Transcendent Pariah

Just had to write a post to say how excited I am about the imminent theatrical release of Dee Rees and Nekisa Cooper's powerful lesbian drama, Pariah (in select theatres December 28th). Ever since their short film version of this story appeared on the festival scene in 2007, it feels as though the whole LGBT film community has been watching Dee and Nekisa on their very long road to reach this moment. Achieving national distribution for an African American lesbian feature hasn't happened since Cheryl Dunye made The Watermelon Woman back in 1996 (and while that wonderful film earned a great deal of well-deserved attention, the resources of First Run Features at the time were not quite so extenseive as those of Focus Features in releasing Pariah today). 

Congratulations to Dee and Nekisa and their entire cast and crew. And a nudge to the reigning expert on African American women filmmakers, Yvonne Welbon. It's time to add two new names to the Sisters in Cinema filmmaker directory.

And also time to add another queer film to the canon of films (Boys Don't Cry, The Hours, Beginners come to mind) which simultaneously meet and transcend that label of "queer film."