Red Lodge, like many films set at Christmas, starts with the main characters travelling to their holiday destination – in this case, the mountain resort town of Red Lodge, Montana. Dave and Jordan, a gay couple, stop off at a train station.  While there, a marriage proposal is given...with a silver cockring as the engagement ring. The story of how they met is then told in flashbacks while they deal with family, Christmas, and the question of marriage. It’s a small, intimate film as the couple discuss their relationship and just what they want out of it.

I asked writer/director Dan Steadman where the idea for this story came from. "I always wanted there to be a Christmas film with gay themed characters at the forefront." Dan loves films like Home for the Holidays and The Family Stone. These films had gay supporting characters; he felt there was a story waiting to be told where the gay couple take center stage during Christmas. This inspiration came to him when he was in living Billings, Montana. It’s a small city, so therefore his social life was curtailed and he started watching a lot of films online.

"I was disappointed in the state of Gay cinema. I looked at it as, I have this beautiful location...I love movies set at Christmas time, I love movies that are shot in real snow...I just thought What would I want to see every year? I thought I would like to see a Christmas film that I can pull out once a year...I love the holidays and I wanted a tale that I would want to watch."

Montana is a little more conservative and Caucasian than what you would expect in places like Los Angeles or New York City, yet there are pockets of openness and acceptance in some cities like Red Lodge. To a certain degree Dan admits he created a Montana which was slightly idealized in that there was no reaction to there being a gay bi-racial couple. Much like the couple’s sexuality, it is not the huge issue in this film, Red Lodge doesn’t discuss race.

"I don’t think...we live in a post-racial world, but I think for me that’s not of interest in my film." He doesn’t think every characteristic of each role has to be drawn out and pointed at, especially since this is just a film about a couple. "This movie is just about passive aggressive tension that happens at a difficult time – the holidays, the one time you don’t want to be fighting."

The reason why the "big issues" are not covered in this film is because Dan is influenced by shows like Friday Night Lights, movies like Parenthood, and the films of Woody Allen; tales illustrating everyday life. "The minutiae of life is the drama that I’m interested in telling. So some big blowup about gay marriage, some big blowup about interracial dating – that wouldn’t be interesting to me because I’ve seen it a million times."

Also a lot of these "big issue" gay films are tragedies – often with death hovering over the movie. While this big film drama has its place, Dan is just as touched by movies examining everyday conflicts – by way of example he mentioned The Kids are Alright. He was thrilled this film showed a relationship where the focus wasn’t about the sexual orientation of the characters. It was just about an affair and how it forced the couple to talk to each other.

Red Lodge is really just about asking the question: Is person you love the person you really want to marry? The film makes a quieter argument for the realities of marriage. "Dating is all about the performance. Putting your best foot forward and trying to be everything you think the other person wants you to be. That’s what makes dating so terrifying...I think the people who are happiest in their relationship have just found a comfort level with each other." And for once, seeing it portrayed by a gay couple makes it the perfect Christmas film for our family.