Squeeze

Richard Turner made Squeeze to break the "conspiracy of silence" about homosexuality. A pioneering early portrait of Auckland's LGBT scene, Squeeze centres on the relationship between a young man (Paul Eady) and the confident executive (Robert Shannon) who romances him, then mentions he has a fiancée. The film was discussed in Parliament after Patricia Bartlett campaigned against the possibility it might get NZ Film Commission funding (it didn't). Kevin Thomas in The LA Times praised Squeeze's integrity and the "steadfast compassion with which it views its hero".

Squeeze was a significant movie for both New Zealand film-making and New Zealand gay life. The raw, urban, night-time docu-drama was about as far as one could get visually from other New Zealand movies of the era. The movie also depicted a gay subculture and its conflicts in the last years of its illegality – a representation of immense importance to its first audience who had never before seen versions of themselves or their lives on screen.

– David Herkt on website Public Address, 15 February 2014

Key Cast & Crew

Robert Shannon

As: Grant

Paul Eady

As: Paul

Richard Turner

Director, Producer, Writer

Yvette Parsons

As: Girl at Bus Stop

David Herkt

As: John

Faye Flegg

As: Kate