A film festival giving Lesbian filmmakers a platform to showcase their art returned for a second year in rural west Kentucky. Cinema Systers Film Festival organizers call it “the only lesbian film festival in the United States.” The festival is making the river town of Paducah a destination for some in the LGBT community.
Voices of excitement echoed throughout the 1851 Hotel in downtown Paducah as women from around the world gathered to share in the experience of something unique to the rural west Kentucky town, an all lesbian film festival. The organizer of the Cinema Systers Film Festival says while there are many LGBT film festivals, she wanted to give Lesbian filmmakers - who are usually under-represented - a platform to showcase their art.
“It’s not the fact that we did this festival it’s the fact that we did it here, in Paducah. That just kinda shows you that you can make space for women anywhere. It doesn’t have to be in a large city or a metropolitan area.”
That’s Paducah resident and event organizer Laura Petrie, who started Cinema Systers last year. Petrie says she wants the festival to also serve as a connection for those who lost touch after the long-running Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival came to an end two years ago, Like Amy Young of Ames, Iowa.
“One of the things that I’m looking forward to most is seeing a dear friend of mine from Massachusetts who I don’t see often and she’s getting older so every time I see her I’m a little afraid that this is the last time.”
Reuniting with friends in a rural setting was intriguing for some who drove hundreds of miles to support their fellow sisters. Canadian filmmaker Liss Platt returned for the second year.
“Now that I live in a city of half a million people it’s like oh my goodness, I’m driving down here! There’s miles and miles of countryside and not a lot of people. But Paducah is a great small city.”
The films ranged from candid discussions of first-time experiences kissing another woman to comedies about trying to figure out how to use a purse to broad social, cultural and political issues.
Piper Kessler of Durham, North Carolina’s film “Spin” is a love story about two women on different sides of the political aisle.
“I hope what resonates in Kentucky is listening to each other and that you’re not a bad person because of your political leanings.”
Allison Rose is a construction worker in far west Kentucky. She says her next film will bring attention to the daily encounters of women working in a male-dominated field.
“I’ve had guys pretty much tell me it’s not my place to be out here. Because I’m a lesbian, I’ve had people hang stuff up above my chair in the breakroom… Hey we have bills to pay too.”
Lone Falster and Iben Haar Andersen from Copenhagen, Denmark learned about Cinema Systers at a film festival back home. The couple worked together to produce “In Light of the Revolution,” documenting women and art during the Arab Spring in 2011.
“Women in Egypt [are] normally invisible and they don’t have voices to raise but this period of time the female artists changed their acts and suddenly made a complete difference.”
Falster says women extended their voices and fought for their rights in a time of complete turmoil.
“I think it will relate to every woman because it’s very much about getting your space, have your right to walk on the street, to dress as you want to, to do what you want, to not be assaulted by men. This kind [of film] I think will relate to most of us no matter Egypt, Europe, America.”
B. Danielle Watkins is from Las Vegas and was the only African American filmmaker. During last year’s festival, she stayed at the Hotel Metropolitan, an upscale black hotel during segregation era where many famous guests spent the night like Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Thurgood Marshall and Ray Charles. The hotel, now a museum, influenced Watkins’ documentary titled “Parallel.” In the film, Watkins talks about her life as an African-American lesbian while reflecting on the hotel’s history.
“There is no representation of what it looks like to be a black lesbian. There is no representation of how we live. It’s actually like we don't exist and those that they do use are such a misrepresentation they're so aggressive they are so angry they're almost scary to the point where when they do see us on the street, people are afraid of us. And that's not the life I live that's not the community I live in.”
Watkins’ film draws parallels between the historical significance of an all-lesbian film festival and the hotel’s legacy, reflecting through an emotional dialogue, the history of being shunned.
Organizer Laura Petrie describes Cinema Systers as an acorn planted in her hometown, which she hopes will grow and inspire lesbians from around the country and the world to find acceptance, understanding and community in unexpected places like rural west Kentucky. Deane Oliva served as a crew member assisting in the festival:
“Nobody had ever heard of Woodstock before Woodstock. The fact that it’s in Kentucky is a MAJOR step toward normalizing relations of the LGBT community with the larger community and of course Paducah as a creative community is a wonderful place to have this festival.”
Many of the women were drawn to Cinema Systers to connect with old friends, enjoy each other’s company, support their sisters’ films and tour the river city. But they also aim to make progress in the LGBT community - by providing those who are under-represented with a voice… and by claiming a space to make that voice heard.
