| Page 1 / 2 / 3 - Home
All three women, though, are quick to voice their support for the LGBT community and for queer stories in general. “We all consider ourselves to be part of the LGBT community,” Riverton says. When asked whether she identifies as lesbian or bisexual, Riverton answers, “I actually don't believe in defining sexuality. I know it's a matter of semantics, but I certainly have had relationships with both men and women, so I think others might categorize me as being bisexual, which is fine.”
Lee puts in, “People always say, ‘You're a queer filmmaker.' And actually I do identify with making films about the LGBT community…but I'm very heterosexual.”
Chen acknowledges, “I'm probably the most complicated. I'm married right now to a man…but I have had relationships with women, so I guess that classifies me as being bisexual.”
Despite Lee's history of queer inclusivity in her films and their own, personal experiences, Chen, Lee and Riverton were a bit hesitant to push their film onto the programs of LGBT film festivals, fearing that queer audiences would be disappointed when they realized that only about one quarter of Red Doors was focused on the lesbian storyline. When Outfest programmer David Courier approached Chen about featuring Red Doors as the centerpiece of their All Girl Friday last year, she told him about her reservations.
“And what David said to me was…‘The reason why we love your film is because…the way in which the lesbian character, the sister, is incorporated into an overall family story is very unique, and…frankly our festival is about showing a diversity of stories and showing a diversity of voices, and this particular story…is part of the gay experience, and it's a story that's just as worth telling as a coming out story,'” Chen says. “And he's like, ‘I think that our audiences will get that.'”
Riverton adds, “Steven Gutwillig, he's the head of Outfest…he reiterated the fact that what was so wonderful about the queer content is that it was so matter-of-fact. He said it was just this very matter-of-fact, mundane, of course, why wouldn't they be lesbians?”
It was, perhaps, this matter-of-factness—about not only the lesbian content but also the Asian American aspects of the story—that made Red Doors such an attractive possibility for CBS, which ordered a pilot script of the film. Chen says, “ The good news is that the studio loved the story. The bad news is it doesn't really fit into their lineup, thematically.” Although CBS, which is known more for their police procedurals than family dramas, has passed on it for the fall 2006 season, they have an option to take another look in 2007.
“We were shocked that a major network like CBS was even interested in exploring the idea of an Asian American family,” Lee says. “We definitely hope that Red Doors as a TV show does have a future. It would be historical.” Even more incredibly, CBS was fully behind including the lesbian character in the series. “All the characters are intact and all the relationships are intact,” Lee confirms.
Chen adds, “They were very keen on introducing a love interest for the middle daughter in that first episode.”
Meanwhile, Red Doors has been picked up for distribution by Polychrome Pictures, a fledgling company that will partner with Warner Home Video to release the film on DVD. Lee, Chen and Riverton, through their company Blanc de Chine Entertainment, also have a couple of new projects in development, and though they haven't yet revealed the direction those projects will take, let's hope that future productions will reflect the philosophy behind Red Doors, which tells a very specific story about an unusual Asian American family—and in doing so, broadens the definitions of Asian American and queer identity.
“We didn't set out to make a lesbian film,” Chen says. “We set out to make a family comedic drama. …As there are more Asian American films…hopefully those films start to be defined within the genres in which those films exist, which is romantic comedy or family drama or science fiction or historical drama. And that I think is what we're really all striving for, just break out beyond the demographic definitions of the film.”
Red Doors open in New York City on September 8, and in Los Angeles and
San Francisco on September 22.
For more info, go to RedDoorsTheMovie.com.
Page 1 / 2 / 3 - Home |
