Women Make Movies review
I’d open the LGBTQI shelf at Women Make Movies with one question in mind. Whose work has kept these stories in circulation? The distributor’s catalogue gives me several ways into that question, from a documentary about the volunteers who built the Lesbian Herstory Archives to a portrait of the anthropologist Esther Newton. The title pages also help me work out where I can watch a film or how I might arrange a group screening.
Follow the people behind the collection
Megan Rossman’s “The Archivettes” follows the people who gathered and preserved records of lesbian life. The distributor’s synopsis traces the collection back to a New York apartment and describes the volunteers facing a handover of leadership. I’d start there for the work of keeping a collection alive across generations. “Esther Newton Made Me Gay” narrows the focus to one person, following a cultural anthropologist whose life also includes dog agility. That sounds like a good pairing if you want to see how a group keeps its history and how one person documents a culture through her work.
Women Make Movies began by teaching women filmmaking. Its historical press archive includes this photograph of Lucy Winer’s crew filming a protest in 1980, an example of the work that existed before it reached a catalogue.
Check the options on the film page
The page for “The Archivettes” lists a DVD and points to Kanopy, Docuseek and a separate screening enquiry. If I were watching on my own, I’d check the streaming services through my library first. If I were arranging an event, I’d start with the distributor’s screening route for that title. For the original programme of a queer film festival or to see what screened alongside a particular title, I’d use Frameline, which keeps scanned festival guides by year.
Anabel’s take
I’d pick “The Archivettes” for a discussion about who decides what gets kept. I like having a title page that gives me a synopsis to share and a separate place to start arranging a screening. For a night on my own, the library check would come first.