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The history of “Forbidden Love,” the world’s best documentary about early lesbian lives

Having watched a lot of documentaries, 1992’s Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives still stands as one of the best (if not the best) feature-length documentaries about lesbians that I’ve ever seen. That’s why I was thrilled when it was re-released last year, and why I’m equally excited now that the movie is part of the Queer Film Classics book series. Written by Jean Bruce and Gerda Cammaer, associate professors in the School of Image Arts at Ryerson University in Toronto, Forbidden Love the book provides incredible insight into co-directors Lynne Fernie and Aerlyn Weissman‘s groundbreaking documentary.

We caught up with Jean and Gerda ahead of their book’s launch next week. During our lengthy chat, we talked about the movie’s status as a queer film classic, the research material it unearthed, the “the burden of representation,” and more.

AfterEllen.com: Why, by today’s standards, should we consider Forbidden Love a queer film classic?

Jean Bruce: It is a queer film classic for a number of reasons. Primarily because it is a film that was using unique, New Queer Cinema strategies that had been developed or were being developed prior to that and in that period. So it’s not just a film about a bunch of lesbians in Canada, and it’s not just a film about pulp fiction. It’s a film that uses interesting strategies, maybe you’d even call them post-modern strategies, to create a new kind of story that fits in with what Ruby Rich identified as New Queer Cinema, which is kind of edgy, low-budget—although this wasn’t exactly low-budget—kinds of filmmaking that weren’t just about telling stories about gays and lesbians and queers.

Gerda Cammaer: Why I would call it a queer film classic is because the film is a historical documentary. It’s telling about the history of these people’s lives. It actually talks a lot about the past, of what was happening in the ’50s and the ’60s. But then the way it is made and the stories these people tell are still valid today.

AE: Do you think we hold a certain nostalgia for these movies that came out in the early ’90s and tackled these themes in a new way?

JB: Nostalgia doesn’t seem to me to be the right way of thinking about that, but maybe that’s because I’m much older and when I saw the film I—yeah, it doesn’t seem nostalgic to me at all. The film itself, or I don’t have a nostalgia for that period either. I think at the time I thought it was really exciting that this film was being made, and the style of the film, and it was just so cheeky and fun and also very serious. I thought the way that they were able to combine these different tones in the film was really, to me, was a breath of fresh air, and it was very different from the other films that I’d seen at queer film festivals, or even at TIFF at the time, that were just really quite, I found, really boring love stories or coming out stories that, while they have their place and certainly are valid, they weren’t doing anything unique aesthetically or trying to do something new and interesting in the way in which they told the story. That’s for me what I would say is the strength of this film: is the fact that it’s not a nostalgic film.

The Continental House, Toronto, ca. 1971.Still from “Forbidden Love.” Credit: City of Toronto Archives, E.R. White Collection No. 41-4. © National Film Board of Canada.

AE: Would you say that this movie belongs in LGBT archives? A statement in your book goes as follows: “Weissman and Fernie provide important cultural documentation and social context for understanding what the cultural and social life for Canadian lesbians was like in the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s, and early ’70s.” That certainly suggests to me that this film has a place in our archives because a lot of the material presented in it we didn’t have access to before, and the film still lives on today as a testament to our history.

JB: Yes, we both agree about that. It is an archival document in itself. The great thing about it is it does place lesbians in Canada and, in a larger cultural context, beyond Canada as well. But it does place them in history. It doesn’t place them sort of as a kind of exception to history. It places them right in the midst of mainstream, official history.

GC: The filmmakers put a lot, a lot, a lot of work in the research for this film. And they had a hard time finding material. There was not a lot of footage out there that they were able to use to put in their film to illustrate certain themes. The archival research that they did in itself is actually an enormous contribution to queer history.

AE: From what I gathered from reading the book, a lot of material was uncovered for the purpose of this film because much of what we had at the time was just press clippings and what was available in certain archives. So when we talk about research material and what’s available now for scholars or for anyone who’s interested in research, how important is the research material that was found for the purposes of making this film?

GC: I would say it’s incredibly important. They scavenged so many archives. I think the most important archive they used was actually the [Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives], which luckily had kept a lot of documents. Especially press clippings, which they used. They also had access to all the footage of the National Film Board of Canada. They found quite a few interesting clips in there. Not necessarily labeled as “gay,” though. They had to do a lot of work to find clips because there was not like a file at the National Film Board of Canada saying, “Here’s all the queer footage.” They had to go look for particular scenes.

What I also find remarkable, and is also part of the research and is definitely to the credit of the two filmmakers, is that they took their time and they were very careful in building a very good relationship with their interviewees. By doing that they gained their trust and that made all the subjects contribute as well—photos that they had from parties, or from outings with their friends. I actually find those personal photos very important components in the film as well.

books courtesy of Lynn Fernie photo by G. Cammaer

AE: I’d like to jump on that interview approach. It was very unique, and for some it might be a bit controversial—the idea that you get that close to your interview subjects. Here they were able to use the fact that they, the filmmakers, are gay, and by sharing their own personal experiences they gained the trust of these women. And it did work really, really well. Seeing this, would you go so far as to suggest that this is why, really, we should be telling our own stories, as opposed to well-intentioned but nonetheless heterosexual filmmakers?

GC: As someone who teaches in a documentary media program, I would say there is place for both.But I do think that it has a special quality, especially in this case when the filmmakers themselves were able to connect with their subjects and had really interesting conversations, and from those conversations came really interesting ideas of what could be talked about in the film and what should be part of the dialogue in the film.

JB: And one of the things that Lynne told us was that when they were interviewing people and gained their trust over time, they also said, “Oh, you should talk to so and so,” after a while. That’s how they got their network of women that they could speak with.

AE: Certainly a lot of people watching the film with a more critical eye are going to ask questions about representation, especially in regards to racial and cultural diversity as it relates to the lesbian community in Canada. Do you think the film revealed something about the community that wasn’t discussed at the time? This darker side of our history where we exoticized some women and we excluded others.

GC: I think the first thing to say is to give credit to the filmmakers for actually paying attention to this important topic and for actually making sure that they had subjects of different backgrounds in the film. It was not easy.

It was probably still a taboo subject at the time. I think the fact that they included the line by I believe it’s Carol in the film who actually admits like, “Yes, there was racism in the gay community as well”—I think it’s pretty daring for the film.

JB: It’s a film that because it’s the first one it also has to bear the burden of representation for so many different aspects of the lesbian community. And I think that they did an amazing job at trying to cover a lot of different topics, and to do that in a fair way. I think that one of the things that’s quite clear in this film is that lesbians are like other people—they’re just as racist and classist, and potentially even as homophobic as anyone else.

Still from “Forbidden Love”/National Film Board of Canada.

AE: All these years later, in my opinion, there isn’t really a lesbian feature-length documentary that immediately comes to mind that’s better than Forbidden Love. Would you concur? If so, how is it that since 1992 we haven’t really seen anything that hits the nail on the head as well as this film did?

GC: Well, I totally agree with you.

JB: Me, too!

GC: That is why this is a queer classic that everyone should know about. They really raised the bar, and I think it’s hard to beat them.

JB: I think they also did a job that allows now people to tell smaller stories, or individual stories. Maybe people feel that, “Okay, the history’s been done. Now we can focus on this.” But I do think that it would be great to have more stories about individual communities that are focused in-depth on a particular community and a particular region of Canada.

AE: I’m even talking about outside of Canada. Having watched a lot of documentaries, I kind of feel bad for my American peers because I don’t know that they even have a documentary of this caliber that does focus specifically on lesbian lives and is a feature-length documentary.

JB: They do have a few, but it’s true—we’re obviously crazy about this film in a certain way because it’s not only an important film and historically relevant, but it’s such a well-made film.

It is kind of odd that all these years later while there have been other documentaries—and believe me, I’ve seen them—I don’t think any of them touch this film.

San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival 1993: Opening Night at The Castro theatre. Aerlyn Weissman (L), Lynne Fernie (R)photo courtesy Lynn Fernie

You can order Forbidden Love through Arsenal Pulp Press. The book will be having launches in Montreal on Dec. 7 and in Toronto on Dec. 9 with its authors and the film’s co-directors in attendance.

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