Joseph Moser
What is healthy masculinity? Montpelier director Chad Ervin wants Vermonters to confront this challenging question. While many documentaries about social issues aim to start conversations, Ervin hopes his new film, “Gone Guys,” will both spark dialogue and help Vermonters find solutions to complex problems. To enable communities to have difficult discussions about issues such as isolation and aimlessness facing boys and men, Ervin and his team are bringing free screenings of “Gone Guys” to cities and towns around Vermont. The director will present the film at the Savoy Theater in Montpelier on Aug. 7 and 8.
Using the research of acclaimed author and social commentator Richard Reeves as a touchstone, “Gone Guys” argues that a “quiet crisis” is affecting boys and men in Vermont communities. To make this case, Ervin’s film uses engaging animations of graphs to present striking data about boys’ lagging educational attainment and men’s declining mental health. The film urges viewers to avoid blaming males and instead consider how schools and other support systems can better serve boys and men. As Ervin says, “It’s a pretty fast transition for men to change social roles over the past 50 years, after millennia of human history of playing a very different role.”
While acknowledging that this crisis is manifesting throughout the country and in all advanced nations, the 45-minute documentary maintains a focus on Vermont. As Ervin says, “Rural areas are especially affected by these issues” of mental health problems and educational struggles among males. Considering that Vermont is a predominantly rural state, it is a crucial place to investigate these issues and consider solutions that could work on a national scale.
Ervin emphasizes that while the film integrates data, his team sought to avoid making a documentary centered on academics describing trends. “We knew that we needed to have people invested in and dependent on Vermont communities tell their own stories.” Therefore, Ervin wanted the people that his team interviewed to be able to speak for themselves.
“A key principle of the film is having boys and men be experts on their own experiences,” he says.
In keeping with this approach, the documentary foregrounds individual testimonies and group discussions, which take place in classrooms and community centers as well as at worksites and in outdoor recreation areas, reflecting how men often communicate their thoughts and feelings “shoulder to shoulder” rather than “face to face.” The group discussions in the film “are models of the kinds of authentic interactions and conversations we want to inspire” among “guys of different ages,” according to Ervin. Interviewees in the film include high school and college students and workers, professionals, and fathers of various ages.
For director Ervin, “Gone Guys” marks a turning point. After a successful, decades-long career as an editor of documentaries, including many for the PBS series “Frontline,” Ervin has begun a new chapter in his career. His work editing the award-winning 2023 documentary “Join or Die,” which focuses on the national decline in civic engagement, proved to be a transformative experience.
“It crystallized for me the kind of film I want to make for the rest of my career,” he says. “I liked the historical films I worked on also, but [community life] is my area.”
Ervin foresees two phases for the exhibition of “Gone Guys.” In the first phase, he and his creative team are presenting the film in Vermont cities and towns in collaboration with community partners. Each screening will be accompanied by a panel discussion, which will feature one of the filmmakers and local residents who are engaged with issues affecting boys and men. All these events will be free “to make the film as accessible as possible” and to strive for “an authentic community event like Town Meeting Day.” The plan is for these screenings to extend through the summer and fall. After that, according to Ervin, the next phase is for communities to host their own screenings to continue the conversations and help them develop their own solutions. Ultimately, the film and its accompanying website will be resources for community deliberation and action.
Attesting to the collaborative nature of filmmaking, Ervin enthusiastically credits his partners on the project, including producer Angela Snow, directors of photography Spencer Chumbley and Myles David Jewell, animator Mark Lopez, and the funders of the documentary, the Tarrant Foundation and the Vermont Community Foundation. “It has been a privilege as a filmmaker to have all their support during this process,” says the director.
Although Ervin is remarkably upbeat about the potential for positive change on the issues addressed in “Gone Guys,” he believes that urgent action is needed. “On an everyday basis, we all need to be less afraid to wade into these difficult but essential conversations,” he says. “If we’re not going to step up and talk about these problems, then we’re ceding the ground to others,” including commentators on the internet and elsewhere who don’t have the best interests of boys and men at heart. “We can make progress on these issues,” says Ervin. “The evolution of fatherhood in the younger generations is a great example of that.”
Tickets for all Vermont community screenings of “Gone Guys” are free but must be reserved in advance. For more information, visit goneguysfilm.com.
