Together Alone is a 1991 drama film

Drama film

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 written and directed by P.J. Castellaneta.

Plot

Bryan meets a man called Bill in a bar. They go back to Bryan's home and have unprotected sex. Later, they wake up and talk. Bryan discovers that Bill's real name is Brian, and that he is bisexual. They spend hours talking, covering topics including AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

, sexuality

Human sexuality

Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...

, feminism

Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

, role-play and Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...

.

Production

P.J. Castellaneta directed, wrote, produced, edited and even catered Together Alone. It was made on a budget of $7,000 and shot on 16mm black-and-white

Black-and-white

Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...

 film. It was filmed over weekends and evenings in Castellaneta's own apartment.

Reception

In 1991, the film won the audience award at the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. The following year it won the Teddy Award

Teddy Award

The Teddy Award is an international film award for films with LGBT topics, presented by an independent jury as an official award of the Berlin International Film Festival . Here, an "independent jury" implies that its members are not officially selected by the committee of the Berlinale...

 for Best Feature Film and the Best Art House Film award at the Berlin International Film Festival

Berlin International Film Festival

The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...

 and the award for Best Feature Film at the Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. Writing for The Austin Chronicle, Marjorie Barmgauten called the film "forthright and artistically accomplished". In his book Bisexual Characters in Film, Wayne M. Bryant said that with the character of Brian, Castellaneta "manages to reinforce every existing negative stereotype about bisexual men".