Out of the Shadows
American Independent Lesbian Cinema in the 1990s
As part of my masters degree in Film at the Centre for Film Studies, University College Dublin, I had to research and write a thesis on my own specialist topic of study. Lesbian cinema had long facinated me, and so it was the natural choice for me.
It is my hope to one day expand this research into a book, preferably a comprehensive guide to cinema and television made by lesbians and for lesbians. Until then...
The following work is entirely my own work. All quotations taken from other sources are cited at the end of each chapter. If you wish to use any part of this thesis in your own work, please credit me appropriately. Many thanks.
Copyright (c) Shannon Starr, 2002. All Rights Reserved.
Preface.
For the majority of film history, lesbians were more or less invisible. When they did emerge from the shadows, it was as cold-blooded killers, vampires, women behind bars, or deeply disturbed individuals. However, this would seem to have changed in recent years, with the release of several films by and for lesbians, which have provided lesbian audiences with representation previously denied them by
This thesis aims to look at the representation of lesbians in independent films made in the 1990's, beginning with Rose Troche's Go Fish (1994). I intend to argue that Go Fish was a landmark film for lesbian independent cinema, creating a space in which a lesbian community could be reflected and proving to the film industry that there was a market for such films. I will then go on to look at some of the films which followed - Marie Maggenti's The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love (1995), Alex Sichel's All Over Me (1996), Sharon Pollack's Everything Relative (1996) and Lisa Cholodenko's High Art (1998). Chasing Amy (Kevin Smith, 1996) and Bound (Andy & Larry Wachowski, 1996) will also be considered in terms or male (and heterosexual) representations of lesbians in film.
The overall purpose of this thesis is to look at these films as part of a growing movement of lesbian cinema in terms of its representation of a diverse community, and mediation of the gaze. Furthermore, I intend to state that it was Go Fish in 1994, and not the 'New Queer Cinema' proposed by B. Ruby Rich in 1992, that had the greatest impact on recent lesbian cinema.
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