Wash Westmoreland

Paul "Wash" Westmoreland (born 4 March 1966), previously known professionally as Wash West, is a British director who has worked in television, documentaries, and independent films.

He frequently collaborated with his husband, writer-director Richard Glatzer.

Westmoreland was born Paul Westmoreland in Leeds, England, on 4 March 1966.

Born during Beatlemania, Westmoreland was named after The Beatles band member Paul McCartney and grew up preferring being referred to by his nickname, Wash, as a means of distinguishing himself from all the other Pauls at his school.

His father was a maintenance engineer for the CEGB and his mother worked as a receptionist at a local hair salon.

Westmoreland earned his college degree in Politics and East Asian Studies at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Fukuoka University in Japan, graduating in 1990.

He moved to the United States in 1992, initially living in New York City, then moving to New Orleans and finally to Los Angeles in 1995.

After working as a camera assistant on Bruce LaBruce's movie Hustler White, Westmoreland entered the adult entertainment world to try to research a feature film project, The Fluffer.

He got a job directing for BIG Video, a minor label, and under the name Wash West he started making movies that challenged the conventional norms of the industry.

Dr Jerkoff and Mr Hard and Naked Highway were his first significant films.

Westmoreland directed the cat-and-mouse thriller Animus, sci-fi based Technical Ecstasy, and The Devil is a Bottom, which was listed in the LA Weekly staff's annual list of favorite movies in 2000.

It was also during this time that Westmoreland started to work in mainstream films.

He appeared briefly in Velvet Goldmine by director Todd Haynes.

Haynes worked with Westmoreland as a producer on Quinceañera.

Glatzer and Westmoreland's first collaboration was on The Fluffer, a look at obsession, addiction, and power relationships within the gay porn industry.

The film starred Michael Cunio, Roxanne Day, Scott Gurney, and Deborah Harry.

It premiered at Berlin and Toronto Film Festivals in 2001 and secured US distribution from First Run Features.

It received mixed positive reviews and gained almost instant cult status, John Waters including it in his famous series Ten Movies That Will Corrupt You.

Around this time, he gave a candid interview about his experiences in the industry to Terri Gross on NPR's Fresh Air.

Glatzer and Westmoreland started researching the screenplay in 2003, earning the trust of Florence's daughter, Beverly, and the friendship of author Tedd Thomey and Flynn's chauffeur in his final years, Ronnie Shedlo.

Working alone, Westmoreland made a documentary during the 2004 election season, following four Log Cabin Republicans as they responded to President George W. Bush's initiative to alter the US Constitution to ensure that marriage was only legal between a man and a woman.

The documentary, Gay Republicans was produced for Andrew Cohen at Bravo, and Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato at World of Wonder.

An extended version of the film premiered at the AFI festival in 2004 to a riotous response.

It ended up winning the festival's documentary prize and gaining a distribution deal on DVD.

Their 2006 coming-of-age feature film, Quinceañera, won the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

Made for a budget of under $500,000, and featuring many first-time actors, Quinceañera ended up winning both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

After releasing their film Quinceañera in 2006 to critical success at Sundance, Glatzer and Westmoreland found it difficult to secure funding for further projects during the Great Recession.

It went on to win the Humanitas Prize, the John Cassavetes Prize at the Spirit Award in 2007, and many other international film festival prizes.

It was picked up for the US by Sony Pictures Classics and distributed in over 25 countries worldwide.

The plot focussed on a multigenerational Mexican-American family preparing for their daughter's quinceañera against the back drop of a gentrifying neighbourhood.

The film was entirely shot in Echo Park, which is where the directors live.

On release, it received strong positive reviews scoring 87% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The lead actress, Emily Rios, went on to have a successful career starring in Friday Night Lights, Breaking Bad, and The Bridge.

They wrote the first draft of the screenplay in 2007 but it was not until 2011, and the attachment of Kevin Kline, that things started to move forward.

In the interim, they produced Pedro (2008), a film about Pedro Zamora – an AIDS activist cast member on MTV's The Real World in 1993.

By 2011, their management had dropped them, however, it was also at this time that Christine Vachon and Pam Koffler of Killer Films had reached out to produce their next projects.

Their first collaboration with Killer Films was on The Last of Robin Hood, which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival in 2013.

Glatzer originally heard of a book about Errol Flynn's last love affair The Big Love through his mentor, Jay Presson Allen.

Together, they wrote and directed the 2014 film Still Alice, based on Lisa Genova's NYT best-selling book and starred Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart, and Alec Baldwin.

The film won many awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actress for Julianne Moore and Humanitas Prize for feature film for the duo.