ABOUT THIS BOOK

From experimental shorts and web series to Hollywood blockbusters and feminist porn, the work of African American lesbian filmmakers has made a powerful contribution to film history. But despite its importance, this work has gone largely unacknowledged by cinema historians and cultural critics. Assembling a range of interviews, essays, and conversations, Sisters in the Life tells a full story of African American lesbian media-making spanning three decades. In essays on filmmakers including Angela Robinson, Tina Mabry and Dee Rees; on the making of Cheryl Dunye's The Watermelon Woman (1996); and in interviews with Coquie Hughes, Pamela Jennings, and others, the contributors center the voices of black lesbian media makers while underscoring their artistic influence and reach as well as the communities that support them. Sisters in the Life marks a crucial first step in narrating the history and importance of these compelling yet unsung artists.

Contributors. Jennifer DeVere Brody, Jennifer DeClue, Raul Ferrera-Balanquet, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Thomas Allen Harris, Devorah Heitner, Pamela L. Jennings, Alexandra Juhasz, Kara Keeling, Candace Moore, Marlon Moore, Michelle Parkerson, Roya Rastegar, L. H. Stallings, Yvonne Welbon, Patricia White, Karin D. Wimbley

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Yvonne Welbon is the founder of the Chicago-based nonprofit Sisters in Cinema. She is an independent filmmaker whose films have screened on PBS, Starz/Encore, TV-ONE, IFC, Bravo, and the Sundance Channel and in over one hundred film festivals around the world.

Alexandra Juhasz is Professor and Chair of the Department of Film at Brooklyn College, City University of New York; the coeditor of A Companion to Contemporary Documentary Film; and a documentary filmmaker.

REVIEWS

"Sisters in the Life is an act of reclamation, a means of shining a light on the critical work that these women have done with little recognition or fanfare. . . . For those who are invested in the history of representation, Sisters in the Life is worth adding to your bookshelf."

-- Evette Dionne Bitch

"This well-researched title is highly recommended for readers interested in African American, women's, LGBTQ, and general film studies."

-- Sally Bryant Library Journal

"Sisters in the Life moves uninterruptedly from strength to strength. Along the way, its stories are eclectic but interrelated, U.S.-centered but increasingly global, alert to ongoing inequities but inspired by past and present accomplishments— and by futures that look brighter all the time."

-- Nick Davis Film Comment

"In this academic but engaging anthology, contributors examine the important contributions of black lesbian filmmakers over the past three decades. Finally, filmmakers like Cheryl Dunye, Dee Rees, and Angela Robinson get their due. So too should Welbon (director of 1993’s famed Sisters in the Life: First Love.)"

-- Jacob Anderson-Minshall The Advocate

"This is an eye-opening study that seems likely to become a classic in its genre."

-- Jean Roberta Gay & Lesbian Review

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface. To Be Transparent: Seeing Directions and Connections in Black Lesbian Film / Alexandra Juhasz ix
Introduction. The Sisters in the Life Archive Project / Yvonne Welbon 1
Part I. 1986–1995
Introduction / Yvonne Welbon 15
1. Birth of a Notion: Toward Black, Gay, and Lesbian Imagery in Film and Video / Michelle Parkerson 21
2. Narrating Our History: An Introduction / Thomas Allen Harris 26
3. Narrating Our History: Selections from a Dialogue among Queer Media Artists from the African Diaspora / Edited by Raùl Ferrera-Balanquet and Thomas Allen Harris, with Shari Frilot, Leah Gilliam, Dawn Suggs, Jocelyn Taylor, and Yvonne Welbon 29
4. Construction of Computation and Desire: Introduction to Yvonne Welbon's Interview with Pamela L. Jennings / Kara Keeling 47
5. Ruins and Desire: Interview with Pamela L. Jennings, July 27, 2012 / Yvonne Welbon 51
6. the book of ruins and desire: Interactive Mechatronic Sculpture / Pamela L. Jennings 63
7. A Cosmic Demonstration of Shari Frilot's Curatorial Practice / Roya Rastegar 66
8. Identity and Performance in Yvonne Welbon's Remembering Wei-Yi Fang, Remembering Myself: An Autobiography / Devorah Heitner 92
Part II. 1996–2016
Introduction / Yvonne Welbon 115
9. Producing Black Lesbian Media / Candace Moore 125
10. Stereotypy, Mammy, and Recovery in Cheryl Dunye's The Watermelon Woman / Karin D. Wimbley
11. Coquie Hughes: Urban Lesbian Filmmaker. Introduction to Yvonne Welbon's Interview with Coquie Hughes / Jennifer DeVere Brody 160
12. Stepping Out on Faith: Interview with Coquie Hughes, July 27, 2012 / Yvonne Welbon 165
13. "Invite Me In!": Angela Robinson at Hollywood's Threshold / Patricia White 176
14. Shine Louise Houston: An Interstice of Her Own Making / L. H. Stallings 191
15. From Rage to Resignation: Reading Tina Mabry's Mississippi Damned as a Post-Civil Rights Response to Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddam" / Marlon Rahquel Moore 205
16. The Circuitous Route of Presenting Black Butch: The Travels of Dee Ree's Pariah / Jennifer DeClue 225
17. Creating the World Anew: Black Lesbian Legacies and Queer Film Futures / Alexis Pauline Gumbs 249
Acknowledgments 261
Selected Bibliography 263
Contributors 269
Index 273

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