This weekend, Wicked Queer: Boston’s LGBTQ+ Film Festival will be hosting its first annual event dedicated to documentary programing since 1984. Through Nov. 21, filmgoers can look forward to screenings at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Brattle Theatre, which will feature films such as "NELLY & NADINE," a World War II lesbian love story, and "Casa Susanna," the story of a house in the Catskills where transgender women found refuge in the '50s and '60s. Shawn Cotter, executive director of Wicked Queer, joined GBH's All Things Considered host Arun Rath to talk about the mini film festival. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Arun Rath: So obviously, being a journalist, I'm kind of psyched you're doing a weekend of documentary-only films. Tell us, though, about where did you get the idea for focusing on documentaries? Why did you feel the need to do this?
Shawn Cotter: Well, personally, I'm a fan of documentaries. I'm a huge history buff, and I feel like the opportunity to sort of share stories from the past and histories — because often histories are rewritten, retold, erased. And I think it's important for all of us, especially those in the queer community, LGBTQ+ community, and also our straight allies, to learn a little bit more about their history, because it's not taught in schools. It's not really taught in the culture. So for an opportunity to sort of present those stories and histories, I think is really important.
Rath: Would you say with documentary, as with other things, that it's been the case also that as much as the history has been told, it hasn't been queer voices telling the stories.
Cotter: Yeah, I would agree with that too. And I think that what we're sort of seeing in, you know, the last decade or so is more queer filmmakers telling their stories and giving a certain sense of authenticity, which I think is really important. It's nothing more powerful to see someone like yourself represented on the screen and also told in a way that celebrates your life, their life, our collective lives.
Rath: Tell us about the films you're most excited about for your audiences to see this weekend — or for yourself?
Cotter: Well, I mean, I love them all. I can't choose what's my favorite. I do love our opening night film, which is "Esther Newton Made Me Gay." I'm a huge fan of queer studies and, again, queer history. And she was a sort of maverick. She was a cultural anthropologist in a time where, I mean, still the field is dominated by men. So as a woman sort of carving out space and she was also the first person to sort of write an anthropological piece on the queer community, called "Mother Camp." She documented the drag scene in New York City in the late '50s and early '60s. This was her doctoral thesis for college, and it didn't get published until '72. So, I mean, in the '60s she was breaking ground, and in the '70s creating what we can kind of consider today as precursor queer studies.
I guess another film that I would want to mention would be "Casa Susanna." You know, trans people are fighting for their lives constantly: the law is against them, society is against trans people in many ways. I want to celebrate them and lift them up because they, like all of us, deserve a proper place at the table, in the conversation. One thing I love about "Casa Susanna" is the documents itself, like all the photographs. We get a little peek into the what the site looks like now. Not to spoil, but I just think that that's kind of fascinating, you know, looking back and then sort of like putting it in sort of a modern context, especially because language changes, identities get a little bit more fleshed out in the conversation.
Rath: Can you talk about how you've you've seen the LGBTQ+ film community grow? I mean, I have to imagine that there's been growth now that you are able to fill a whole film festival of just documentary film.
Cotter: We actually could have done it earlier. I've been involved with the festival for 11 years now, and with that keeping an eye on the programing and seeing different trends in storytelling. I feel like 2022 is the year of the documentary, the queer documentary, and also the queer female coming-of-age story too, which is an interesting sort of trend. So we're getting a lot of female filmmakers that are making queer stories about coming of age. And we're also getting a lot of folks that are making documentaries and telling those stories.
And I feel like the documentary trend is not going to go anywhere soon. And I'm kind of excited about branching off from our main festival, which happens in April, and bringing sort of a satellite mini fest that is documentary-only.
Rath: Awesome. And I talked at the beginning about the fostering of community with film festivals like this. How do the connections grow then between the community, filmmakers and audiences?
Cotter: Honestly, queer spaces are constantly being taken away — bars are closing, coffee houses are closing — there's not a lot of places for us to gather. And one of the important things from my perspective of what a film festival can offer is that space to gather and community to sort of have conversations around things. And film festivals, unlike going to the multiplex or the movie theater or the arthouse theater, often will have filmmakers, creatives coming and being part of the audience and part of the program. And I think that direct access to queer creatives and queer filmmakers and queer storytellers is really important for the community. It's important for them, and it's important for us as the audience to sort of have that opportunity to ask a question, to get a little bit more knowledge about a subject, things like that.
Rath: Shawn, it's been great talking with you. I'm excited about this film festival. I hope it goes great.
Cotter: Well, thank you. I'm hoping for the stars, because we would like to do it next year as well.
