“Grant has two loves in his life - his fiancee and his boyfriend. SQUEEZE is a disturbing, controversial and revealing story of relationships between homosexuals.” - New Zealand Film Commission; www.nzfilm.co.nz/film/squeeze; 30/01/2014.
A story about life around the gay bars and clubs of Auckland. Grant is a young executive who pursues secret affairs with men under the illusion that when he marries Joy, all will change and he’ll settle down. He is thrown into a dilemma when he meets Paul.
“It’s a sensitive and engaging story about the (predominantly male) gay bars and clubs of Auckland, using a television- drama format to bring out the social problems faced by various members of the urban gay community [...] Like most New Zealand films I’ve seen, SQUEEZE makes exciting and imaginative use of colour: and the film is worth seeing just for the evocation of the streetlife of Auckland. The photography is by Ian Paul; and there is an excellent score by Morton Wilson and Andy Hagan”. - Meaghan Morris, “Imaginative, colourful portrayal of gay life”, Sydney Morning Herald, April 10, 1981.
“SQUEEZE was the first local drama to look seriously at the gay pub and club scene. A campaign by Patricia Bartlett successfully prevented the film from obtaining any Film Commission money by persuading the government to add a new clause to the Commission’s legislation requiring it to take account of ‘public decency’. ” - Roger Horrocks, ‘Film in Aotearoa New Zealand’, Victoria University Press, 1996, pg.78