25 years After Forbidden Love BY sarah teixeira st-cyr
COPY-EDITED BY JOSHUA WIEBE When Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Story of Lesbian Lives was first released in 1992 it was a critical success for directors Aerlyn Weissman and Lynne Fernie, winning a Genie Award, a GLAAD Media Award and by some accounts, a 12-minute standing ovation at the original Montreal premiere. After being out of circulation for more than a decade, Cinema Politica closed their fall session with a digitally re-mistressed screening of Forbidden Love subsequently confirming that time has not tarnished the film. The seminal documentary features interviews with Canadian women, each recounting their own experiences in coming to realize their attraction to women and the formation of their identity as lesbians within an oppressive society that considered homosexuality to be illegal. The women, already aged at the time of their interviews, chronicle with tact and humour their search for safe lesbian spaces (generally taking the form of dive bars) as well as for love and acceptance. Interviews are cut with archival footage and visual reenactments of lesbian pulp fiction novel covers. These latter segments were --and still are-intentionally campy, but speak to the dismal fact that at the height of their popularity in the 1950s and 60s, there was little else published concerning lesbian life. Author Ann Bannon, the “Queen of Lesbian Pulp Fiction,” is among the interviewees speaking to the popularity of the novels at the time. She points out that while the genre was popular, a repressive and heteronormative society called for the female characters to be punished or killed by the end for being “different.” Still, as echoed by the films other subjects, they existed as a point of reference for women and girls who thought that they might be “that way” too. As expected, the women in the film cover an array of brutal realities associated with being “that way” including being subjected to violence, brutality and feelings of shame and isolation. But from this came a decided sisterhood, a feeling that seemed to resonate with spectators two and a half decades later. Cinema Politica’s audience was alive, acting out the collective ideals of the film by laughing and cheering throughout while leaving room for more somber moments to land. Montrealer Nairobi’s account of being beating by her mother for having been with a woman while repeating “but I love her” was one such moment.
Forbidden Love is at once deeply personal and the product of a united collective; the process of its production referred to as a “coffee klatch” by its codirectors. While it is a literal account of women who had been victimized as result of their sexuality, it finds strength in its refusal to portray them as victims. For many in the crowd it was their first time seeing Forbidden Love, but the reception of the film along with the dialogue between filmmakers and audience that took place during a Q & A after the screening was a clear demonstration that the film continues to be relevant and to effect those it touches. The screening was timed with the launch of Forbidden Love in book form, the latest in the Queer Film Classics series which in light of a film “so inspiring, was easy to write” according to its authors Jean Bruce and Gerda Cammaer. Forbidden Love continues to be the only film of its length about Canadian lesbians, and so for Weissman and Fernie, it was important to have the word “lesbian” as part of the title as its byline, so as not to be swept under the rug as much of Canadian lesbian history has been. At the same time, the undeniable humour that comes through the film was not only a natural byproduct of the charisma of the women interviewed or a learned defense to survive a life with such obstacles, but was an important focus of the directors. They wanted to give “no reason not to watch this film, no reason to turn away.” They also put forth that not all resistance has to look hostile; that resistance can take the form of humour, particularly in the face of something that seems ridiculous. The refurbished version comes after years in the dark, at a time when most of the film’s subjects have died and the rate of employment for women in film production continues to be dismal. But its importance and ingenuity still stand and the audience still cheers loudly as the final text rolls across the screen: This film is not intended to be a broad representation of Canadian Lesbians, but one slice of a history that has gone largely untold. For more info and to watch the trailer : http://www.cinemapolitica.org/film/forbiddenlove-unashamed-stories-lesbian-lives