Rose By Any Other Name... is a 1997 American satiricalromantic comedy film written, produced, directed by and starring Kyle Schickner. The plot and title are loosely based on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the film is set in the US around the turn of the 21st century, gently poking fun at life, manners, morals as well as the tensions within the modern LGBT and liberal communities.
Plot
The story follows the main characters Rose, a comfortably lesbian woman, and Anthony, a decent progressive heterosexual man who serendipitously meet and then unexpectedly find themselves falling for each other. Rose has to navigate the reaction of her friends (they aren't thrilled) and her family (they are) while Anthony too has to deal with his friends who are equally nonplussed.
According to Schickner after production had gotten underway "at the 11th hour as they were setting up to shoot the pilot the network expressed concern over how the cutting-edge social theme might play with some of their core viewership and decided to look at more data to see what kind of response the show might get". So with the assistance of American Institute of Bisexuality the project was turned into a Web series with each Webisode being posted on the FenceSitter Films YouTube channel. Episodes 7–9 and 11 are no longer available on said channel due to a successful copyright claim.[5][6][7]
^Qarooni, Nawal (October 27, 2006). "Filmmaker repays debt to hometown – Shooting of Ally Sheedy movie now through December includes town residents as extras". The Star-Ledger.
^Szymanski, Michael (July 20, 1997). "MOVIES; Having It Both Ways; If you think there are more bisexuals in films, it's because there are". Los Angeles Times. p. 20. In his "Rose by Any Other Name," due in October, New Jersey filmmaker Kyle Schickner stars as a straight man baffled by the idea of dating a lesbian.
^Morris, Morris (July 22, 1998). "MOVIES; Zoom Lens; Bisexual Film Festival". SF Weekly. Archived from the original on June 10, 2011. Retrieved November 16, 2009. Saturday's double bill begins with a world premiere, Kyle Schickner's often hilarious indie Rose by Any Other Name ... (1997).
^"Rose By Any Other Name". Bi Magazine. November 9, 2009. The web series "Rose By Any Other Name..." is based on Kyle Schickner's first film by the same title. The series follows the main character – Rose – as she tries to come to terms with her feelings for Anthony.
^"Introducing Ourselves". Bi Films. June 15, 2008. Archived from the original on August 12, 2011. Now we have decided to update 'Rose By Any Other name . . .' to the present day and morph it into a weekly TV series, but while major studios are interested as usual they find my content is a little provocative. So we have started filming anyway and while the studios wrestle with the idea of romantic comedy where people meet, date and maybe even fall in love with each other regardless of gender, we will start broadcasting it on the web using FenceSitter Film's YouTube Channel.
^"Making our own TV". Bi Media. November 8, 2009. Manchester had Queer As Folk. The USA has The L Word – and there's talk of the BBC having set the cast for a UK equivalent… but it's all pretty much lesbian and gay television. It seems if we want bi telly, we are going to have to make our own.
