Gorman Bechard
Gorman Bechard is an American film director, screenwriter and novelist best known for his independent feature films Psychos in Love, ''Friends, and You Are Alone; his four rock documentaries Color Me Obsessed: A Film About the Replacements, What Did You Expect? The Archers of Loaf Live at Cat's Cradle, Every Everything: The Music, Life & Times of Grant Hart, and Who is Lydia Loveless?; his animal welfare documentary A Dog Named Gucci; and his debut novel The Second Greatest Story Ever Told''.Early life
Bechard was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, to Gorman "Gary" E. Bechard Jr., a bar and restaurant entrepreneur, and Lucille Claire Bechard. Lucille died when Bechard was 10 years old, so he and his sister Deborah were raised by his grandparents, William and Claire Roberts. He also has two half-brothers, Thomas and Sean.
Bechard graduated from Holy Cross High School in Waterbury. While in high school, Bechard became interested in writing after reading Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions and Richard Brautigan’s In Watermelon Sugar. He attended Western Connecticut State University, where he studied journalism.
Bechard worked as the music critic for the Waterbury Republican & American newspaper and started a local music fanzine called Imagine.
In 1980, he played guitar and sang lead in a New Haven-based pop/punk band called The Grubbies. They release two EPs.
In 1981, Bechard took a course on director Alfred Hitchcock at the New School for Social Research in New York City, and shortly thereafter found himself studying 16mm film production and taking uncredited courses part time there.Early films
''Disconnected''
1983, Bechard shot his first feature film, Disconnected, while still studying film in New York City. Made on a budget of $40,000 and filmed in his native Waterbury, it was a creepy take on the horror movement of the time. A restored version of this film was released on Blu-ray by Vinegar Syndrome on November 24, 2017. His long-lost first documentary, Twenty Questions, was included as an extra on the Blu-ray release. The film was re-issued on VHS in July 2025.''Psychos in Love''
Bechard's next film, 1986's Psychos in Love, was a horror comedy that has been called "the first Scream." Conceived as a slasher film in the style of Woody Allen, Monty Python and the Marx Brothers, Bechard's film went on to play a midnight run at the famed Bleecker Street Cinema in Greenwich Village before being released on video by Empire Pictures. In HorrorNews.Net, Todd Martin wrote, "It's violent and gory while being sweet and funny at the same time and after everything was said and done I ended up digging it a lot more than I ever thought that I would." A restored version of Psychos in Love was released on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome on September 26, 2017. In Letterboxd, Mondo Cinema wrote, "This is the best time I've ever had watching a slasher flick." The film was re-issued on VHS in July 2025.
Bechard entered into a four-picture deal with Empire Pictures that was fraught with conflict. Empire went out of business, and Bechard, having had enough, shifted his career to writing novels and scripts.Novels
''The Second Greatest Story Ever Told''
Bechard's first novel, The Second Greatest Story Ever Told, was published by Citadel Underground in 1991 and was called "a very, very funny book" by the Los Angeles Times. It tells the tale of God sending his quirky teenaged daughter to save the world. The book has been optioned by Hollywood numerous times, and has had many leading actress attached to play the role including Winona Ryder, who in the Hot issue of Rolling Stone magazine proclaimed her next role was playing the female Jesus, to most recently Rooney Mara, who can be seen on the cover of the paperback release of the novel.''The Hazmat Diary''
In 1993, long before the widespread availability of broadband internet, he produced a multi-media web novel called , which featured images, video clips, and music programmed in Flash. The site was eventually taken down in 2007, and the story was published in paperback form in 2010.''Balls''
His next novel Balls was published by Penguin Books in 1995. It tells the fictional story of the first woman to play major league baseball. The book was optioned by 20th Century Fox but never made into a film.''Good Neighbors''
Next came Good Neighbors, published by Carroll & Graf in 1998, of which Publishers Weekly said, "In his first mystery, novelist Bechard deftly captures the story's working-class neighborhood setting," adding "Bechard's ear for dark comedy and eye for social nuance are this book's strong suits."''Ninth Square''
Of Ninth Square Publishers Weekly said, "the suspense level remains high to the end, as Shute, suspended from the force, attracted to a female cop but entangled with one of the likable and believable hookers he encounters in the escort industry, strives to find all the answers."''Unwound''
Unwound, written under the pseudonym Jonathan Baine, and published by Onyx in 2007. It tells the story of an author slowly losing his mind, or is he, as he believes one of his most famous characters has come to life and is stalking him.''Let it Be''
Let it Be, written in 2018, and published to Bechard's substack in April 2025. In the introduction to the novel, he wrote: "Let it Be is a novel inspired by the classic Replacements record of the same name." The book tells the story of a female documentary filmmaker living in New Haven trying to figure out her life, loves, career, and discreetly placed tattoos.Snow Blind
Snow Blind is a novel written in 1994/1995, right after Bechard's second book Balls, which ended up being published by Penguin Plume. "Snow Blind did not have the same luck as Balls," Bechard wrote. "It was a thriller with a female lead." The world wasn't ready for it and it lay "dormant in a computer folder for decades." Beginning on July 27, 2025, Snow Blind was being serialized on .Recent narrative films
''The Kiss''
In 2002, Bechard returned to filmmaking with The Kiss, starring Terence Stamp and Eliza Dushku. But once again the process made him question whether directing was a career path he wanted to travel.''You Are Alone''
In 2005, Bechard decided to take one last stab at filmmaking. He would do a micro-budget film where all the control was in his hands. The film, You Are Alone, a dark drama exploring how far some people will go to feel less alone, went on to play numerous film festivals and win many "best-of" awards before being released on DVD. In Letterboxd, Keith Dwyer wrote, "You Are Alone has one of the best scripts that I've ever come across. It's dialogue is so visceral and really grabbed at my insides. It's a conversation that spans an hour and a half, and is an analytical look at how we deal with the parts of ourselves that we are disgusted by or fear to confront. There are flashback sequences that are interspersed within the main conversation sequences to provide context for the characters and they play out just like that of memory with how simply yet effectively they're edited. It's hard to say whether it will pack the same punch for everyone as it did for me, but it's floored me." You Are Alone was re-issued on a deluxe Blu-ray edition by Saturn's Core Video and Vinegar Syndrome in May 2025.''Friends (with benefits)''
Bechard's next independent feature was 2009's Friends . The film likewise played many film festivals and is being distributed by Cinetic Media. In Letterboxd, Monsieur Flynn wrote, "It's got the heart, the non PG-13 realism in nudity, the soundtrack to give additional value, the real human feel of flawed relationships, friendships and fear of the next step, and it brings funny to the table without the awkward Hollywood-takes. It's just an enjoyable trip into a terrain that never really surprise you, but yet is so heartfelt and true it's easy to get lost in."''Broken Side of Time''
His last narrative film, 2013's Broken Side of Time, premiered at VisionFest in New York City in June 2013, and won the Audience Choice Award for Best Narrative Feature at CineKink 2014. It was released on DVD and streaming media in May 2014. In Blurt, Danny Phillips wrote, "Watching Dolce's slip into the abyss is somewhat like watching a car stranded on the tracks as a train barrels towards it. You really want to help, to scream 'Get out of the way!' but deep inside we want to see what happens next. Broken Side of Time is a look at a journey and a destination, a glimpse at what happens when you give all yourself to something and are used, tossed aside in return. Dolce is a train wreck personified and I could not stop watching."Documentaries
''Color Me Obsessed, a film about The Replacements''
Color Me Obsessed, Bechard's first documentary is about legendary 80s indie rock band the Replacements. Called "the rock version of Rashomon" by the Village Voice, and one of "the seven best new music documentaries of the year" by Rolling Stone, the film has been playing the film festival and arthouse circuit since its premiere in March 2011. It was released on DVD in November 2012, and then on VHS in July 2025. Though the film "hasn't a single second of their music, zero interviews with surviving band members and only briefly shows a few photos of the band at its ending, Color Me Obsessed: A Film About the Replacements manages to be one of the best documentaries on any subject I've seen this year."''What Did You Expect? the Archers of Loaf love at Cat's Cradle''
Bechard's film What Did You Expect? is a concert documentary capturing Archers of Loaf on their recent reunion tour. The film had its world premiere at the NXNE Festival in Toronto in June 2012, and was released on DVD in November 2012. In 2015, the band released the double album Curse of the Loaf, which is the Brian Paulson-produced concert audio from Bechard's documentary. The deluxe package also featured a copy of the film.