B-2 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

FEBRUARY 25, 1994

Nicole Conn Continued from page B-1

political enough. The biggest question I've asked is "Can't there be a bridge between the political dyke and the mainstream lesbian?" I've got no problem if someone wants to go out and make an extremely political film, so why do they have a problem if I want to go out and make an entertaining love story? Why can't we have lesbian entertainment? That's my question.

It appears to me that we're so happy with every little crumb that gets thrown our way. Like, how many of us, even though they totally downplayed the lesbian theme in Fried Green Tomatoes, have seen it 15 times because it just doesn't happen that often that we see our lives on the screen?

It's true. And that phenomena of going nuts every time we see our lives reflected on the screen applies a lot of scrutiny to Claire of the Moon. And it's just a movie!

As Demi-Monde grows and you accept more scripts, how far are you prepared to go? Is there a desire on your part to make a more political film? For example, a film in which the main character is a very radical dyke?

I want to make films the way I want to make films, because I have a certain romantic bent on things, and those are the kind of features that I want to make. I want to talk about things that are very important to me as

a woman.

I am not a radical dyke, so it's hard for me to write a story about a radical dyke or a political dyke. That isn't my experience, so it isn't the kind of film that I would probably project on the screen. I know radical dykes, and I would probably have them in my films

a chimney, I went back and forth between men and women for about two and a half years. I just did not want to cope with it. So, Claire's story is very, very much my own. Something that's so important to you, you have to relate it from the place that you come from.

How much input did you have with casting the film?

Oh, total... As a director you do cast your film, especially on the low budget we had to work with. I didn't have a casting director, I just basically cast the film through the community, and through the theater communities in Portland and Seattle.

Literally in your own backyard-I understand that the film was shot on location at your home.

Exactly, there were definite benefits, such as we didn't need to have any permits since we were filming on my property.

What project are you currently working on, and how soon can we expect another Demi-Monde production at our local cinema?

Well, we're trying to take the company public and we're trying to raise funds for a number of projects. The next lesbian project I would like to do is a script based on my book The Bottom Line. It's a very contemporary lesbian love story and it's a triangle that's never been seen on screen beforeever! And it's probably going to make a lot of people really pissed-off. Then the love of my life script is called Cynara, and it's a lesbian love story which takes place in Paris in the '30s and we have a promotional tape

CURBSIDE

as supporting characters, but I would probROGUE'S GALLERY

ably never write a lead story that had to do with someone that was from an extreme fringe element.

I'm thinking in terms of the Lois character from Dykes to Watch Out For or an ACT UP sort of lesbian ...

That's not my experience. My experience is integrated in the mainstream. I feel that it's very important for our community to accept the mainstream dyke and let them be mainstream. And let their political statement be in living openly and out.

So, the kind of characters that attract you are ordinary, everyday people who are just living their lives?

Yes, but I'm not talking about not having quirky characters, because those are fascinating characters to me. What drives me in terms of creating a character is not whether they're political or not, but whether they're interesting or not.

How much of Claire's story is your story?

(Laughs) Well, I do happen to like Claire a lot. It is very auto-biographical in the sense that that's how I dealt with my coming out. I was a raving alcoholic, I smoked like

ESTELLE H.

DROPS ALL CONTACT WITH FRIENDS UPON ACQUIRING NEW GIRLFRIEND

* GET WHAT..!

..SHOULDN'T You GET THAT?

RING

STUART W.

RING RING

WRITES LETTERS TO THE EDITOR COMPLAINING ABOUT COVERAGE OF LESBIAN ISSUES IN GAY AND LESBIAN PUBLICATION

"

AND OUT OF

E LEVEN ARTICLES? FIVE WERE ABOUT LESBIANS. THEY'RE JUST...TANNG OVER!

available through Yes She Can Promotions that conveys what we are trying to do with Cynara. I think it will be a really fun feature, the struggle of one woman's artistic integrity parallel to another woman's struggle with her sexual integrity. We also have a lot of mainstream features that are currently in development. Financing is our biggest concern right now.

I envision a day, hopefully before I'm living in the lesbian unrest home, where we're not going nuts over 30 seconds on the screen; when we can go into the video store and have many different lesbianthemed movies to choose from...

Yeah we need a lot more cinema so that the cinema that is out there isn't put under such incredible scrutiny. So for people to put so many expectations on a film is absurd, because it's probably never going to happen that you please everybody. I've gone to see a couple of lesbian films where I was so appalled at what was going on, and it just didn't speak to me. But I give them credit for making a film according to their vision. And that's what we have to do-we have to be more supportive of each other's work.

You mentioned John Sayles and the film Lianna in your Plain Dealer interview. Do you think that it was easier for him to make that film being a man, or at least easier to get it released to a wide audience?

First of all, you have to take into account that they probably had three or four times the budget that we had to do Claire with.

DUANE S.

INSISTS UPON "STRAIGHT-ACTING AND OH MARY!

APPEARING"

SHRIEK!

SNICKER WHAT A COUPLE OF NELLIES!

CANDY 'N HELEN

WON'T THINK TWICE ABOUT HAVING A BIG FIGHT RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU

Secondly, I think that people are not as willing to attack a straight man's interpretation of a lesbian love story as they are willing to attack a lesbian. The one thing I've also learned about our community is that we can be vicious. I mean, I was so naive when I started out. I just thought people would be happy to have another film. Then somebody said to me, "You don't understand that whenever you put film on the screen, every frame has a political ramification." I felt like, "I don't want every frame to have a political ramification, I want it to have an emotional ramification!" Many women have sent letters saying 'I've changed my life, I've decided to follow my lesbian tendencies, 'etcetera, in response to this film. So, many women have been very affected by it. Women who have had intense problems in their lives have said the film made them feel again. So there has been a variety of things that the film has done that has nothing to do with politics. It's just emotions. And for me as a filmmaker, that is the success. It's not about technical wizardry, it's about what sort of emotions the person feels when they're in the theater.

For anyone interested in investing in Demi-Monde Productions, shares of the company will go on sale for as little as $5.00 a share sometime in March. Also, donations to help fund future projects can be mailed to Yes She Can Promotions, P.O. Box 21307, South Euclid, OH, 44121.

WENDY T.

NO POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS, STILL WEARS ACID WASH

AMENDMENT TWO IN COLORADO?...I

GUESS I DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT THAT IS EXACTLY... HA HA!

ON WELL

SAMUEL Z. JUST WON'T LIGHTEN UP.

TOGETHER

IN PARE

SO YOU SEE,

WHAT IT IS IM SAYING?

IF THEY COULD JUST CAN ALL OF THIS DRAG SHIT KAND THAT LEATHER CRAP TOO), THEN WE'D BE MUCH MORE LIKELY TO GAIN HETEROSEXUAL ACCEPTANCE AND TOLERANCE DATHER

1993 BY ROBERT KIRBY

PRY

Dykes To Watch Out For

on her back

ONE

NE AFTERNOON AMID THE BUSTLE AND COMMERCE OF OUR FAVORITE FEMINIST BOOK EMPORIUM...

...AND WHEN YOU'RE DONE UNPACKING THOSE, CHECK

THEM OFF ON THE PURCHASE ORDER BEFORE YOU...

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GIRL, HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU TO BEND YOUR KNEES WHEN YOU LIFT?

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1994 BY ALISON BECHDEL

JUST FILL OUT THESE FORMS AND ANGELA WILL BE RIGHT WITH YOU.

180

NICE TATTOO!

OBRAY Aut

Born (1)

SEA, ART,

AMBAKAN

CULTUR

BY CAMILLE PAGLIA

50

...MMM, WHAT

EXQUISITE DETAIL...

In case of emergency,

contact:

Name

MAYBE LOIS? BUT SHE'S DONE SO MUCH FOR ME ALREADY. CLARICE? NAH... SHE'S GOT THE BABY AND TONI TO WORRY ABOUT. MY MOM AND DAD? SHEESH, HOW PATHETIC!!

Relation

Phone

"

SNIFF

DAMN. CAN

YOU MOVE?

DON'T TOUCH ME!

DO YOU HAVE

A CHIROPRACTOR,

MO?

HI, AO. TA ANGELA NAVARRO. WHAT SEEMS TO BE THE PROBLEM?

UH... I DON'T

KNOW WHO TO PUT DOWN FOR AN EMERGENCY CONTACT. I USED TO GIVE MY GIRLFRIEND'S NAME, BUT NOW I...

LOOKS LIKE

A JOB FOR DR. NAVARRO.

I'LL

CALL HER.

SPARROW SWEARS BY THIS CHIROPRACTOR. SAYS SHE'S A GODDESS IN HUMAN FORM. WHOA! WHEN ARE THEY GONNA FILL THESE POTHOLES?

UNH!

I MEAN WITH YOUR

BACK. SONYA, HELP

ME GET HER IN TO

THE TABLE.

NEED A

RIDE TO HER

OFFICE, MO?

ARE YOU GONNA

CRACK HER NOW?

OH, NO. NOT WHILE SHE'S

GOT A MUSCLE SPASM LIKE THIS ONE.

PAK

BROKEN, ALONE, AND REFERRED TO IN THE

THIRD PERSON WHILE STILL PRESENT... CAN OUR HEROINE POSSIBLY SINK ANY LOWER? DON'T MISS THE NEXT TAUT, WRENCHING EPISODE!