A documentary about a single person or a couple always runs two risks: feeling too specific for a two-hour story, or depending too much on scandal to bring intrigue to the film. But with Chris & Don: A Love Story, which screened at the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival (a.k.a. Frameline32) in June and comes to local theaters today, filmmakers Guido Santi and Tina Mascara avoid both these traps, producing a documentary that is both poignant and captivating. This is due, in large part, to the endearing personalities of the featured couple, writer Chris Isherwood and artist Don Bachardy.

Isherwood and Bachardy first met on the beach in Santa Monica; Don and his brother would take the two-hour ride on the streetcar from Atwater. "Ted always wanted to walk up a mile and a half north to the Will Rogers State Beach—and of course I knew why," Bachardy remembers. "He was 20 and already had a great crowd of male admirers, who the moment we arrived on the state beach, surrounded him, and Chris was among them." But once Don came out and Ted started bringing him to parties with his queer friends, Isherwood's attention turned to Don. When Ted started suffering from mental health issues, Isherwood comforted Don, and the two formed a bond that would stay with them the rest of their lives. That closeness even comes across in Bachardy's speech, which has taken on Isherwood's pronounced English accent and speech patterns. "I'm an unconscious mimic and it happened without my realizing it, until I heard my voice on a tape recorder," Bachardy told me. "I was horrified because it sounded so affected, and even my brother Ted made fun of me with my British accent. But I couldn't do anything about it, so I just had to learn to live with it."

We get to know Isherwood, who died in 1986, through old interviews, excerpts from his diary, and insights from scholars who have studied him and his writing; Bachardy tells his story himself from the Santa Monica home he shared with Isherwood. But we get the most revealing glimpses of Isherwood and Bachardy as a couple through old 16mm film they took while traveling in their younger days: Their love for and admiration of each another (and the fun they had together) beams from their gorgeous smiles. That's why, Guido told me in a recent interview at the Hotel Rex, even though he and Mascara had to leave out tons of footage (look for extra footage, including an interview with Gloria Stewart, on the upcoming DVD), they used every frame of the footage they recovered that Isherwood and Bachardy shot of each other. The couple traveled extensively, including to San Francisco. "Chris thought it was the most beautiful city in the world, and I agree with him," Bachardy says.

Even in the '50s, Isherwood and Bachardy never kept their relationship a secret. Many people saw it as quite the scandal—not only because they were gay, but because Isherwood was 30 years Bachardy's senior. "When we met, Chris was actually a year older than my father," Bachardy says, "and all of the males that I had been attracted to were certainly not nearly as old as Chris. And yet such was his charm and his boyishness, even at 48, that we instantly enjoyed each other's company. And when he made up his mind to charm a young man, nothing could stop him."

Isherwood pulled Bachardy into his life of literary prominence; the author of The Berlin Stories, which inspired the play that inspired the movie Cabaret, Isherwood socialized with the likes of Tennessee Williams and Somerset Maugham. (Isherwood, by the way, thought Liza Minnelli was too good a singer for the part; her character in the book was a total amateur. Minnelli appears in the film and chalks it up to a different interpretation.) Isherwood in turn supported Bachardy's artistic inclinations, leading him to become a celebrated portrait artist, with Isherwood as his favorite subject. He continued to paint Isherwood every day throughout Isherwood's battle with cancer and even after his death. "I think about him continually," Bachardy said. "And in fact he's so much with me I don't have to think about him, I just know he's there. And he's certainly giving me strength continually—I just have to tap into him and it cheers me up."

Though Isherwood lived an extraordinary life and Bachardy continues to, the story, as the subtitle spells out, is about their relationship. "It's a universal story," Santi says, and a truly beautiful one for them to share with us.

Chris & Don: A Love Story opens tonight, July 18, at the Embarcadero Center Cinemas in San Francisco and Shattuck Theatre in Berkeley.