| Abstract |
Theory collides with comedy in HOOTERS, a behind-the-scenes documentary of The Owls, itself a film that colors outside of the genre lines. For The Owls, a collective very loosely bound by sexuality and ideas of gender takes on a project to make a seminal lesbian film in three weeks.The cast of The Owls is a who's who of queer film: landmark director Cheryl Dunye (The Watermelon Woman and Stranger Inside), Lisa Gornick (Tick Tock Lullaby), Guinivere Turner and VS Brodie (Go Fish), Deak Evangenikos (Itty Bitty Titty Committee), Skyler Cooper (Elena Undone), and writer Sarah Schulman. Funny interpersonal conflict never looked so good.HOOTERS director Albelo's alias la Chocha sneaks around behind the scenes on the set of The Owls. She tracks down members of the filmmaking collective in order to get the real scoop. And boy, does she get some. As the group works hard to finish the film, film theory collides with the collective's vision, gender theory of different generations collides with each other and the ideal collective process collides with the reality of strong (and sometimes volatile) personalities.HOOTERS is a quirky film that demystifies the collective filmmaking process. As anyone who has been in a collective knows, creating a truly collaborative project is often a twisting road. But with aplomb, HOOTERS shows that a daunting task can bring people together, change minds and create extremely compelling art. |
