BlackmanVision Film Production

My top three that you have to see and if you cannot see them at the BFI London Film Festival make sure you see them at the cinema or snag a DVD with your very last pennies. These are in no particular order because they are all amazing.

1. Pariah – Stunning coming of age story about a middle class African American lesbian teenager. Dee Rees’ first feature shows a maturity and skill most of us take years to achieve. Book now to see Pariah.
   
2. The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 – Powerful Swedish documentary using rare archive footage of the Black Power movements in the USA. White European filmmakers with an Afrocentric gaze! Whoa!  See The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 here.
   
3. Weekend – sencond feature by Andrew Haigh (Greek Pete). One of THE best gay films ever made. There is one exquisite moment in the sex scene which makes it the most authentic I have ever seen in cinema. See Weekend here.
   

Instead of getting angry and doing nothing I am just writing this list in response to the laziest stoopidest film power list created by the Guardian. I guess they just sat around in their white office full of smug white people who are too lazy to look beyond their white picket fence. Yes pun intended.

So here is the BlackmanVision 100 Film Power List in no particular order because we are not into competition and each person/organization has their own value and worth. Power is not just about money and box office, it is also about contributing to a wider important film culture and debate.

And guess what?  In this list there are some white people!  Feel free to add more in the comments or disagree. Bring it On!!

1. Horace Ové – The first black person to ever make a feature length movie – Pressure,  in the UK, he is still going strong
2. Gurinder Chadha – one of the most commercially successful female directors in the UK, invented a catchprhrase – Bhaji on the Beach, Bend it Like Beckham, Bride and Prejudice
3. Pratibha Parmar – award winning filmmaker of features and documentaries, the first lesbian of colour to make a feature film in the UK - Nina’s Heavenly Delights, Warrior Marks, Jodie; An Icon, The Righteous Babes
4. John Akomfrah – award-winning director and film artist and OBE  - Handsworth Songs, Seven Songs for Malcolm X, Mnemosyne & the whole crew at Smoking Dogs, cos they are a collective Lina Gopaul, David Lawson, Trevor Mathison & Eddy George
5. Noel Clarke – he makes all those gangsta urban dramas and gets on TV alot – Adulthood, 4321
6. Lee Daniels – first Black person ever to win an Oscar – for Producing Monster’s Ball and directed Precious
7. Oprah – she can just go by one name – nuff said, but put her money behind Malcolm X and Precious and other film/TV projects
8. Tyler Perry – made his name through selling works to black people and set up the first Black owned film studio in the USA
9. Will Smith – the biggest box office draw in the UNIVERSE!
10. Jane Goldman – writes the best screenplays and directs and has pink hair – Stardust, Kick-Ass, The Debt, X-Men:First Class
11. Ben Cook – director of LUX and supportive of people who are working in artists moving image
12. Laura Mulvey – author of “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” and professor of Film at Birkbeck College
13. Cheryl Dunye – first Black lesbian ever to make a feature film and recently directed The OWLS, also Watermelon Woman and Stranger Inside
14. Ilene Chaiken – Producer of the L word – the biggest lesbian series ever
15. Christine Vachon – most powerful producer of and the founding producer of New Queer Cinema – Poison, Swoon, Go Fish, Kids, Boys Don’t Cry,
16. Tom Kalin – new queer cinema director – Swoon, Savage Grace
17. Sarah Schulman – screenwriter and activist and will adapt her play Carson McCullers (Historically Inaccurate) into the movie Lonely Hunter
18. Guinevere Turner – screenwriter of American Psycho,  Notorious Bettie Paige and  Go Fish
19. Rose Troche – director of Go Fish iconic lesbian movie
20. Effie Brown – indie film producer of Stranger Inside, Real Women Have Curves and In the Cut
21. Racialicious – we are reading them, are you?
22. After Ellen – if you are not on there, why not?
23. Queerty – inside queer stories in Hollywood
24. Derek Malcolm – wonderful critic who came to East London to talk to youths about film when I asked. His TV show was fantastic. His column awesome.
25. George Clooney – because he does work in Darfur and knows Africa is NOT a country, box office god
26. Ben Affleck – OK apart from J-Lo – let’s draw a veil over that one, is very knowledgeable about Black culture and Africa
27. Matt Damon – has he been in any flops? No! And is a good writer and actor and friend to the queers
28. F. Gary Gray – director Set it Off – nuff said and of course The Italian Job
29. Spike Lee – for his massive portfolio and not letting Paxman get away with stupid questions about race, She’s Gotta Have It, X, Do the Right Thing
30. Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski – (brother and sister team) for making awesome films like the Matrix and deconstructing white masculinity in a sneaky way
31. Charlize Theron – for being a kick ass actress and Producing risky edgy  films  - Monster
32. Apichatpong Weerasethaku – for  winning the Palme D’or this year and being an out gay man from a non- Western country making non-narrative films. w00t!
33. Helen de Witt – for being one of the first people to work to set up the Trans Film Festival and also working at the LLGFF and LFF
34. Kim Yutani – for setting up Fusion a place for films for queer people of colour
35. Barbara Hammer – powerhouse of lesbian aesthetic and avante garde cinema
36. Julianne Moore  - a friend to queers who has consistently used her *name* to get challenging queer work made. ♥
37. Keith Shiri – founder of Africa at the Pictures which showcases African cinema
38. Haile Gerima – writer director of Sankofa
39. Isaac Julien – artist filmmaker Looking for Langston and Young Soul Rebels
40. Deepah Mehta – director of Fire and big phat portfolio of others
41. Mira Nair – director of Amelia, Vanity Fair, Monsoon Wedding
42. Souleymane Cissé – director of Yeelen among many other films
43. Nollywood – those Nigerian filmmakers are gonna take over the world and you won’t know what hit you
44. Rajkumar Hirani – dir of 3 idiots the highest grossing Bollywood movie forget Bollywood at your risk
45. Queen Latifah  - Producer  The Perfect Holiday – there will be more
46. Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein – bare nostalgia here, so really scraping through – Crying Game, Pulp Fiction, Heavenly Creatures
47. Debra Zimmerman – Women Make Movies
48. Kathy Wolfe – Wolfe Video – largest/oldest distributor of LGBT movies
49. Kahloon Loke/Tom Abell – supporter and distributor of indie LGBT work and founders of Peccadillo Pictures
50. TLA Releasing – one of the largest distributors of LGBT titles
51. Yvonne Welbon – Sisters in Cinema  - compiles a resource about African American women in cinema
52. Sylviane Rano & Betty Sulty-Johnson – Images of Black Women Film Festival – it does what it says on the tin
53. Suzanne de Passe – nominated for an Oscar for Lady Sings the Blues and now a major Hollywood executive
54. Antoine Fuqua – dir Training Day where Denzel Washington won the Oscar
55. Denzel Washington – a bankable heart throb since back in the Spike Lee days
56. Halle Berry – one of my friends had lunch with her and said she was sweet and smelled nice. Box office kerching. This moment is so much bigger……
57. Jodie Foster – did she come out yet? A child actor who did not go crazy and addicted
58. Rich Ross – Head of Disney and out and proud – erm …how could he be ‘in” c’mon look at his picture?
59. Sherry Lansing – first woman to head a Hollywood studio
60. Amy Pascal – head of Columbia Tri-star
61. Donna Langley – co-chair of Universal Pictures
62. Sue Naegle – President of HBO Entertainment
63. Elizabeth Gabler – President Fox 2000 Pictures
64. Ann Daly – COO Dreamworks Animation
65. Nancy Utley – President Fox Searchlight Pictures
66. Emma Watts – President of 20th Century Fox – yeah she was responsible for Avatar
67. Ellen De Generes – I know, she doesn’t make films but anyone promoting films wants to be on her show.
68. Amy Baer – President and CEO CBS Films
69. Laura Ziskin – Produces the Spider Man franchises
70. Lauren Shuler Donner – Producer of the X-Men series
71. Christina Norman – CEO The Oprah Winfrey Newtowrk
72. Tracey Jacobs – Top Hollywood agent – Tim Robbins is on her books yaay and other A-Listers
73. Hylda Queally – represents among others – Penelope Cruz nuff said
74. Cynthia Pett-Dante – represents Brad Pitt
75. Claudia Lewis – Head of Production – Fox Searchlight – Whip It, Notorious
76. Deborah Schindler – Head of Sony Pictures international motion picture production
77. Nina Shaw – one of Hollywood’s power lawyers who negotiates for Jamie Foxx, Laurence Fishburne amongst others
78. Vanessa Morrison – President of Fox Animation – Fantastic Mr Fox, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
79. Aamir Khan – Producer and actor – 3 idiots, Lagaan
80. Stephanie Allain Bray – Hustle & Flow, Something New, and Black Snake Moan
81. Debra Martin Chase – heads Denzel Washington’s Production Company
82. Lisa Cortés – Producer – The Woodsman, Shadowboxer, Monster’s Ball, Precious
83. Ava DuVernay – her company DVA provided strategy and execution for directors such as Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, Michael Mann, Gurinder Chadha
84. Samuel D. Pollard – producer Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin yes!!! aslo works as a power editor
85. George Tillman Jr. and Robert Teitel – producer/director team – Barbershop films, Notorious, Soul Food
86. Abbas Kiarostami – writer – Certified Copy
87. Rachid Bouchareb – French director – Little Senegal, London River, Hors La Loi
88. Cath Le Couteur and Jess Search – Shooting People
89. Rebecca O’Brien – Producer – Sweet Sixteen, My Name is Joe, Land and Freedom and The Wind That Shakes the Barley
90. Rachael Prior – Producer – Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz
91. Diablo Cody – Juno, (draw a veil over Jennifer’s Body) has cool ink and a great blog
92. Angelina Jolie – no film will fail with this woman in it and lesbians love her!
93. Jennifer Aniston – another box office winner – obviously the good girl to Jolie’s rude gyal tings
94. Meryl Streep – apparently if her name is on anything it gets greenlit pronto. Hooray for older hotties
95. Sarah Jessica Parker – people may sneer because of the so called ‘chick flick” genre but she brings home the box office bacon
96. Cameron Diaz – quirky box office gold
97. Sandra Bullock – everybody loves her and even more so now we know she can have heartache even tho she is worth millions
98. Drew Barrymore – just gets better from E.T to  Charlie’s Angels and Whip it. Doing it for the grrls
99. Helen Mirren – just plain UK film royalty
100. Dame Judy Dench – used to be a patron of a little organisation I worked for and was charming and unpretentious – pure class

Boys Don’t Cry is one of my favorite films, for the story but primarily for the way Hilary Swank totally nailed the genderqueer character of Brandon Teena.  I am presently casting for Stud Life which also has a genderqueer female lead. It is dawning on me that I am in for the long haul. It took THREE YEARS before Hilary Swank was cast!! BTW Shane from the L-Word also auditioned for the role.

According to Wikipedia. “Swank prepared for the role by dressing and living as a man for at least a month, including wrapping her chest in tension bandages and putting socks down the front of her pants in much the same way that Brandon Teena did. Her masquerade was so masterful that her neighbors believed that the young man (Swank in male character) coming and going from her home was Swank’s visiting brother.”  In the end the dedication earned her an Oscar.

I put out the casting call a month ago and have received an overwhelming positive response from actors for every part EXCEPT that of  JJ – the Black 20-something stud lesbian. This raises some issues around who goes for parts, but who is actually out there to play certain roles.

I don’t believe that you have to be genderqueer in your daily life to play a butch dyke, a transman or transwoman but you will need to take the risk to go outside your prescribed learned behaviour in terms of gender as Swank did for Boys Don’t Cry. But isn’t that what acting is about? Being able to live in someone else’s skin?

I would like Stud Life to taste and smell queer not look GAY as those BBC Dramas or Hollywood films. But do those productions cast normative people because they think that is more palatable for their audiences? Or could it be that if there was more diversity in casting then mainstream audiences would be more acceptable to variety?

Would it be easier if I had made JJ white? Are there more white actresses who are happy to play genderqueer and take the risk to do a butch lesbian role than Black actresses? So far I have had many handsome studs who are not actors wanting to be cast as JJ. Should I go down the route of casting an non-actor?

I have had many applications from men of colour who are quite happy to play gay so is this a woman thing?

My friends keep telling me that I am not going to get a woman, let alone a Black woman actress who is gender-queer as she would have given up long ago!  But isn’t there a newer generation of Black actresses who do not care and dress and look how they please. This is 2010 not 1980!

These are questions running around in my head.

STUD LIFE – CASTING CALL – LONDON ACTORS
Mates b4 Muff
Writer/Director: CampbellX
Producers – Stella Nwimo & Nadya Kassam

BD Women Clip from BlackmanVision on Vimeo. One of Campbell’s award-winning films

Stud Life is the new feature length film on queer street life in London written and directed by CampbellX. The film is a post-modern LGBT She’s Gotta Have It for the YouTube generation. Stud Life asks the perennial queer question, how do you choose between your lover and your best friend?

Stud Life is filmed over 10 days in London. Please note Stud Life contains lesbian, gay male and transgender content and scenes of a sexual nature and is a lo-budget independent film shot on HD video.

AUDITIONS
Dates of auditions will be 19, 21 22 July 2010 in London.
22 July will be the call back day.
Please email head shots and CVs to studlifethemovie@gmail.com stating what role you are auditioning for. Please include links to any videos of yourself online.
DEADLINE 16TH JULY 17:00 HOURS

CHARACTERS
JJ – 20 something Black butch masculine female, often mistaken for a guy.
Seb – JJ’s best friend and confidante and side-kick is a white ethnic 20 something emo gay man.
Smack Jack – 20-something Anglo English posh boy. He is smitten by Seb, who takes no notice of him.
Elle – 20-something lesbian hi-femme professional dominatrix. JJ falls for her but realises she is very hot to handle.
Manchester Joe – 30 something chavvy and thug sort of guy, Has anger issues and internalised homophobia.
White Man – 60 something
Thai Woman – 20 something
Bouncer – 30 something Black man
Iranian gay guy – 20 something
Older white boyfriend of Iranian guy – 50 something
Butch Boi – 20 something masculine woman
Hooded Youth 1 – 18-25
Hooded Youth 2 – 18-25
Flirty beautiful feminine woman – 20 – 60 something
1950’ s Bride – 30 something tattoed burlesque type woman
1950’s Groom – 30 something 1950’s style and vibe
Woman in Loo – 30-something
Barber 1 – 20 something – African
Barber 2 – 40 something – African
Hairdresser 1- 20 something Jamaican woman
Hairdresser 2 – 20 something – Black woman
Buppy woman – 30 something – Black aspirational woman
Buppy man – 40 something – Black aspirational type man
Old Skool Butch – 60 something woman
Chic Femme – 60 something woman
Hippy Femme - 30 something woman
Toi Boi – 30 something transman (FTM)
Asian bride – 20 something Asian woman
Bride’s Mother – 40 something Asian woman
Bride’s father – 40 something Asian man
Bridesmaid 1 – 20 something Asian woman
Bridesmaid 2 – 20 something Asian woman
Bridesmaid 3 – 20 something Asian woman

I am so sad that Lena Horne has died. I somehow thought she would always be a part of the landscape, getting older and still looking fabulous, but she had a long run and 92 is a good age to cross over to the other side. Many years ago I pitched making a documentary about her to terrestrial broadcaster. She was of no significance to the Commissioning Editor. It is heartening to know that she was however valued by other people. While doing extensive research on her I learned:

• She got married in a black dress.
• The song Stormy Weather from the movie of the same name, was spliced into the movie so it could be easily spliced out, so as not to offend cinema audiences in the Southern states of the USA.
• Her family was friendly with Paul Robeson and supported him financially. That association with Robeson who was a Communist, caused her to be blacklisted in 1950.
• She described composer Billy Strayhorn who was openy gay as her “soulmate’ and slept with his photo by her bed.
• As she was *too light-skinned* to play a maid, Max Factor invented a make up to darken her called Light Egyptian, which was then used on Ava Gardner to play a *mulatto* in the movie Showboat.
• Many other Black actors thought she was making trouble, and would lose them income, when she complained about the demeaning of roles they were given. Hattie McDaniel had a more pragmatic approach – “I’d rather play a maid and make $700 a week, than be a maid for $7.”
• She sang “Now,” at a Carnegie Hall benefit for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee a Black Power organization in 1963. It became her first hit.

I just gathered together some links to make sense of the disaster in Haiti. I wanted to dig a little deeper about the people who live and love in Haiti. Haiti is the First Black Republic in the Western Hemisphere as a result of the Haitian Revolution a slave revolt, led by Toussaint L’Ouverture. I wanted to humanise the people for myself and for people interested in art and culture too.  Haiti’s debts started when they had to buy their freedom from France to compensate the slave owners for the loss of income. Here are some links I found.

Art

• Ghetto Biennale is an exhibition in Port au Prince, challenging art hierarchy and discourse and critiquing globalisation.
• WomenArts is a resource focussing on female artists in Haiti and includes books about Haiti.

Film

• Interview with Haitian filmmakers Michele Stephenson and Guetty Felin who put together a film festival about Haitian film heritage.
• Haitian Film School where the students are providing up to the minute footage as long as they are able about the earthquake.
• Haitian Movie database which lists Haitian filmmakers. I am not sure how often it is updated.
• Cousines a feature film made by one of the more mainstream Haitian filmmakers, Richard Senecal
• Of Men and Gods a documentary by Anne Lescot and Laurence Magloire,  explores LGBT life in Haiti and it’s relationship to voodoo.

Donations

• Yele a foundation started by Haitian-American musician Wyclef Jean.
• The Foundry who has a history of working with Haitian artists has set up a donation which goes directly to people in Port au Prince.
• Madre has worked tirelessly in Haiti since the 80′s.

Analysis

• Port-au-Prince before the earthquake, described by Haitian writers and visitors to the island.
• Naomi Klein itemises very clearly what the USA can do now for Haiti.
• Carl Lindskoog explains how the USA contributed to the corruption and severe economic status in Haiti.

LGBT

• Haitian Gays and Lesbians Alliance Inc. is the first leading community based organization which supports Haitian, born or identified, LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transsexual) people.
• International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission’s response to the Haitian earthquake.
• Homosexual activity between consenting adults in private has been legal since 1986. Haitian Lesbians : Loud & Proud describes the life of diaspora Haitian lesbians and bisexual women.

You got funding for your film after submitting your precious script or treatment to a funding body. Someone liked it! In fact someone out there loved it so much they want to invest their money in you and in your film. Celebrate! Go out with your friends. Feel the love because the next months are going to be hard and you will need your friends. This may all sound basic to some people, but to others maybe not.

1. Meet the funders with your producer who will have read the contract and has some questions. If you are the producer as well as director, read the contract very carefully and ask any questions about things you don’t understand. Clarify. Clarify.
2. Make sure you understand the needs of the funders. Yes they love the script, they love you. It is a kissy kissy lovefest. But they usually have an agenda er …goal. Find out what it is from other people who have received funding previously, if you are not alert to this, the relationship can turn sour very quickly.
3. Find out how many stakeholders need to see the film before the rough cut is signed off. It may not be just the people you meet up with, but other invisible backroom people who have a say. Build this into your schedule.
4. Get a good senior production manager or line producer to manage the shoot. Not your mate!  Get someone who is skilled and comes with cash flow templates, contracts, and other tricks. She – it is usually a ‘she’ will negotiate good deals for you. She usually comes with loads of contacts too. If you are not very experienced these are like gold dust. She will also prevent you from going over budget.
5. Work with a crew who believes in you and your vision. Yeah I know you are paying them and they should get all enthusiastic because you are flashing the cash. However you need to have support of the crew because after several days working long hours, they will be tired and narky.
6. While you are at it, don’t forget to feed people. Humans on film crews somehow get primal, and food is one of the basic needs. If you feed them food they like, they will be very happy. This is for any film whether funded or not.
7. If it is a drama get professional actors or performers to be in your film. It is tempting to use friends who would LOVE to be in a movie. I am passing on this warning  from more experienced directors than me.
8. Film sets are notorious for having loads of people hanging around. Leave that to the blockbuster movies with their multimillion budgets. On your lo-budget movie every penny has to count. Check with your line producer if you really need everyone. More people means more mouths to feed, more people to move around which eats money. Be brutal.
9. But don’t delete the stills photographer who will take stills for your film. Trust me, stills are better than frame grabs for press and publicity. And you can afford a photographer with funding.
10. Enjoy the experience it is like no other.

Vanity Fair - kd lang and Cindy Crawford

Stealing Beauty was a panel discussion chaired by Diva magazine Editor Jane Czyzselska. I was on the panel with Artist, DJ and performer Sadie Lee and fashion historian and cultural critic Elizabeth Wilson.

The event explored how LGBT culture plunders dominant straight culture and uses it to create something new and vibrant.

In my presentation I brought up three concepts. And here is a sample of my talk.

• The Guerilla Gaze
• Analog Duplication of Dominance
• Dominant Dilution

The Guerilla Gaze
My definition of The Guerilla Gaze is the ability of LGBT people to derive pleasure from images not intended for us. We queer the

Grace Jones - still looking fabulous

images in our imagination subverting the inherent (hetero)sexuality of the dominant narratives presented in movies, music videos, adverts and TV shows. In movies highly femininised women become objects of desire for women, as well as objects of identification. Butch lesbians may model their image according to the “thug style” as seen by hip hop stars like Fifty Cents or Flo Rida. They sometimes mimic the pose presented by the brute force of masculinity of Brad Pitt in Fight Club or Marlon Brando in A Street Car Named Desire usually in a vest.

The Guerilla Gaze also throws light on people within film or TV narratives or within culture who are not considered objects of desire by mainstream heterosexual commodified desire. Our eyes are drawn to men and women who are “othered”. We elevate women in particular who defy the odds – who are older yet fierce, who bend gender, who are rebels. Do we do this because we feel they are the “Ugly Ducklings” of mainstream culture, and in our eyes they are transformed into Swans as we would hope to be perceived?

Analog Duplication of Dominance
The definition of analog duplication of dominance is that oppressed peoples often steal traditions from dominant cultures and with time the original meaning often changes or is subverted. I say this because with each generation our memories become increasingly more faint to the point that contemporary people often do not know the origins of particular behaviours, images, styles and traditions.  Our collective memories are thus analog.  If our memories were digital we would remember everything accurately all the time.

In the USA the system of the Houses eulogised in the movie Paris is Burning, recreates the notion of nuclear family with House Mothers and Fathers and children. Houses are made up of queer African American and Latina Americans rejected by mainstream LGBT cultures or their own bio-families. The Houses host balls in which people parody or mimic images of (WASP) power in the USA. For example one of the categories is Executive Realness. The participants perform “Business man” but always with flair. They cannot resist that extra flourish and transpose beauty and colour over the drabness of a grey suit. Popular gay slang now refers to LGBT people being “one of the children” or “family” possibly not realising their origins in Houses in the ghettos of the USA in the 1980s.

Fem - Eve relishes the apple

My work especially Fem is about stealing iconic images of femininity from dominant culture including fairy tales, religion, movies, fashion. I queer them with a particular lesbian sensibility – Eve does regret eating the apple and will not be punished. Eve is also a Black woman, reminding us that we all came from Africa and subverting the dominant Eurocentric Biblical image of Eve.

Dominant Dilution
Mainstream straight culture sucks off cultures of marginalised peoples, and regurgitates it back to everyone bleached and ironed out for mass capitalistic consumption.

August 1993 issue of Vanity Fair with k.d. lang and Cindy Crawford

Words like naff whose original meaning was dull, heterosexual, mundane or trade meaning same sex partner were from Polari the language spoken by LGBT people and people in the underworld in the past. Prince gained major popularity in the 1980s but how many people know that his style was very similar to Little Richard from the 1960s who sang songs with coded queer lyrics. Madonna appropriated vogueing a dance style created by queer African American and Latina Americans for her video Vogue, while not mentioning anyone of colour in her homage list.

Sometimes, very rarely, a queer image, created by a queer person, with a queer sensibility is used by a mainstream company to sell their product. This happened once with the Vanity Fair which had on their 1993 cover, kd lang and Cindy Crawford photographed by Annie Liebovitz. If you can think of any others please let me know. The image is particularly interesting because it is gender queer, and kd lang a butch woman is also being used to sell glamour to a straight audience.

People are saying butches are invisible in mainstream films. They have always been there, but we may have not liked what we saw like June ‘George’ Buckridge in The Killing of Sister George or Rosa Klebb, a butch Russian lesbian who has a dangerous shoe in the James Bond film from Russia with Love.

I will be in the panel at the Butch Voices Conference called – Is That Me on TV? – 22nd August 2009 – chaired by Cheryl Dunye (Stranger Inside, Watermelon Woman), Campbell X (Fem, BD Women), Kortney Ryan Ziegler (Still Black), Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry) & Jack Halberstam (Female Masculinity).

You may disagree with the list and it would be interesting to hear if you think they are indeed butch or trans, just some girl in a suit, or just a tough broad. Ha!

1. Marlene Dietrich  in Morocco as Mademoiselle Amy Jolly. Dietrich is audacious, chivalrous and causes the woman to melt when she kisses her.
2. Katherine Hepburn in Sylvia Scarlett as Sylvia Scarlett. Here is a rather camp sequence with Cary Grant. But doesn’t Hepburn look handsome.
3. Queen Latifah in Set it Off as Cleo. I don’t mind she dies at the end. It is noble and heroic and explosive.
4. Hilary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry as Brandon Teena. Painful to watch as it is a true story but Hilary Swank is gawky, red-neck and  sexy.
5. Gina Gershon in Bound as Corky. A butch who lives and gets the broad.
6. Yolanda Ross in Stranger Inside as Treasure.  Hot dark-skinned and Afrocentric.
7. Silas Howard in By Hook or By Crook as Shy.  Gender queer, avante-garde and complex.
8. Sonja Sohn in The Wire as Kima Greggs.  Is she butch or just a tough cop. One of the few flawed lesbian characters intelligently handled in mainstream television.
9. Josiane Balasko in Gazon Maudit as Marijo. A rare sighting of an older bulldagger, and in French cinema to boot.
10. Pamela Sneed in BD Women as Butch Daddy. Reclaiming the glory days of the Harlem Rennaissance.

Who are your hot butches on film or TV?

From 2 July – 18 October 2009 the National Portrait Gallery has an exhibition Gay Icons and related events all celebrating the notion of gay iconic. Sandi Toksvig explains in a Guardian article she hopes the exhibition will “..give courage to those people who still struggle with their sexuality. It might make people feel better about themselves and it might make other people rethink their perceptions of gay life.”

I will be chairing the panel Fade to Black on 9th August 15.00 – 17.15 at the National Portrait Gallery.  On the panel will be film director Pratibha Parmar, writer Andrea Stuart and performer Maria Rosa Young after the screening of Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman.

My icons were not about making me feel better about being gay as Sandi recommends. I loved the people listed here because they appeared deviant, quirky, trashy, transgressive or were just plain ornery.

1. Lena Horne – She got married dressed entirely in black. How recalcitrant is that?  Here she sings Stormy Weather from the movie of the same name.
2. Sylvester – An African American man who was not afraid to sing in falsetto and wear make up and fabulous costumes and look like a girl. Here he sings You Make me Feel Mighty Real. I defy anyone to stay still while this is playing!
3. Nina Simone – civil rights activist, Pan Africanist and fierce diva. I had the pleasure of seeing her perform. After throwing her usual tantrums she settled down into a goosebump raising gig. Nina Simone Performs I Put a Spell on You live in 1992.
4. Liberace - The Daily Mirror columnist “Cassandra”!!!(William Connor) described Liberace as “a deadly, winking, sniggering, snuggling, chromium-plated, scent-impregnated, luminous, quivering, giggling, fruit-flavored, mincing, ice-covered heap of mother love.” 1950′s code for er.. gay. Liberace sued the Daily Mirror for libel and won! Ha!
5. Anna Nicole Smith – didn’t fair as well in the courts. In May of 1994, Maria Antonia Cerrato who was Smith’s housekeeper/nanny, sued her for $2 million, charging sexual assault and sexual harassment. Anna Nicole Smith lost and filed for bankruptcy. Anna Nicole Smith sings My Heart Belongs to Daddy badly, but looking fabulous.
6. Marilyn Monroe – The original and much imitated blonde bombshell. She was smart, witty and only wore Channel No. 5 in bed, even when bleeding much to the consternation of her maids. Marilyn Monroe being interviewed  in the Person to Person program about her own production company.
7. Grace  Jones - Jamaican artist and performer who remains androgynous, fierce and raw. I love the fact that she has never forgotten her Jamaican roots and pushes the boundaries of how an African descent woman can ‘perform’ sexy in the music industry.  Pull up to the Bumper is still rude. No? OK it’s really about cars.
8. Beth Ditto – out, loud, proud, fat  femme lesbian who is into butch dykes and is not afraid to say so on every occasion.  Writes her own songs too. Bet somehow she doesn’t end up being sectioned. Just sayn! Beth Ditto talks about bullying.
9. Marlon Brando – just loved his beautiful sensuous face, animal sexuality, surly ways and politics. I think he must have really, really,  worked out for A Streetcar Named Desire judging from how he looked before and after this role.
10. Derek Jarman – Any gay person who can get funding to make an homerotic film entirely in Latin and then have it shown on TV back in the day deserves just iconic status. Sebastiane was made in 1976!

So who are your gay icons?