However, things are not quite what they seem—which come to a head when elder daugher Madeline ( on an outing with some high-school classmates ) sees her father and Gibbs at the Atlantic House gay dance club in the area of Provincetown.

Windy City Times talked with American Primitive co-writer/director Gwen Wynne about the film, which contains many elements from her own life.

Windy City Times: Tell me a little about your background.

Gwen Wynne: I started out as a theater director. My first job out of college was at Circle in the Square; I would look for new plays for the theatre, and it was at a really heady time for Broadway. I had an experience where Jelly's Last Jam was being performed in front of 10 people, and they brought in Gregory Hines to basically do a quasi-reading/dance piece. In the '80s, I was meeting these incredible performers.

Then I started my own theater company in Washington, D.C. I went there because it's a little easier to live; you can start a company on a smaller amount of money. I got a lot of support from the National Endowment of the Arts. So I did rap musicals and forgotten plays from Tennessee Williams [ as well as ] new plays.

My mission has always been to do more socially conscious work; I think I was influenced by my professors at Brown [ University ] . It was at the tail end of the '70s when we were exposed to Marxist [ laughs ] thought—doing entertainment that makes a difference. I like to do things that help change minds.

WCT: The first thing I noticed in the film was this incredible cast—Tate Donovan, Adam Pascal, Stacey Dash and James B. Sikking, among others. Usually, with "smaller" films you don't see casts of this caliber. How were fortunate enough to get these people?

GWEN WYNNE: It took about two years to cast the film. I had a wonderful casting director, and my script was what inspired actors to want to be in the film. There was actually more to the script than what was filmed; there were also scenes that dealt with Harry's and Gibbs' friends, who were appalled that he went off with a married man with kids, and Gibbs confiding that the relationship wasn't working so well. There's was a lot more but I had to cut it because of budget [ constraints ] .

But, it was the script that the cast was drawn to. Actors aren't always worried about a first-time director, and I was able to convince them—or I think I did [ laughs ] —to trust me.

WCT: It must've been interesting doing the research and making sure you had all the details down.

GWEN WYNNE: Yes. Most of my design team were young adults at that time, so I actually made sure that the people in charge of the visuals had really lived that era. Of course, we also did a lot of research because you don't remember anything. [ Both laugh. ]

The other blessing, which was unexpected, was that when we were on Cape Cod we had access to troves of antiques from other eras, even before the '70s, that were in people's attics. So we were able to create this whole air of authenticity; it was beautiful. We completely redid the house; we furnished all of that. ... The art director and production designer are really talented.

WCT: What was it like filming the club scene?

GWEN WYNNE: I had been imagining that for years and years. I wanted to make it very Felliniesque. I used some dramatic license.

I was inspired by the Cockettes [ a legendary drag-queen troupe ] . Are you familiar with the Cockettes? [ WCT: Yes. ] It really was an amalgamation of doing research on underground clubs. I didn't want to do a cliched disco. Also, [ production designer ] John de Meo was a big influence on me; he had gone to these underground clubs. I wanted to create a place that was really wild.

WCT: Mission accomplished.

GWEN WYNNE: [ Laughs ] And I wanted to pay homage to what the Cockettes were doing and what was going on in San Francisco at the time as well as underground clubs on the East Coast. The underground clubs were also pretty multiracial. The dancers were great. It was a bit crazy—and exciting.

WCT: Your movie provides plenty of insight about how gays were viewed at that time. I remember that one of the daughters suggested cold-shower aversion therapy [ to help "cure" homosexuality ] .

GWEN WYNNE: Well, you were in a prison, basically. Harry was born in England, and you were put in prison for being homosexual, or you could be blackmailed. [ Homosexuality ] was also considered a mental disorder, and psychiatry had methods to "change" the person, like electroshock therapy. It's really sad that it was considered a mental disorder. It was in 1973 it was no longer considered a disorder.

WCT: Another interesting aspect was that the possibility of an interracial heterosexual romance [ between Donovan and Dash ] was broached. Was Cape Cod that enlightened about race but not homosexuality in 1973?

GWEN WYNNE: Aha! Well, it's interesting.

Cape Cod is a long strip of land shaped like an arm bent at the elbow. The tip of Cape Cod has become this gay mecca but it was a [ haven ] for artists. People who went there in the early 1900s were of all persuasions; you add Eugene O'Neill [ and ] Tennessee Williams. Historically, Provincetown was a place for pirates, and this is where the outlaws would congregate. Cape Cod was probably one of the more diverse regions in the country in the 19th century because the Underground Railroad went through it. Black people and American Indians lived on the cape.

I wanted to deal with class and race on the cape; Joy [ Dash's character ] is an educated woman who went to Smith and is a journalist. Even in [ the movie ] Jaws, the newspaper reporter there is Black—and that was shot in '73.

WCT: At the end of the film, it says, "In loving memory of Mr. Phipps and Dad."

GWEN WYNNE: Well, that's my dad—and Mr. Phipps was the inspiration for Mr. Gibbs. [ Note: Wynne's father and his partner, a maker of American primitive furniture named Fred Phipps, lived together in New Jersey after Wynne's mother passed away. ] So I created a story around what happened; I wanted to tell a story from a girl's point of view. So you could say that it's told from my point of view. Phipps died in 1984 and my father died in 2000.

WCT: What do you think your father would've thought of the film?

GWEN WYNNE: I've thought about that. I've had nightmares! [ Laughs ] I had this nightmare where I was getting my whole family ready to see the movie, and I was terrified. That's my nightmare.

My father never came out to his own parents, but my mother's parents figured it out and were very upset about it. That created a lot of conflict.

My dad was a deeply private person. I think he would've been proud at the end of the day, but I think it would be hard for him to interact with audiences after it was screened. In other words, he would stay anonymous. I think his friends would've really been supportive of the film and helped him get through it. [ Laughs ]

My father was an amazing writer; he was a cub reporter with Carl Bernstein. He wanted me to be a filmmaker. He gave me my first Super 8 [ camera ] .

WCT: What should viewers take away from this movie?

GWEN WYNNE: That's a great question. [ I'd like people to learn ] that you can have a normal family life with gay parents. Ultimately, the big debate [ in the movie ] is that children growing up in gay households are kinda weird. But you can definitely have a normal family life.

American Primitive will be shown at the Landmark's Century Centre Cinema, 2828 N. Clark, on Sunday, Nov. 8, at 7:30 p.m. See www.reelingfilmfestival.org .