By Hook or by Crook chronicles the tale of two unlikely friends who commit petty crimes as they search for a path to understanding themselves and the outside world. Silas Howard plays Shy, (a Transgender man) who leaves his small town after the death of his father, and heads to the big city to live a life of crime. Along the way, he encounters Valentine, a quirky adoptee, in search of his birth mother. An immediate kinship is sparked between these men and they become partners in crime. Suffering money troubles, emotional problems, and physical confrontations, the duo face their issues head on and learn to trust each other and support each other in pursuit of their goals.
By Hook or by Crook is a 2001 queer buddy film by writers/directors/actors Harriet Dodge and Silas Howard and produced by Steakhaus Productions. Stanya Kahn was a contributing writer. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
*Harry Dodge is an American sculptor, performer, video artist, and writer, whose interdisciplinary practice is characterized by its explorations of materiality, the unnamable, legibility and orientation, with a special focus on continuum and the “inbetween.” His solo and collaborative work has been exhibited at many venues nationally and internationally, including the 2008 Whitney Biennial and, in 2013, “Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy” at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and Hammer Museum’s 2014 Biennial, “Made in L.A.” Dodge’s collaborative work with artist Stanya Kahn is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
*Silas Howard received his MFA at UCLA in directing in 2008 and was the recipient of the Kovler Family Fellowship in Film & Television, the Wasserman Film Production award, Motion Picture Association of America award and twice nominated for the Rockefeller Media Award. Silas is a Film Independent Directors Lab Fellow, Nantucket Screenwriting Colony Fellow and currently the 2014-15 Arthur Levitt Fellow at Williams College.
