Bobcat Goldthwait will always call Syracuse his home, even if he constantly lives in the doghouse.

The comedian/actor turned director visited his hometown on Saturday night for a special event at the Syracuse International Film Festival. Best known for his standup work or roles in movies like ‘Police Academy’ or ‘Scrooged,’ Goldthwait has recently turned his career in a new direction by working behind the camera.

This weekend, he came to The Palace Theatre with a special screening of his 2006 Sundance-accepted and critically acclaimed film, ‘Sleeping Dogs Lie,’ which he wrote and as directed. This is the second to last stop on the film’s tour. After this, it will be heading to the Maryland Film Festival, because John Waters chose it as his favorite film of the year, Goldthwait said.

The night began with a quick introduction by Goldthwait. He thanked the festival for bringing him back home, as well as related some of his own stories from his youth in Syracuse. Goldthwait said 35 years ago he would come to the theater as a kid to watch the most poorly made movies, films starring Bigfoot or UFOs. And now the theater has been completely redone and updated, and is showing his film, so it hasn’t gotten much better, he said.

‘This movie was shot in 16 days, and half the crew was from Craigslist,’ Goldthwait said. ‘I’m not trying to make excuses for the movie. I’m just trying to let you know that it’s a movie I never thought I would see in theaters. I always thought it would be something I’d say to my friend, ‘Hey want to see something f*cked up? Come over to my house, I made this movie.’ And now I’ve been all around the world with it.’

The film certainly isn’t the epitome of moral values. It’s a tale of Amy, a girl with a job she loves, a family who loves her and her first steady relationship. The only problem is she carries a dirty little secret from her past that still haunts her: once in college, for no reason other than to do it, she gave her dog blowjob. Yeah, that dirty of a secret. And when her boyfriend becomes her fianc and starts pushing for a ‘completely open about everything’ policy, she panics. Finally, after advice from friends and family that honesty is key, Amy tells him the truth and watches her life fall apart.

Even though the film’s subject matter was a tad-bit taboo, the event was sold out and the film got a standing ovation at its conclusion from people of all ages.

‘It was great. It was so hysterical, really funny’ said Valerie Ianello, a 2006 Syracuse University film art graduate and part of the new filmmaker showcase at the festival. ‘Literally, tears were coming down my eyes at one point. I loved it.’

After the movie, Goldthwait had a 30-minute Q&A session, where audience members asked about things that ranged from questions about the movie to personal stories about Goldthwait. Many of these questions sent Goldthwait off into personal rants and amusing anecdotes. One of the best was about having to shoot some of the scenes on the lot of a porn set. Goldthwait said one of the ‘actresses’ came up and asked him what his film was about.

”Well, it’s about a girl who blows a dog and her life falls apart,’ and she looked at me like I was f*cked up,” Goldthwait said.

Goldthwait also said one of the main reasons he was excited to be in Syracuse was the fact that it gave him a chance to be with his family, who were in the audience supporting him.

‘I’m very proud of him, obviously,’ said Mary Wasilewski, Goldthwait’s sister and an East Syracuse resident. ‘I’m very proud that he wrote it as well as directed it, he really did a great job. It’s (a great film), it will make you laugh, make you cry.’

While clearly not an average film, or even an average person who created it, the night still obviously had an effect on those who went.

‘It was very real and educational at the same time,’ said Ryan Kase, an advertising design graduate student. ‘I thought he was inspiring. (The fact that he was from Syracuse) pointed closer to home. He was a lot more relatable when you knew where he was coming from.’

Published on April 22, 2007 at 12:00 pm