Press Kit
*There is a link to an article Adrien Lachance wrote in Radio Canada International (In French)
http://www.rcinet.ca/francais/a-l-affiche/entrevues-2012/12-53_2013-02-26-un-documentaire-sur-les-lesbiennes-de-montreal/
*Article wrote by Valentine Ash (Review after the Reel it up film festival)
http://readbuzz.com/movies-tv/2014/reel-it-up-review-im-a-lesbian-montreal/
Very few documentary films manage to be as direct and tightly focused as I’m A Lesbian, Montreal. The very title excellently sums up the focus of the film, and the introduction only further develops it, featuring 22 women introducing themselves to the camera and telling the audience their names, ages, and that they are lesbian. The entire, mostly French-language, film, shown at the Art Theater in Champaign during the United Pride Center’s Reel it UP film festival, is composed of footage from interviews that director Tina Fichter had with 22 women in Montreal who self-identified as lesbians, gay women or queer lesbians.
There is very little in the way of gimmicks or visual flair to distract the viewer, either in the film’s editing, camerawork, or performances. Other directors might have chosen to show scenes of the characters outside the interview setting for background, cut to scenes of locations that were described by characters, or display images of other people when their names were mentioned, but Fichter’s camera stays locked solidly on the faces of these 22 women as they tell viewers their stories. The effect of this tightness of direction is that the entire film focuses on the interviewees’ answers to Fichter’s questions, and as such, the audiences’ attention is directed entirely on the stories of the women interviewed.
These women have taken many different paths throughout life to get to where they are, some knowing all along that they were lesbian while others went in and out of marriages or journeyed from considering themselves solidly heterosexual to possibly bisexual before eventually discovering more about themselves and their sexualities. Occasionally, the dialogue will be broken up with successive shots of the women interviewed smiling at the camera, conveying the feeling that this is at its core not simply an intellectual study about their stories but rather a narrative about the emotions and experiences of these 22 women.
The women featured in I’m A Lesbian, Montreal come from a wide variety of perspectives on their sexuality and on their relationship to wider movements such as the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer) and feminist movements. One of the interviewees, Diane, was a radical lesbian feminist in the 1970’s, while others attempt to remain apolitical. Some of the couples have more open relationships than others; young couple Vanessa and Stephanie, for example, don’t hesitate to embrace each other in public while a few older couples prefer to stay more reserved. One interviewee, Marin, felt judged by other lesbians for continuing to wear makeup and dresses and pursuing other behaviors that coded as traditionally feminine, while another, Catherine, gradually attempted to change her appearance to exist independently of traditional gender norms.
The result of this immense diversity of opinion and identity within the women interviewed in the film was that the immense diversity within the lesbian community in Montreal was much easier to see. Catherine discussed how her experience coming out of the closet helped her friends put a face on homosexuality, a label most of them had only experienced as a genre at the video store next to the porn section. Through discussions of sexuality like hers, it can be seen that one of the goals of the film was to break down the labels and connotations that exist surrounding lesbianism and to help viewers understand that within the lesbian community exists an incredible variety of people, each with their own perspectives on their sexuality, none of them necessarily presented as more dominant or more correct than another.
It’s refreshing to see the subject of sexuality dealt with in such a frank, no-nonsense fashion in a documentary. There is no narration introducing the subject or characters in the way that a wildlife documentary might describe strange animals in a distant wilderness and no special guidance or overly pedantic implications given to viewers that would influence them in determining which viewpoints are necessarily correct when the opinions of the women featured differ. Rather, viewers are presented simply with the facts of the women’s stories, their outlooks on their sexualities and lives, and their direct admissions of “I’m a lesbian, Montreal.”
*Article I wrote in WOW, a lesbian and feminist revue
(http://wow-lgbt.com/english/?p=159)
The history of the making of this film begins at the end of 2011. I am studying cinema in France at the University of Paris 8, at Saint-Denis, in the north of Paris and I am participating in a workshop on documentaries.
My mission: Make a film.
The context: I am going to Montreal for a few months, beginning in January of 2012, as part of a university exchange.
The filming of lesbians becomes rapidly pressing.
I am a lesbian and I assume my lesbianism but I do not interact much with lesbians other than my companion, my curiosity is piqued… What are their journeys? Do we share the same experiences? What about their relationships with their families? What are their links to lesbian communities? And with feminism? And…?
I experience my lesbian life in Paris, the looks, the remarks, insults at times… But Montreal seems to be a city where lesbians can have a good life. But is it really? I ask myself.
I leave on my adventure, to the other side of the ocean, armed with my camera and my questions. When I arrive, I know no one, so I send e-mails everywhere, to everyone, social networks, sites, etc. It is very important for me to meet and speak with women before I film them; I do this almost in every case in order to establish a connection of trust and to know what they wish to speak about. I have my questions but I want them to be able to express themselves, to say what it is that they wish to say.
I receive a lot of responses, more than expected, the enthusiasm grows.
I meet 20 women, we talk and they become the subjects of the story, their personalities, their histories, their different points of view… I am passionate, I feel a very strong desire to film them, almost a need. They have so much to say and above all, they all wish to participate in this film.
The assignment given was to create a short (15 minute) film. But to hell with the assignment, in making arrangements to interview and film all these lesbians, I see that it will be impossible to respect the 15 minute constraint, and who cares?
There are so very few spaces where lesbians can express themselves. We are, more and more, represented in fiction and there are some lesbian icons, but apart from that? Who listens to the voices of lesbians? In what context can we express ourselves freely without being censored, without being edited, without being cut off?
This is what I am trying to create: a collective project of lesbian visibility.
I film alone, I look into my camera, they respond looking into the camera, at me, we become one.
I film 20 women in 20 hours.
After these few months in Montreal, my return to the Paris region is difficult, but the editing plunges me into the film. I am alone at my computer, encouraged regularly by the faces of friends whom I trust, the numerous discussions during the editing process, the number of incalculable hours spent in front of the screen. To declare a film as finished is difficult, it is the end of the adventure, the end of the editing, during which everything is still possible. I had been kneading bread for months, knowing that it was possible to form a beautiful loaf with care, all the little details, reworking the entire form, and all of a sudden, I had to decide that what I had created was the right creation, the definitive creation, and that it was time to let it bake, knowing that once I removed it from the oven, there was nothing more that could be done, other than to enjoy it.
The beginning of 2013, finally, I burn the first DVDs. This adventure is so satisfying, I do not want it to end, I see faults in this film, but I love it, I view it, and I view it again and again, and I am always so deeply touched by these women, their words, their humour, their experiences, their sadness at times, their ideas…
I think that what they are saying deserves to be heard and so I work to have the film seen by as many people as possible. At first I offer my film to French-speaking audiences but in the last few months, I have also offered it to English-speaking audiences since I have created a version with English subtitles. I send e-mails everywhere, to all the LGBT centres, associations, collectives, spaces etc. possible, to tell them that I have created this film, that I would be very happy to send them a free copy, and if they like it, they were free to show the film without cost.
I cannot show the film in its entirely on the internet because I am presenting it at festivals which demand exclusive full-length showing rights but I have posted a trailer on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq6ME8VpGMk) and I am often contacted by people who wish to view the entire film. I send it to everyone who asks and I also ask them if they know of places near them which would be interested in showing the film. There is a genuine desire expressed to want to organize a showing, it becomes their project, they make this process their own and this sharing pleases me.
I speak of the diffusion of the film because, for me, a film takes on a life of its own once the creative process is over and it is circulated for viewing, this is the essence of the project.
I welcome you to write to me (tina.fichter@hotmail.fr) if the film interests you, if you know of places which would like to show it, or if you have any questions or comments you would like to share.