Glatzer was born in Flushing, Queens. He grew up in Westbury, Long Island and Livingston, New Jersey, then gained a bachelor's degree in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and a PhD in English from the University of Virginia.
His entered the film world in the mid-1980s working under the tutelage of Jay and Lewis Allen. He worked on TV shows such as Divorce Court, The Osbournes, and America's Next Top Model. Glatzer's first independent film was Grief (1993), a comedy-drama focusing on a writer for a trashy daytime TV show who comes to grips with office politics, a co-worker crush and homophobia. It premiered at San Francisco's Frameline Festival where it won the Audience Award for Best Picture. It then went onto Toronto, where it was picked out by former LA Weekly critic Manhola Dargis as one of the festival highlights. It starred Craig Chester, Illeana Douglas, Alexis Arquette, Jackie Beat, Carlton Wilborn, and Lucy Gutteridge.
Credit Emily Berl for The New York Times
Richard Glatzer was an American writer and director. Glatzer married writer and director Wash Westmoreland, an independent film director, in September 2013. Glatzer and Washmoreland's first collaboration was The Fluffer, a look at obsession, addiction and power relationships in the gay porn industry. “It just hit us like a complete bombshell,” Wash Westmoreland said of the news that his husband had A.L.S. Their experience helped shape their last film “Still Alice,” winner of an Academy Award for Best Actress (Julianne Moore). On March 10, 2015, Glatzer died of complications from ALS.
Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland are a married writing and directing team based in Los Angeles, California who have made an eclectic set of independent movies. Their most recent film, Still Alice, with Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, and Kristen Stewart, premiered at Toronto 2014 and was considered the surprise hit of the festival. The movie was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics, who released the film in December 2014. Glatzer is living with ALS and some critics have suggested a connection between his own battle with illness and the raw, honest depiction of illness in the film.
Glatzer and Washmoreland's first collaboration was The Fluffer, a look at obsession, addiction and power relationships in the gay porn industry. It premiered at Berlin and Toronto Film Festivals in 2001 and secured US distribution from First Run Features. It received mixed positive reviews and gained almost instant cult status, John Waters including it in his famous series Ten Movies That Will Corrupt You. The film starred Michael Cunio, Roxanne Day, Scott Gurney, and Deborah Harry.
Based on a book written by Lisa Genova, Still Alice is a movie about a fifty year-old linguistics professor who develops early onset Alzheimer's disease. Glatzer and Washmoreland were hired to adapt the book in 2011 by UK-based producing duo Lex Lutzus and James Brown. Killer Films' Christine Vachon and Pam Koffler then came on as US production partners and Maria Shriver and Elizabeth Gelfand Stearns came on as executives and co-executive producers. Julianne Moore was Glatzer and Washmoreland's first choice to play Alice. She was soon joined by Kristen Stewart and Kate Bosworth, who had been a long time fan of the book. Alec Baldwin then came on to round out the cast, he and Moore's having worked together on the TV show 30 Rock.
Glatzer and Washmoreland changed the location for the film from Boston to New York and the university from Harvard to Columbia. Shooting took place over 23 days in March 2014.
The movie was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics, and released in December 2014. Glatzer is living with ALS and some critics have suggested a connection between his own battle with illness and the raw, honest depiction of illness in the film. Moore won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Glatzer
Wash Westmoreland was born Paul Westmoreland in Leeds, England on March 4, 1966. His father was a maintenance engineer for the CEGB and his mother worked as a receptionist at a local hair salon. He was named "Paul" after a member of the The Beatles but received the nickname "Wash" as a child. He finished high school intending to pursue science at university level, but after a short disruptive spell in a religious cult changed his direction to study social science. Westmoreland earned his college degree in Politics and East Asian Studies at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Fukuoka University in Japan, graduating in 1990. He emigrated to America in 1992, initially living in New York City, then moving to New Orleans and finally to Los Angeles in 1995.
After working as a camera assistant on Bruce LaBruce's movie Hustler White, Westmoreland decided to enter the Adult Entertainment world to try to research a feature film project The Fluffer. He managed to land a job directing for BIG Video, a minor label and directed under the name Wash West and started making movies that challenged the conventional norms of the industry. Toolbox and Dr Jerkoff and Mr Hard were his first significant films. Then, in 1997, he wrote and directed Naked Highway for BIG Video which swept both the 1997 Adult Erotic Gay Video Awards and the 1998 AVN Awards.
It was also during this time that Westmoreland started to make his presence in mainstream films felt. He appeared briefly in Velvet Goldmine by director Todd Haynes. Haynes would go on to work with Westmoreland as a producer on Quinceañera.
Westmoreland went on to direct the cat-and-mouse thriller Animus for All Worlds Video, which channeled the millennium fears of the time (1999) and featured performances from Blake Harper and Thomas Lloyd, who both won GayVN Awards for their work. Then he directed, The Devil is a Bottom which won the 2001 GayVN Award as Best Sex Comedy and was surprisingly listed as one of the LA Weekly Critic's Top Ten Movies of the year.
His work culminated in 2001 independent film The Fluffer, which was loosely based on many real events and characters. Around this time he gave a candid interview about his experiences in the industry to Terri Gross on NPR's Fresh Air. After this he only made two more adult movies; Seven Deadly Sins Gluttony for All Worlds Video, based on Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and a parody of the horror film The Ring called The Hole for Jet Set Productions. Westmoreland picked up many GayVN Awards for both titles.
Since the late 1990s, Wash Westmoreland has worked predominantly with his collaborator and husband Richard Glatzer, wiring and directing an eclectic set of independent movies. The two are based in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles California.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wash_West
Further Readings:
Still Alice
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Amazon: Still Alice
Alice Howland (Julianne Moore), happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a diagnosis of Early-Onset Alzheimer's disease, Alice and her family find their bonds thoroughly tested. Her struggle to stay connected to who she once was is frightening, heartbreaking, and inspiring. Also starring Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, and Hunter Parrish.
- Winner of an Academy Award for Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
- Winner of a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama (Julianne Moore)
- Winner of a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Julianne Moore)
- Winner of a SAG Award for Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
- Winner of a Critics Choice Award for Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
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