courtneyyeagerdotcom.files.wordpress.com€¦  · Web viewDana Strothenke, a UW-Eau Claire student and attendee of opening night, said that seeing the film and hearing the story

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Eau Queer Film Festival attracts record-breaking crowds

An LGBTQ film festival in rural Wisconsin had the highest attendance in its five year

history thanks to its opening film, which documents a situation involving gay women and

unjust media.

The 5th Annual Eau Queer Film Festival was held from September 24-28 in the

Woodland Theater in the Davies Center on the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire campus.

The festival aims to embrace the diversity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and

queer/questioning communities through the medium of film.

This year, the festival had its highest attendance ever, totaling 1,100 attendees over

the five days. 253 of these

attendees were just on

opening night, thanks to

the showing of "Out in the

Night," a documentary

directed by blair dorosh-

walther, who prefers her

name be spelled using

lower case letters.

dorosh-walther, a

director, producer, artist,

production designer and

activist based in Washington D.C., came to the University as a visiting filmmaker and guest

speaker. She created the film to tell the story of four African-American, lesbian women in

New York City. The women were unjustly imprisoned under the charge of gang violence

after the women defended themselves after being verbally and physically assaulted by a

straight man.

The women, Renata Hill, Patreese Johnson, Terrain Dandridge and Venice Brown,

served prison terms ranging from three to eight years, plus probation after appealing the

longer sentences they were originally given. During the process of their incarceration, the

Co-Executive Directors of the Eau Queer Film Festival Ellen Mahaffy and Pam Forman, along with a few student staff members converse with visiting

filmmaker blair dorosh-walther and documentary participant Renata Hill after the Q&A session on opening night. ©2014 Courtney Yeager

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women were immediately and inaccurately portrayed as a “gang of lesbian killers” by

media such as The New York Times.

“…it was completely inaccurate and derogatory and

kind of assassinated my character.” – Renata HillRenata Hill, one of the four women, accompanied dorosh-walther to Eau Claire to

speak about her experience. She talked briefly about the media’s portrayal of her and the

three other women and how her perception of the media has changed since her ordeal.

“I’ve kind of had a resentment or a strong dislike for the media for a long time

because I guess they kind of just killed my trust in what you read in the paper and what you

see on the news,” she said.

Jerrika Christianson, Director of this year’s festival, said that she would be curious to

know what would be different about the women’s sentencing if the media had gotten the

women’s side of the story.

“I think that they (the women’s sentences) would be different, but at what point

would they have interviewed the women? They still haven’t interviewed any of them and

this happened about ten years ago. It just goes to show the lack of care that some mass

media has for the truth. They just want to say things in a way that sells,” she said.

Hill confirmed that the media has never contacted any of the four women and that

the way they were portrayed has had a lasting effect on her.

“They just came up with these crazy headlines and information all put together

about us, and it was completely inaccurate and derogatory and kind of assassinated my

character. These are words that basically are gonna be out there forever. You can’t take

them back,” she said.

Having dorosh-walther and Hill visit and speak was an important piece of the

festival, according to Assistant Director, Ryan Spaight. He said that their visit is what he

thinks helped bring so many attendees to opening night, and the festival in general, and

that dorosh-walther and Hill’s message affects a lot of people.

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“We knew that the message that they were going to be bringing to the table was one

of inter-sectionality and one of lived experience. It is a really complex story but it also

affects a lot of different communities and resonates with a lot of different people and that is

why we think it was so important to bring them,“ he said.

Dana Strothenke, a UW-Eau Claire student and attendee of opening night, said that

seeing the film and hearing the story of Hill and the other three women opened her eyes to

the privilege she has as a white, straight female.

“I don’t have to worry about the same kinds of things that other people do. I knew

that, but I didn’t really know that,” she said.

dorosh-walther’s film was the first of 14 films shown at the festival over the course

of five days. Christianson says that she is pleased with how people reacted to dorosh-

walther’s film and how many people attended the festival overall.

She said, “I’m really happy at the turn out. As a director of the film festival, what I

wanna do is bring people into the seats and I am just very pleased at how many people

came to the film, and how they all had a very similar reaction. I liked how people were

asking ‘How can we help? What can we do?’ That is the power of film. It helps you want to

create change.”