June Cleaver Eats My Beaver

As I discussed in my blog last week, two of my shorts are now available for download from TLA Video on a compilation called Iron Girls 4. Last week I talked about my film Ballet Diesel, the butch lesbian with closeted girlie habits. This week I'll tell you a little about the other short on the compilation, Girl for Life.

Girl for Life is a comedic infomercial spoof that teaches butch women how to enter any women's restroom with "confidence and ease." It's based on real events in that restroom-gender-drama (i.e. people thinking I was a man) was a daily experience for me and I'm sure it is for many of you as well. I do have a minor role in the film, but I cast two of my friends in the leading roles - Karman Kregloe (in the photo below on the right), who now writes for AfterEllen.com, and Shannon Morris (on the left).


There used to be a quarterly queer screening series in L.A. called Film Fatale, organized by Rosser Goodman from KGB Films. In honor of their fifth anniversary they created the Filmmaker Five, where five filmmakers were selected to make a film under five minutes with $50 in only five days. The entire film was to be made in the five days - written, shot, and edited.

At the beginning of the five days, each filmmaker was given an image to begin their film with and an image to end their film with, both of which could be interpreted however we wanted. Five days later, there was a screening where the films played in a sort of loop, with one film's ending image being another film's beginning image, and so forth.

My film was to begin with June Cleaver and end with blowing bubbles. So I did what any other full-fledged dyke would do, and I made a T-shirt that said "June Cleaver Eats My Beaver" to start the film with.


At the end of the film, I had the character I played blow bubbles above the infomercial title card.

And now, six years later, you can watch it on your computer...


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Short Sir Cut

Two of my shorts, Ballet Diesel and Girl for Life, are now available for download from TLA video!

(unfortunately you can't do it on Macs - only PCs)


The shorts were picked up by Iron Rod Motion Pictures who put them on a DVD called "Iron Girls 4." You can't yet purchase the actual DVD, although when you download the compilation from TLA, it's much cheaper...

Let me tell you a little bit about Ballet Diesel, the lesbian who looks like a diesel dyke but walks like a ballerina. Ballet Diesel is near and dear to my heart. It was the first comedic film that I made, and despite the fact that we didn't have a budget for it, it's still one of my favorites (don't tell Butch Jamie).

It was also the first festival-bound short that I did, and I ended up naming my production company after it - Ballet Diesel Films. The company name isn't just a reference to the film, but is also a term of its own - "Ballet Diesel" meaning something that is a hybrid of both feminine and masculine.


I posted a clip from the film in my blog a couple of months ago; here's the link if you want to check it out.

Here are some facts about the film:
- It is based on real people (the actors who play the characters are the people the film is based on)
- The film is 99% improvised
- Howard, the cat actor from Butch Jamie, has a cameo
- The actress who plays "The Femme," Leah Williamson, helped produce Butch Jamie and also acts in that movie as "Bathroom Girl"


- My character, named Ballet Diesel, bites into an actual onion in the film; we only had one onion, so each take we did I hid the previous bites with my hand
- Ballet Diesel drinks actual beer in the film; we only wanted to use one beer, so each take we did, I filled the bottle with water
- Ballet Diesel trips in the film and that's a real trip
- Ballet Diesel gags on an onion in the film and that's a real gag
- Ballet Diesel spills beer on herself and that was a real accident


I'll tell you about my other short on the compilation, Girl for Life, next time...

Ballerina Butches and more - oh my!

Hey, hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I went to my friend David's, the same one who's in Butch Jamie. He played my gay, Asian friend named David in the movie, so the role was quite a stretch for him. David is an amazing cook and he made the biggest Thanksgiving dinner I have ever seen! He's not even an American, so that makes it extra cute. I don't have any photos from the dinner, but here's a pic of him onset:


So I'll pick up where I left off with my last entry. After I went to Tampa, I flew directly to Portland to represent the movie at their Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Portland was more low-key than Tampa, but still cool. There I met Kathy Belge, who is "Dipstick" from the Lipstick and Dipstick advice column in Curve magazine. She lives in Portland and was there to introduce the screening.


Here's a picture of us butchin' it up. I just noticed how both of her hands are in fists and mine has that slightly femmy straying pinky. Well...I guess I may as well come out and say it. ...I'm not really all that butch. Take a look at this video (it's terrible, I know) --



That's an excerpt from Ballet Diesel, a mockumentary short I made a few years ago. The film is fictional, but it is true that my girlfriend used to call me "Ballet Diesel" because she thought I looked like a diesel dyke but walked like a ballerina. I don't really walk like a ballerina, but I suppose everyone's entitled to their own opinion. Anyway, Iron Rod Motion Pictures is planning to distribute it soon on a DVD compilation, so I'll keep you updated on that. The other woman in the film is Leah Williamson (she's the one who said I looked like a ballerina in real life; she used to be my girlfriend but now we're just good friends. I live in L.A. and she's in Upstate NY, so I make sure to tell her on the phone how butch I am now). Leah helped me produce Butch Jamie and when I was in Tampa, she was representing the film at the Image Out festival in Rochester. Here are some pics:





So that's it for today. I'll be back again soon!