many, many other photos that are not in the book, and we included those in the film.

I thought about reenactments, but then it just seems so inauthentic. I wanted the photos to be examined in the context that they were taken. That was the medium of the day. That was their social media. I think there's some value in doing exactly what they did.

There's the first selfie in there – these guys had the thought, "Yeah, let's shoot a picture in a mirror." That was amazing. The creativity and the discovery of what these subjects went through to create fascinating pictures is amazing. If I'd had my druthers, the film would have been three hours long.

EDGE: The runtime feels perfect – it's only an hour long, but it feels like an incredible journey. It's a rapturous experience.

David Millbern: I wanted the film to be a journey, and I think it moves. Not many people have seen the film yet, but so many friends and industry mentors of mine have said, "David, don't change a frame." And these are not necessarily all gay people, either. I mean many, many straight people have said to me, "My God, I didn't know this was even a thing –�that you had to have an umbrella, or be in a photo booth, or have allies take the picture."

EDGE: That's what Neal and Hugh said, too: It wasn't just gay people saying, "This is amazing!" Straight people also loved it.

David Millbern: It's just about love. If you can commit to real love with somebody else and take a picture of it when it's not cool to do that –�when you're risking everything – I think that really says something. It reaches beyond love, if you will. I've had straight women say, "David, I broke down crying three times!"

EDGE: There are other elements to the movie that fit in well with the photos –�the music, the quotations that appear throughout, the narration that reads aloud the inscriptions on the backs of some of the photographs. It all makes for an experience that feels very complete.

David Millbern: I thought the music was a really integral part of the experience, and we searched high and low for the right music to make it work. The same with the quotes: I wanted to infuse the film with not only a visual [element], but also great writers, great gay writers and how they were expressing their love. I did an exhaustive search of gay writers, coming up with the quotes that are in the film, because it's not only the visual, but it's also the spoken, or the written, word. I'm an actor; I wanted to read. I narrate what's on the back of the photographs. That was another way to [get] within the context, within the medium that was there in 1859. I wanted to extend that to the audience by reading what's on the back, and interpreting what I felt could be interpreted.

EDGE: Watching the film, it struck me what an amazing immersive experience it would be. Like the art shows they do when they project hi-res images of paintings on walls, and set music to the images – you're surrounded in the dark by amazing pictures.

David Millbern: I agree. For an art installation, I think that would be great. It's hard to bring an art installation to, you know, your living room. [It was important to me to keep] the authenticity of the [photographic] composer, and the composers are the people who are in the shots, right? They're the ones who said, "I want to sit on your lap," or, "We're going to do this, and this is going to be the shot."

One of my favorite pictures in the book – and we included it in the film – was the one of men on the back of a train car, and the guys are kind of leaning towards each other; their pinkies are touching, and in the film we zero right into that. It was the only thing that was touching. It's such a discovery to see the way that these loving couples were able to overcome [the prejudices of] their time, and show their love.

EDGE: Hugh and Neal do a great job of pointing out those tiny details that make it obvious the men in these photos are more than friends. Did you go over these details with them in advance of making the film?

David Millbern: I know that Hugh and Neal had their own take; I wanted to approach the film with fresh eyes. So, when I looked at the material and then I selected other photos, and I created the questions to stimulate the narrative, to get them to talk about their pictures, I wanted to make it my take, and to be inclusive of their take. I mean, they bring so much to film, and their answers to the questions were amazing, and that's why the film is so hard-hitting, but I wanted to be the fly on the wall, to be somebody who entered this collection from, maybe, a different place – and also the same place, because literally at eight years old I... [He raises the tintype of his great-great-great uncle] "Whoo! Who's that?!"

[Laugher]

EDGE: It's interesting how the film adds a new dimension to the images. It feels like you're drawing the images off the page and giving them something new.

David Millbern: Yeah, it's interesting, because when I look at the book, it's, "Oh, I got all this, and I got all this to get through, and I spent a little time here and maybe not so much time there." In a film, you can direct that eye; you've got your audience in the palm of your hand and you can call the shots as to what the experience is. I so appreciate you noticing that the film is a journey. We journey all the way up to the kiss – the most intimate of expressions.

I rarely look back at my work; even as an actor I rarely see my films that I've done for, like, five years. But I love this one so much that I go back to it. These couples are my friends, and Hugh and Neal say the same thing. They have pet names for each couple.

EDGE: I totally get that. There is kind of an atavistic feeling to watching the film. I mean, you have a tintype of your actual ancestors, but for the rest of us it's probably a new discovery: These are our gay forebears. Look at their joy, look at their commitment.

David Millbern: I think it's also to a call to action to find love in our own lives. These guys were strong enough and brave enough and expressive enough to show their love. These guys could do it back then. We're so free now, in some areas; we stand on their shoulders. I don't like the expression "pass the torch," because if you pass the torch you're in the dark, but lighting somebody else's spirit to find love, and to commit to love, and to commit to a photograph – I do believe it is called action.

EDGE: What are you working on next?

David Millbern: I'm still in my fourth season of "Girls' Voices Now," where we give cameras to underrepresented little girls 13 through 18, match them with female mentors, and they go off and they shoot their stories. I won the Emmy for our second season; I think our third season is even stronger.

EDGE: That's a fantastic accomplishment.

David Millbern: An LGBT network winning an Emmy for Best Short for children's programming! It shows the diversity of Here TV, and shows that we are, you know, "Same fight, same rights."

The third season, which is coming up, is about body shaming. These little girls are saying, "Oh my god, this is Kim Kardashian, this is the way she looks... how do I look?" And it's really... I mean, they're cutting themselves, they're contemplating suicide, and it's really an issue that is, you know,... [Sighs] Tough.

And then, on the commercial side, I'm writing a kickboxer film called "Big Rage. At Here TV, we feel that this is the next big journey. We don't make it a gay kickboxer film, but we've cast the number one kickboxer in the world, and he happens to be gay – and he happens to look like an underwear model.

[Laughter]

So he's the lead, but there's nothing [stereotypically] gay about him in the film; he's just an action star. To be able to provide images for our young people who don't have gay images, and [not to have to make it] about being gay, it's very, very powerful. I mean, they'll know he's gay; they'll research this film, and they'll say, "Hey, he's gay! He's gay in his real life, and he's the star of an action film!" So, I'm writing that now, and we go into production in October.

"100 Years of Men in Love: The Accidental Collection" premieres March 25 on Here TV.