Overcome with excitement, JACOB POWELL shares his quest for the ever-elusive, seldom-seen Beaver Trilogy.


The Beaver Trilogy is a little known piece of cinema made up of three segments first filmed between 1979 and 1985, and then pulled together by filmmaker Trent Harris in 2000. This obscure wee gem screened at the 33rd Auckland International Film Festival a year later. I stumbled into it with my film buddy Nige one morning. We were both completely enthralled. We hadn’t seen anything like it – nor have we subsequently – and since that day have not met another person who has seen it.

Needless to say, I HAD to see the film again and get my hands on a copy. So I have waited faithfully, since July 2001, for the film to be released by some small distributor in the States somewhere – but it never happened! I scoured the interweb every 6 months or so in vain.

Finally, after another fruitless search, on February 17th, 2006 I changed tack and decided to try and contact the director, Trent Harris. Previously, I had already found his website and realised a very small streaming version of Beaver could be found online. A quick search unearthed his personal email address. I sent an email pleading for him to send me a copy of the film on DVD with some heartfelt nonsense about being someone who got more out of it than most (well, I still feel that sentiment is not altogether untrue):

“Something about your film really struck me. Perhaps it was the naive awkwardness of “Groovin’ Gary”. I have a love/hate affair with awkwardness. I’m drawn to it but at the same time feel it acutely – in real life as well as onscreen. There are times in movies when I almost can’t look at the screen but I have to. But I’m getting off track and a little too autobiographical. The Beaver Trilogy stands in my mind (and of the friend I saw it with) as one of the best cinema viewing experiences I have had...

In short I guess I’m trying to say that I would really love to be able to get hold of a copy of the film on DVD but, for the life of me, I can’t find that it has been released. Would there be any chance of getting a copy of this film. I would greatly appreciate it; take loving care of it, and hopefully share your work with a few appreciative individuals...

I feel like there are relatively few people in the world (maybe in the 1000s – perhaps less) who truly appreciate this work as I do and this is what has prompted me to contact you...”

He got back to me saying that he was grateful for my ardent interest and that he had a few VHS festival screener copies kicking about if I wanted one. At which point I emailed back to let him know that I would kill for one even though I don’t have a properly functioning video player let alone one that plays NTSC videos. He got back and said:

“Or... if you wait until April I may have a few DVDs made.”

I decided on the DVD option with a proviso that if it didn’t happen then I still wanted one of the VHS screeners. Anyway. I setup a reminder on my work Outlook calendar for the 3rd of April, and when the date rolled round I flicked him a highly anticipated (by myself) email – such a geek, and an OCD one at that! A week later I had his response:

“Hello Jacob,

It is finally available. $30 would include shipping to New Zealand.”

I was so excited. I borrowed my flatmate’s credit card and jumped on PayPal and sorted the deal out pronto. The whole thing still seemed a little unreal though. Then, the Saturday following Easter, I saw a package in the mail box as we were driving out to sing at a friend’s wedding. It was here. I have been like a happy mad thing ever since. I have only watched it three times so far. Firstly by myself about 1am Sunday morning, post wedding festivities.

Next viewing was in the wee hours of Monday morning. By some fortuitous turn of events Nige (see above) happened to be in town from Queenstown for his sister’s 21st. I caught up with him and his sister and another friend to do my second viewing with my original comrade-in-celluloid-arms. We were both frothing like manically insane things by the time we finished watching at 3:30am and then had a download at my car for 45mins before I drove home. Needless to say, several bouts of strong caffeine pre-empted my return to work a few hours later.

My third viewing was on Monday night. Well actually, I only got to see the first instalment of the trilogy before I had to run. I watched it with my wife and flatmates – not sure that it was quite their thing, but at least they didn’t hate it; indeed, it may have caused problems with our living arrangements.

So there you have it. I have probably the only existing copy of The Beaver Trilogy on DVD in NZ, and probably one of few in the world. It has no barcode, no technical details, and looks like the DVD cover art and DVD menu was put together by my 700year-old grandfather-in-law who is ‘somewhat technically minded and likes to potter on the computer’. In short it’s utterly brilliant. I currently love the world and am still a firm believer in “ask, and you may receive...”


UNINTENTIONAL voyeurism – this is how it felt watching The Beaver Trilogy. I loved it. It was hilarious. But it felt like I was getting a sneak peek into person's psyche, and then laughing as it got twisted around to make an interesting point. My friend put it this way:

"I feel like we broke into someone’s house and watched their awful home video confessions.”

Another one of those ‘truth is stranger than fiction’ pieces of film, the trilogy begins with "Groovin' Gary", the original Beaver Kid, a small town guy who turns up at a nearby TV station in the hope of getting on film. He certainly does, though not, perhaps, as he initially expected. With high hopes of fame and importance, he invites Trent Harris to film a truly awful talent quest that he has organised in his home town, headlined by his own drag act "Olivia Newton-Dawn".

Director Harris does a brilliant job with this slowly evolving story. Footage of an awkward kid who just wants to be someone morphs, over two subsequent reinterpretations, into a story of liberation from repressed sexual identity in small town America. Harris simultaneously critiques the attitudes of small town America, the cult of celebrity, the exploitative practices of the film and television industry, and the voyeuristic superiority of an audience who watch and laugh.

Both Sean Penn and Crispin Glover pull off stunning performances. A young Sean Penn is evocative; so closely does he follow the actual 'Gary footage' (The Beaver Kid 2), with strong nuances given to push the sense of interaction the way Harris wants it to go. Undiscovered Crispin Glover captures best the essential awkwardness of Gary (The Orkly Kid), whilst the film moves further away from Harris' original documentary footage.

In the end, the wide-eyed naivety of the real Gary was what moved me most when contrasted against the subsequent interpretations of his situation.

This is a film not to miss. I have not seen anything else like it since.