By Hook or By Crook (2001) is an unblinking portrayal of gender non-confirming life made by two transmasculine butches lovingly grounded in the streets of San Francisco. It follows Shy (Silas Howard) as he hitchhikes his way to the city from a small town in Kansas after his father’s death. Shortly after arriving in San Francisco, he stumbles into the magnetic Valentine (Harry Dodge), another transmasculine butch searching for his birth mother, while he’s getting beaten up by a drunk cis man. After Shy steps in to rescue him, Valentine insists they get a late night meal together, sparking a friendship built on petty crime and laughter.
Shot on handheld mini-DV due to financial restraints, the film captures San Francisco's counterculture in all its crunchy glory. During the ‘90s, Howard & Dodge founded Red Dora’s Bearded Lady Café & Truckstop. Staple figures of the Bay Area queer scene like Kathy Acker and Alison Bechdel regularly performed at Red Dora’s; the community that grew around it became an essential foundation for the film's production. By Hook or By Crook is riddled with San Francisco landmarks that are now long gone: Shy and Valentine goof off together over shots and cigarettes at The Lexington Club, one of the city’s few lesbian bars, which sadly shuttered its doors in 2015. A young Cash Askew, once a beloved figure in the Bay Area’s music scene who tragically lost her life during the 2016 Ghost Ship fire, can be seen portraying a young Shy playing with his father on home video. Askew’s stepfather managed The Lexington Club for years, and when she was little she would sit with him and the bar’s clientele. Watching her now, tiny and alive, juxtaposed against queer spaces that no longer exist makes the film feel like both a mausoleum and a miracle.
A playfully intimate scene takes place on a rooftop, where Shy and Valentine play with a toy gun, smoke, scheme, and simply exist with one another. It’s a rare act of respite for queer people whose bodies are constantly being watched. Security footage peppers throughout the film, commenting on the surveillance that queer people endure daily. Pedestrians frequently stare at our ragtag protagonists as they run around the city, occasionally asking about their gender. Valentine reveals that he was institutionalized growing up, in large part for only wearing boy’s clothes. His fear of re-institutionalization lurks in the background of the film, but Shy and Valentine don’t let that fear win. They carve out a world for themselves where being watched doesn’t mean getting caught and in which joy is the means of survival.
By Hook or By Crook screens this evening, June 12, and throughout next week at Anthology Film Archives. Directors/stars Harry Dodge & Silas Howard, as well as producer Steak House, will be in attendance for Q&As tonight and tomorrow.
