Out in the Mountains

A Conve_rsation with
Jennie Livingston
Continued from previous page

lesbian, and that part of my personality
cont:ributes very heavily, as do the others.
I think it’s a trap to call oneself a woman
film-maker or a gay film-maker, or a Jew-
ish film-maker, or a black film-maker.

OITM: Did you have an idea when you
fust started going to balls that you might
want to make a film? Or did that just hap-
pen as you learned more about the world?

Jennie: It happened within the first few
months of going. When I first went, I had
filmed these guys vogueing with a little
wind-up camera. And I thought it looked
good. I just thought, “Well, this will be be
an adventure.” One of the things I got ac-
customed to doing with a still camera was
having little adventures, going places I
might not have gone. In a way I think
that’s how I overcame a lot of my dif-
ficulty or shyness about entering the gay

community. I would go to these really
wild gay parties at Yale and take pictures.
And it was a way of being part of it, but
not having to compromise myself
(laughs). I had a lot of gay friends at that
point, but I just wasn’t very sure. And so
that was a way to go (to the balls) because
there are great sexual and race and class
barriers. Middle class white girls don’t
just go up to Harlem on their own. But
middle class girls with cameras, maybe
they do. Maybe they start to meet people
and change their mind about what it is that
middle class white girls can do. So I start-
ed to go and take a lot of pictures. And
within a few months I felt like this would
make a good movie.

OITM: Do you essentially think of your-
self as a film-maker now, more than a
photographer?

Jennie: Yes. I’m not really taking pictures
so much. I’m writing a script, sort of a sa-
tirical John Waters-like film, which is a
satire of violence against women in the
movies. It’s a film with a lot of violence
against men. Not meant to encourage such
a thing, but meant to make a satire of all
the ubiquitous images we’re always see-
ing. Every single movie you walk into
there’s a woman being murdered or raped
or terrorized. I think people don’t think
about it enough — about what it means to
always be seeing those images. It’s a sat-
ire of that, it’s also a satire of a thousand
points of light, and it’s a little bit about
witchcraft So it’s a wacky old movie! I’m
writing that and I’m also writing a book
on gender for Random House. That’ll be
my non-fiction project. I do want to keep
working in non-fiction, but non-fiction
film is just...it’s simply so hard to raise the
money. I’m not a rich person. I can’t not
work, and hope after five years I’ll be able
to finish something. There’s a way I was
willing to live when I was 22, that I’m not
willing to live at 29. Call that being bour-
geois. but I just don’t know how people

do it, who keep doing it. I think the peoyn
who do it a second and third time harm
some kind of back-up that I don’t have. n
OITM: Do you get mostly gay audieneeio
Do you get mixed audiences? K

IV
Jennie: The audiences have been realle
mixed. I think it’s definitely had, much
my surprise and excitement, a mainstreaifo
appeal. Because I made it to appeal to em
ryone. I don’t think that gay moviiy
should just appeal to gay people. The poii
is that our stories are just stories, and{)
good story’s a good story. I get reallyobv
fended when...I remember this one j0l|l
nalist last summer, when we were doiijr
the publicity, asked me, “Why should anyji
one go to see this when they can’t relatew
it?” He was playing the devil’s advocatw
And I felt like, The Terminator is really;
like daily life. I mean, what is this? Capiv
Fear, that’s really a dilemma that I hit:
just last week. Movies are stories. Ytoe
don’t have to relate to them, except th‘r:
they are stories. n

h
OITM: How has your life changed Silltllt
Paris is Burning became such a success? in

c

H
Jennie: Well, I think it’s changed in tliir
it’s created an immense amount of pica!
sure. Before it was completed, the pressuro
was, finish the film, finish the film, somih
how try to finish the film. Now the prei:V
sure is to come up with something elsh
Tliere’s also an immense business pressuitn
because the film becomes this thing unto
itself, and there are battles with lawyeim
battles with companies, people sort 
stealing money from you, and then othtlt
people saying, “You made all this monepl
and you haven’t given us any.” There WIY‘
someone from the ball world who triedly
sue us and claimed he hadn’t signed arilc
lease, which he had. Meanwhile, we’ifl<
been trying to get our money from tit?!
company that’s distributing the film, be{0
cause it is our intention to give a chunkdf

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