Meet Andy Langdon, Creator of the New Documentary “Bears”

A couple of months ago, a team of filmmakers joined the crowd at International Bear Convergence. The Good Pictures team was there to start production on a new documentary, Bears, headed up by the amazing director Andy Langdon. Andy has often spoken of his love of bears and being a chaser, which led to his passion for the community, and creating this beautiful and heartwarming documentary. It’s still in the early stages, but the Good Pictures team is working to get Bears fully commissioned for a major streamer. Notably, the team includes award-winning producer Kourtney Gleason (Netflix’s Into the Fire, Hulu’s Becoming Bond), two-time Emmy-nominated executive producer Jonathan Buss (CNN’s The Sixties, HBO’s 7 Days in Hell), Emmy-winning casting director Jeffrey Marx (HBO’s We’re Here, Netflix’s Love on the Spectrum), and Astra-winning editor Nathan Orloff (John Wick 4, Saturday Night).

I had the immense pleasure recently to meet Andy in LA, and we sat down and talked about his life, his love of bears and his creation of the Doc. All the pics are stills from the shoot at IBC, and here’s what he has to say:

Richard Jones: Where are you from, how was your childhood?

Andy Langdon: I grew up in Plymouth, Indiana, a town of about 10,000 just south of Notre Dame. It was rural, with a cornfield behind the backyard and a forest behind that. I had two older brothers, mom, dad, and both sets of grandparents in town. I’m grateful that my family and the community always felt supportive and encouraging, while I hid the parts of myself that didn’t fit the mold. I think to cope with being closeted, I became equal parts overachiever and class clown. Entering 9th grade, my high school had just received a $500k grant for the film department—equipped with edit bays, production equipment, and a live studio—so I was in heaven. It’s that investment in the arts that started me on this career path. In academics, sports, speech and debate, theatre, and film, I worked extremely hard to always produce something that would prove my worth and be pleasing to the people around me. In retrospect, it was a textbook effort to be the “best little boy in the world.” Being openly gay simply didn’t feel like an option at the time, so I gave myself anxiety, migraines, and heartburn instead.

RJ: Where did you go to college – did you move away?

AL: At 18, I moved to Los Angeles to attend Loyola Marymount University and study Film and Television Production. Moving to LA offered the intellectual and emotional freedom to begin exploring in earnest who I was and what I wanted. One evening during my freshman year, my oldest brother came out to me as gay, and it flipped my world upside down. I remember thinking “Wait, I’ve been taught that people aren’t supposed to be gay, but he’s one of my heroes. If it’s okay for him to be gay, maybe it’s okay for me, too.” The kicker is that I was already secretly in a relationship with a man at that time. So I came out to my brother that night, too. Alas, we want what we want, and we love who we love.

RJ: You have talked on social media about realizing that you have a love for Men who are bigger than you – bears.. When and how did that realization happen?

AL: Gosh, I’ve loved bears for as long as I can remember. Growing up in the Midwest, surrounded by bear-ish guys, I developed crushes on priests, teachers, coaches, and family friends. Not to mention celebrity crushes—Kevin James in King of Queens, Alec Baldwin in 30 Rock, James Gandolfini in everything. Sadly, because of the superficial messaging I received from the people and media around me, I felt deep secrecy and shame around my attractions. For one, the message I heard was that I needed to be straight. And of the two or three openly gay classmates in my high school, none of them mentioned bigger, older, hairier guys. So I kept my love a secret. Through some Google searches on the family computer (*almost* always remembering to “clear history”), I discovered the term “bear.” At first, I remember thinking “I’m not sure I like referring to a person as a bear.” Over time, of course, “bear” developed extremely positive connotations for me as a loving shorthand for broadly describing the type of man I love.

RJ: Do you feel you are a bear? Or part of the bear community?

AL: Within the bear community, I consider myself a chaser, and more specifically would probably be an otter. My primary entry into the bear community was discovering this amazing app called Growlr, back in 2011. At the time, it felt like a secret, magical portal into another universe. I’m so grateful to Coley Cummiskey for creating the app. Over the years, I’ve met delightful folks across the bear community at parties, bear bars like Precinct and The Eagle, bear events like Bearracuda and Club Chub, and bear runs like IBC, Lazy Bear, Provincetown Bear Week, and Sitges Bear Week.

RJ: What has been your main career elements before you got to the point of the bear Doc

AL: I started my career as a video editor at Fandango, cutting short-form marketing pieces surrounding the latest film releases. After that, I worked as a creative director for a nonprofit helping men who had experienced sexual abuse or assault. In 2019, I founded Good Pictures—a film production company specializing in documentaries, PSAs, and commercials.

RJ: And what made you decide to create the doc?

AL: In short, I love bears and wanted to create a love letter to the community. And here’s the full story of what led to creating Bears… As a former catholic and recovering people-pleaser, for a long time I felt afraid to tell stories that wouldn’t fit neatly into the category of “makes mom and dad proud.” It’s been a journey to work up the confidence to shed some internalized heteronormativity and tell queer stories that are honest, authentic, and free. And on the more practical side, as any independent filmmaker knows, it can be hard to find the time and money to get passion projects off the ground. But I’ve wanted to tell a dynamic story about the bear community for years. It’s a community I find special and unique and inspiring. It connects back to this deep show-and-tell desire—like “this community has transformed my life in beautiful ways, and I just want to share it with you.” From time to time, I’d chat about producing Bears with a few close friends in the bear community. Funny enough, it wasn’t until I met a woman and her bear-ish boyfriend at a party that everything started to come together. Both are professionals in the entertainment industry, so we started talking about work, and I walked them through my idea for Bears—covering bear history, culture, relationships, media, and events. They effectively said “you need to create this,” and that set everything in motion. Shortly thereafter, Kourtney Gleason joined as a producer, Jonathan Buss came on board as an executive producer, Jeffrey Marx came on board as a casting producer, and Nathan Orloff came on board as an editor for the pilot.

RJ: Has the work on the doc changed anything for you – or has anything really given you new thoughts or blown you away as you work more and more on the doc?

AL: On the story side, I’ve been particularly struck by various parts of bear history. For example, The Advocate’s 1979 playful article “Who’s Who at the Zoo?” written by George Mazzei and illustrated by Gerard Donelan, outlines a “Glossary of Gay Animals” and was the first to publish the word “bear” as a descriptor of some gay men. The early bear community, forming in 1980’s San Francisco, has a complex—and for me, unexpected—intersection with the AIDS crisis, and the community’s growth also has strong ties to the early internet. Current bear culture, which at an international scale defies simple definition, has a certain magnetism, camaraderie, and depth that I find fascinating. To my knowledge, there’s no straight-equivalent of the queer bear community. It’s this incredible, worldwide community that was created by those who came before us, and is continually created and shaped by each of us, day by day. And I love that different people are in different stages of different journeys. On the production side of Bears, both the community itself and allies of the community have repeatedly demonstrated overwhelming interest and support. Filmmaking can sometimes feel like an uphill journey. In this case, the stars started to align and just haven’t stopped. World-class filmmakers have donated time and gear to the production, hundreds of people have reached out wanting to be involved, friends have opened their homes to our crew, and folks have chipped in to help cover initial production costs. In our first call with Nino Eilets, co-owner of International Bear Convergence (IBC) in Palm Springs, he generously rolled out the red carpet and gave us carte blanche for filming. I’m grateful for that depth of support and trust.

All Slide Images – “Bears” © Good Pictures 2025

RJ: What do you hope people will get out of seeing this doc?

AL: Because we’ve only just started both production and post-production, I can’t yet say exactly what I hope people will take away from Bears. We have a pretty clear idea of some of the themes, topics, and stories we’d like to explore, but documentaries are inherently fluid and flexible, with the footage presenting its own ideas. More broadly, my hope is that Bears will stand as a playful, honest, heartfelt, and deeply human series of stories that authentically represents different experiences across the community.

RJ: And personally what do you want to feel when the doc is shown fully at a festival or on tv? or what do you think you will get out of creating it?

AL: Personally, I want to feel like I’ve asked the right questions and have been honest and fair in my observations of people’s stories. I hope people within the bear community will feel delighted at authentic depictions of their perspectives and experiences. I hope that people outside of the bear community will learn quite a bit about the community, finding inspiration to live more joyfully, authentically, and freely.

All Slide Images – “Bears” © Good Pictures 2025

RJ: And what do you think the future of the bear community will be?

AL: The future is up to each of us individually, and collectively, to create. My hope is that the community can socially center itself around inclusivity, friendliness, and free love. I think there are also opportunities for the bear community to continue leaning into arts and culture in ways that shape the community into a playground for exploring various interests and ways of being.

RJ: And what’s in your Future?

AL: I recently proposed to my now-fiancé, so we’ll start planning our wedding soon. Meeting him has been a dream come true, and I feel like the luckiest guy around. In terms of work, I’ll continue with post-production for this Bears pilot presentation. Once the pilot is done, we’d like to give the bear community an exclusive sneak peek at in-person screenings. More to come on that.

If you’re interested in seeing Bears:

• Sign up to receive email updates on Bears through the Bears interest form
• Follow @bearsdoc on Instagram and/or @bearsdoc on Bluesky 

A message from Andy to you our bear readers:

As we continue fundraising to cover payments to our editor, assistant editor, art director, colorist, and sound designer for their hard work on this pilot presentation, I’d also like to humbly ask for your support. Independent documentary filmmaking is a labor of love, and we honestly couldn’t do this without our friends, families, and community. THANK YOU for everyone’s support, generosity, and hospitality so far. Please share with friends, and consider making a tax-deductible donation of any amount:

• Make a tax-deductible donation to Bears
• View fundraising progress for Bears

Thanks a bunch, and big bear hugs.