Circuit (film)
Encyclopedia
Circuit is a 2001 gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

-themed independent film
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...

 set in the world of gay circuit parties
Circuit party
A circuit party is a large dance event, extending through a night and into the following day, almost always with a number of affiliated events in the days leading up to and following the main event...

. Written by Dirk Shafer
Dirk Shafer
Dirk Alan Shafer is an American model, actor, screenwriter and director. He is most noted in the modeling world for being Playgirl magazine's "Man of the Year" for 1992. He did Playgirl for "validation" as a model because he never believed himself to be attractive...

 and Gregory Hinton and directed by Shafer, Circuit follows the lives of several people involved in the circuit party scene. Shot on digital video over a period of six months, Shafer was inspired by circuit party music in crafting the film. Circuit received mixed reviews, with reviewers finding the film too long and the performances of several of the lead actors weak.

Plot

The film opens with John (Jonathan Wade Drahos) regaining consciousness in a restroom stall at "The Red Party." He stares at himself in the mirror and flashes back to when he was a small-town cop from Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 who moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, hoping to find a more welcoming environment. He temporarily moves in with his cousin Tad (Daniel Kucan
Daniel Kucan
Daniel Charles Kucan is a carpenter, artist, interior designer, actor, and television personality on the Emmy Award-winning TV series Extreme Makeover: Home Edition....

), who is living with his suddenly ex-boyfriend Gill (Brian Lane Green
Brian Lane Green
Brian Lane Green is an American stage, film and television actor.Born in Columbus, Indiana, he is known for his recurring roles throughout the country as Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Mr...

) and Tad's new boyfriend Julian (Darryl Stephens
Darryl Stephens
Darryl Joseph Stephens is an American actor. He is best known for playing Noah Nicholson on the television dramedy Noah's Arc.-Early life:...

). Tad is a filmmaker, shooting a documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 on circuit parties
Circuit party
A circuit party is a large dance event, extending through a night and into the following day, almost always with a number of affiliated events in the days leading up to and following the main event...

 and Julian DJs at the parties. Gill takes John to a party in the Hollywood hills, where he meets Hector (Andre Khabbazi
Andre Khabbazi
Andre Khabbazi was born to Assyrian Iranian-American parents in 1975 in Sacramento, CA. Based in Los Angeles, California, he started his artistic career as an actor in several TV series and soap operas and later on starred in a 2001 movie titled Circuit along with Jonathan Wade-Drahos and Kiersten...

), a hustler who is battling mounting insecurities over his looks and age. John and Hector forge a friendship and Hector introduces John to the world of circuit parties and illicit drugs.

One of Tad's subjects is Bobby (Paul Lekakis
Paul Lekakis
Paul Lekakis is a Greek-American actor, model, filmmaker and club music / Hi-NRG singer, who was discovered for his musical and dancing skills at a nightclub while on assignment as a model in Italy.-Music career:...

), an exotic dancer
Stripper
A stripper is a professional erotic dancer who performs a contemporary form of striptease at strip club establishments, public exhibitions, and private engagements. Unlike in burlesque, the performer in the modern Americanized form of stripping minimizes the interaction of customer and dancer,...

 and model who performs at circuit parties (and with whom coincidentally John tricked at a party). Bobby is HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...

-positive but asymptomatic. Tad records Bobby's performance at a club. Also performing at the club, as a comedian
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...

, is Nina (Kiersten Warren
Kiersten Warren
Kiersten Nicolla Dale Warren is an American actress, best known for her role as Alex Tabor on Saved by the Bell: The College Years and as Nora Huntington on season 3 of Desperate Housewives.-Life and career:...

), who coincidentally is a friend of John's. She is living out of her car so John invites her and her cat to stay with him in his new trailer.

Tad shows his footage of Bobby to Gino (William Katt
William Katt
William Theodore Katt is an American film and television actor, best known as the star of The Greatest American Hero. He is also known for playing Tommy Ross, the ill-fated prom date of Carrie White in the film version of Carrie and Paul Drake Jr. in the Perry Mason TV movies...

), who is an investor, to secure the funding to finish the film. Gino is involved in a number of business ventures, including running circuit parties with his wife Louise (Nancy Allen
Nancy Allen (actress)
Nancy Anne Allen is a Golden Globe nominated American actress and cancer activist.Allen began an acting and modelling career as a child, and from the mid-1970s appeared in small film roles, most notably the anchor of Robert Zemeckis's ensemble comedy I Wanna Hold Your Hand...

), distributing drugs and buying viatical settlement
Viatical settlement
A viatical settlement is the sale of a life insurance policy by the policy owner before the policy matures. Such a sale, at a price discounted from the face amount of the policy but usually in excess of the premiums paid or current cash surrender value, provides the seller an immediate cash...

s, including Bobby's. Gino offers Tad half the money he needs. After viewing the footage Gino angrily confronts Bobby, who remarks that Gino gambled by buying his insurance policy and lost.

John follows Hector deeper into circuit scene, using a variety of drugs including Special K
Ketamine
Ketamine is a drug used in human and veterinary medicine. Its hydrochloride salt is sold as Ketanest, Ketaset, and Ketalar. Pharmacologically, ketamine is classified as an NMDA receptor antagonist...

, GHB
Gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid
γ-Hydroxybutyric acid , also known as 4-hydroxybutanoic acid and sodium oxybate when used for medicinal purposes, is a naturally occurring substance found in the central nervous system, wine, beef, small citrus fruits, and almost all animals in small amounts. It is also categorized as an illegal...

, cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

, crystal meth
Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine is a psychostimulant of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of psychoactive drugs...

 and, suffering from body dysmorphia
Body dysmorphic disorder
Body Dysmorphic Disorder is a type of mental illness, a somatoform disorder, wherein the affected person is exclusively concerned with body image, manifested as excessive concern about and preoccupation with a perceived defect of his or her physical features...

 despite being in terrific physical shape, anabolic steroids.

Gill has grown tired of Tad and Julian living with him and gives them a deadline for moving out. Initially he agrees to let them stay until after the White Party
White Party
The White Party is the name of a number of circuit parties held annually, catering to the LGBT communities. Its name comes from the requirement that party-goers dress in all or almost all white...

 so Julian can earn rent money and Tad can finish his film but then decides he wants them out sooner. Desperate, Tad returns to Gino for more financing. Gino refuses. Louise, growing more disgusted with Gino, later secretly gives Tad the money.

Gino becomes obsessed with Bobby and plans to kill him. He offers to pay Hector to sleep with Bobby and slip Bobby poisoned drugs.

John begins working security for Gino's parties (which is largely an excuse for his own partying). One such party is The Red Party, where John runs into a drag queen
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...

 who remembers him from his small town days. This reminder of his past nearly sends John over the edge, leading to the drug binge which lands him on the stall floor.

Gill and Nina realize John is in trouble but are not able to help him. John goes so far as to prostitute himself, joining Hector for a scene in which they have sex while a client watches
Voyeurism
In clinical psychology, voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other activity usually considered to be of a private nature....

. John, disgusted with himself, argues with Hector and refuses to take his cut of the fee. Eventually Nina moves out after John, in a drug-induced rage, attacks her cat. John tries to seduce Gill, who refuses him because of his heavy partying and drug abuse.

John reduces his partying and drug use and goes to Gill for a job with his landscaping
Landscaping
Landscaping refers to any activity that modifies the visible features of an area of land, including:# living elements, such as flora or fauna; or what is commonly referred to as gardening, the art and craft of growing plants with a goal of creating a beautiful environment within the landscape.#...

 business. He and Gill also pursue a romantic relationship, but John, having stopped his steroid use, can't perform sexually because his body feels "soft." He returns to Hector for more "juice."

It is the weekend of the annual Palm Springs
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...

 White Party. Gino has provided Hector, who has become more terrified about losing his youth and looks, with the poisoned drugs. Tad is going to the party to record the last footage he needs to complete his documentary, including Bobby's farewell performance. Julian is DJing. John is going to supervise security. He and Hector travel by limousine and they reconcile. After giving John his headphones to listen to a song, Hector confesses that he loves him. Gino and Louise are also at the party and amidst the chaos Louise leaves him.

After Bobby's farewell performance, Hector goes to his room and they have sex for most of the night. When they're spent, Bobby says to Hector, "you saved my life tonight." Hector replies, "More than you'll ever know" and ingests the poisoned drugs. He dies, on his 30th birthday.

The next morning, Bobby discovers that Hector is dead. John, on his way to find Hector, runs into Gino outside the room, who says how sorry he is about Bobby's death, but trails off when Bobby walks out of the room. John looks in and sees Hector's body. He realizes Gino is involved and starts to attacks him, then, shattered by grief, runs off weeping.

Six months later, John and Gill (still dating), Nina, Tad, Bobby, Louise and others gather for the premiere of Tad's documentary.

Cast

  • Jonathan Wade-Drahos
    Jonathan Wade-Drahos
    Jonathan Wade-Drahos is an American film and television actor who is most famous for his lead role as John Webster in Dirk Shafer's 2001 film Circuit...

     as John Webster
  • Andre Khabbazi
    Andre Khabbazi
    Andre Khabbazi was born to Assyrian Iranian-American parents in 1975 in Sacramento, CA. Based in Los Angeles, California, he started his artistic career as an actor in several TV series and soap operas and later on starred in a 2001 movie titled Circuit along with Jonathan Wade-Drahos and Kiersten...

     as Hector Ray
  • Brian Lane Green
    Brian Lane Green
    Brian Lane Green is an American stage, film and television actor.Born in Columbus, Indiana, he is known for his recurring roles throughout the country as Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Mr...

     as Gill
  • Kiersten Warren
    Kiersten Warren
    Kiersten Nicolla Dale Warren is an American actress, best known for her role as Alex Tabor on Saved by the Bell: The College Years and as Nora Huntington on season 3 of Desperate Housewives.-Life and career:...

     as Nina
  • Daniel Kucan
    Daniel Kucan
    Daniel Charles Kucan is a carpenter, artist, interior designer, actor, and television personality on the Emmy Award-winning TV series Extreme Makeover: Home Edition....

     as Tad
  • Jim J. Bullock as Mark
  • Darryl Stephens
    Darryl Stephens
    Darryl Joseph Stephens is an American actor. He is best known for playing Noah Nicholson on the television dramedy Noah's Arc.-Early life:...

     as Julian
  • Bruce Vilanch
    Bruce Vilanch
    Bruce Vilanch is an American comedy writer, songwriter and actor. He is a six-time Emmy Award-winner Vilanch is best known to the public for his four-year stint on Hollywood Squares, as a celebrity participant; in the entertainment industry he is best known as head writer for the show...

     as Theater Stage Manager
  • Randal Kleiser
    Randal Kleiser
    John Randal Kleiser is an American film director and producer, perhaps best known for directing the 1978 musical film Grease.-Life and career:...

     as Bobby's Doctor
  • Paul Lekakis
    Paul Lekakis
    Paul Lekakis is a Greek-American actor, model, filmmaker and club music / Hi-NRG singer, who was discovered for his musical and dancing skills at a nightclub while on assignment as a model in Italy.-Music career:...

     as Bobby Ross
  • William Katt
    William Katt
    William Theodore Katt is an American film and television actor, best known as the star of The Greatest American Hero. He is also known for playing Tommy Ross, the ill-fated prom date of Carrie White in the film version of Carrie and Paul Drake Jr. in the Perry Mason TV movies...

     as Gino
  • Nancy Allen
    Nancy Allen
    Nancy Allen may refer to:* Nancy Allen * Nancy Allen -See also:* Nancy Allan , Manitoban politician...

     as Louise
  • Stanton Schnepp as Andy French
  • Michael Bailey Smith
    Michael Bailey Smith
    Michael Bailey Smith is an American movie and television actor. He is best known for his appearances on the hit television series Charmed, where he played Belthazor, The Source of All Evil, a Grimlock leader and Shax.-Early life:...

     as Mike
  • Brian Beacock
    Brian Beacock
    Brian Keith Beacock is an American television and film actor and a voice actor in anime and video games...

     as Suspect / Drag Queen
  • Michael Keenan
    Michael Keenan
    Michael Fayat Keenan , Australian politician, was elected to the House of Representatives as member for the Division of Stirling, Western Australia for the Liberal Party of Australia at the 2004 federal election. He was educated at Murdoch University, Perth, the Australian National University, and...

     as Police Captain
  • Santo Ragno as Man-ette
  • Bill Leyton as Drag Comic
  • Stephanie Swift as Blue Party Diva (credited as China Cat)
  • Jeremy Hirst as Blue Party Diva Backup

Production

Circuit was filmed over a six month period in digital video. Shafer, who was not part of the circuit party scene but who did some "experimenting" as research for the film, used circuit party music to guide him in shaping the film. "I picked out what I liked for this or that sequence, and pictured scenes to certain music." Shafer based the character of Hector on a real person who, obsessed with growing older and his looks, killed himself on his 30th birthday. To represent visually this obsession with youth and beauty, Shafer shot each character reflected in a mirror. "That was a subtext in the movie. The characters are obsessed with their images/mirrors." The film is narratively structured in 3/4 flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...

, which Shafer describes as his "homage to Funny Girl
Funny Girl (film)
Funny Girl is a 1968 romantic musical film directed by William Wyler. The screenplay by Isobel Lennart was adapted from her book for the stage musical of the same title...

."

Critical response

Critical reaction to Circuit was sharply divided, skewing to the negative. Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

, while finding that the film is "unafraid to display the circuit's depressingly aimless hedonism and its seductive power for lonely bachelors" and suggesting that it would be of "immense interest in the gay [film] fest community", also found that its "sclerotic pacing and excessive length undermine its social ambitions". Boxoffice
Boxoffice (magazine)
Boxoffice is a film industry magazine dedicated to the movie theatre business published by Boxoffice Media LP. It started in 1920 as The Reel Journal, taking its current name in 1931 and still publishes today, with an intended audience of theatre owners and film professionals.Boxoffice is the...

magazine concurred in these assessments, noting that director Shafer "is unflinching in his exploration of the dark side of this particular niche of gay life, yet he manages to make it clear that it is indeed just a niche." The acting by the leads is described as "stilted" although work by supporting cast members including Allen and Katt is praised. Overall, "the film itself is about something very interesting and odd that would probably work better as a real documentary without the insinuation of mediocre acting or a fairly trite narrative."

Conversely, the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

gave the film a positive review, saying it "succeeds as a well-made evocation of a subculture, though director Dirk Shafer's uncontainable enthusiasm for the world he's exposing blunts his movie's edge". Although calling some of the sequences "banal" and "boring", the Chronicle praises Drahos and Khabbazi's acting and states that "here and there something happens that's jaw dropping". The New York Times suggests that Shafer covers and updates the territory explored by Larry Kramer
Larry Kramer
Larry Kramer is an American playwright, author, public health advocate, and LGBT rights activist. He began his career rewriting scripts while working for Columbia Pictures, which led him to London where he worked with United Artists. There he wrote the screenplay for Women in Love in 1969, earning...

 in his 1978 novel Faggots
Faggots (novel)
Faggots is a novel by Larry Kramer, published in 1978.It is a portrayal of 1970's New York's most visible gay community in a time before AIDS.The novel's gay culture is one of nameless sex and recreational drugs.-Reception:...

. The Times finds that although the film would benefit from editing and some of the acting is awkward, "there is a real subject here, and it is handled with intelligence and care".

Circuit won the 2001 Coachella Valley Festival of Festivals Award for Best Film, Underground/Alternative Collection. The film was nominated for the 2002 Political Film Society Award for Exposé
Political Film Society Award for Exposé
The Political Film Society Award for exposé is given out each year to a film that has an investigative depth into a subject matter and often exposes surprising information on the subject. This award has been handed out by the Society since 1988...

.

Awards and nominations

  • In 2001, won "Best Film Award" at Coachella Valley Festival of Festivals
  • In 2003, nominated for "PFS Award" by Political Film Society, USA

DVD release

Circuit was released on Region 1 DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 on December 31, 2002. The DVD features a "director's cut" with approximately ten minutes of additional footage along with a commentary track by Shafer.

Soundtrack

Track listing:
  1. Ready Set Go - Kevin Aviance
    Kevin Aviance
    Kevin Aviance is an American female impressionist, Club/Dance musician, and fashion designer and nightclub personality. He is a very popular personality in New York City's gay scene and has performed throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He is a member of the House of Aviance, a local gay...

  2. Rising - Elle Patrice
  3. How Many - Taylor Dayne
    Taylor Dayne
    Taylor Dayne was born Leslie Wunderman on March 7, 1962 before later adopting her current stage name. She is an American pop vocalist, songwriter, and dance artist. Overall, she has had eighteen individual hit songs reach the top ten in Billboard magazine...

  4. Seven Cities - Solar Stone
  5. Follow Me - Tony Moran
    Tony Moran
    Anthony "Tony" Moran is a remixer/producer and DJ known for remixing popular songs. In 2007, he hit number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart with "Walk Away" featuring Kristine W.-Career:...

  6. White Rabbit - Audra Hardt
  7. Love Divine - Ron Perkov
  8. Can U Feel It - MarQus
  9. Emotions - Elle Patrice
  10. Assume The Position - Paul Lekakis
  11. Circuit - China Cat
  12. Menage - ATO
  13. Jazzy Groove - ATO
  14. Love In The Shadows - Toni Ann Martinez
  15. Let The Music Fill Your Soul - Tony Moran
  16. Been To the Mountain - Francesca
  17. Suddenly You - Ryan Andrews
  18. Wait - Lonnie Gordon
    Lonnie Gordon
    Lonnie Gordon is a female Hi-NRG, house and soul singer-songwriter from New York's Bronx, who has scored many chart hits during the 1990s and 2000s.-Early life and career:...

  19. High - Lighthouse
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