Film captures intensely personal story

“It’s a story that I feel like I needed to tell,” he says during a recent interview. “It’s taken about seven years, but it’s finally all together.”

Fox will screen his documentary “The Skin I’m In” at the Southwest Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. This will be the first time the film has screened at a gay or lesbian film festival.

“The Skin I’m In” has screened in Australia, Korea, New Zealand as well as the Arizona International Film Festival, Honolulu Film Awards and the Park City Music Film Festival, where it picked up awards.

Fox says his accident in 2005 inspired the film. He was visiting Berlin and was found unconscious on the subway tracks with his head split open and a blood alcohol level of 0.47. Strangers pulled him to safety, giving him a second chance at life.

“It’s a documentary about a son, Eagle Scout, valedictorian, professor, filmmaker, club kid, drag queen, hustler and alcoholic,” he explains. “I also am searching for self and spirit through the transformative ritual of tattooing.”

	‘The Skin I’m In  WHEN: 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30 WHERE: Southwest Film Center, UNM campus HOW MUCH: $10 at the door

In the film, Fox also confronts spirituality as well as his sexuality.

“The hardest part of the film was showing it to my parents,” he explains. “They knew that I had a dark moment in my life and they knew that I was gay. But this was the first project that included family members talking about me and my situation.”

Over the course of seven years, Fox amassed 100 hours of footage and worked diligently to get it down to 86 minutes.

“I think I’m a pretty good editor, and I edit documentaries on the side,” he says. “I had to put my ego aside and just try to portray myself as honest as I could.”

Fox says he hopes that the film will spark a conversation on what’s it’s like to grow up different.

“I’ve screened it at various film festivals and for students and am surprised at the mature conversations that have (been) had,” he says. “It’s been a journey for me and this film, and I know that a lot of people have felt like this.”