Dear Scott -
I just came from seeing "Mysterious Skin" and am blown away by the intelligence and depth of this film. Congratulations on bringing this story all the way to production and distribution. I'm grateful to you for persevering through the years to complete it and get it made so well. I saw it alone and cried in the grocery store wishing I had someone to discuss the film with, so here I am discussing it with you the original writer. The casting, acting and sets are laser. The story is real and true. It resonated and penetrated in a way that brought me closer to myself, nearer to those parts of me waiting to be gathered up off the battlefield, floating in a strange dark sea of solitude and not so mysterious, compensatory behaviors after-all. I feel confirmed by this story because I so strongly identified with Neil and Brian. It's almost as if these two characters are a composite picture of my undigested, compartmentalized self. There is so much hope for me here, faith that fractured human spirit can be awakened forward from a paralyzed, self-destructive, dissociative state into relatedness. I love how you illustrate what lies beneath, how it all makes sense and how essential it for a person to have at least one person who accepts them just as they are, and sees them clearly beyond the "pattern." This film makes a very strong case for things looking on the surface to be aberrant, as normal, proportionate and compensatory. It shows in a very compelling way what lies beneath Neil's compulsive prostitution and how it is a sensible container for what did not make sense then (this is me in real life). It shows how Brian's frozen dissociative, child-like innocence, and just out of reach memories haunt, but beckon patient dedication not to give up until he see the dark shadow and gains validation of his instinct that something really happened (this is also me in real life).
The one Freudian concept I am consistently facinated with is "repetition compulsion" the way traumatic and confusing experiences from childhood lock us into trance, but find a way to play out in our lives to show us what we are reacting to. It amazes me how the unconscious mind and physical body intelligently hold the memories for as long as it takes, but persistently try to push through and make themselves visible in our dreams and behaviors, signaling there is something important about to happen. Missing pieces that were never really missing, just temporarily occluded, disguised, find a way to show us what our unhealed wounds are. I have awakened screaming to an oncoming dark shadow for 33 years and have watched myself be both of these characters, knowing there is another self that is all of what they are, and something more.

Your website is awesome, the best I've ever read.
FYI: check out www.stephengilligan.com He's doing some amazing stuff.

Thank you for reading this - Best Regards,
Laura

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