{"id":411,"date":"2011-01-27T12:58:11","date_gmt":"2011-01-27T18:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/?p=411"},"modified":"2011-06-06T17:44:46","modified_gmt":"2011-06-06T22:44:46","slug":"swimming-with-lesbians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/swimming-with-lesbians\/","title":{"rendered":"Swimming With Lesbians"},"content":{"rendered":"

Swimming With Lesbians<\/em>. Dir. David B. Marshall. With: Madeline Davis, et al. San Francisco: Frameline, 2009. DVD. $250 (discounted pricing available for K-12 schools, public libraries, and small nonprofits). 67 min.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Swimming with Lesbians<\/em> follows author, songwriter, and activist Madeline Davis as she works to build an archive of LGBTQ history. In her seminal 1993 book Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold,<\/em> Davis immortalized the Buffalo, New York lesbian community of the mid-20th century. Years later, Davis continues to work to document the history of the Western New York LGBTQ community by building and maintaining an archive of letters, photographs, and other ephemera in the basement of her home. The film mixes interview (with both Davis and other members of that community), footage of Davis collecting and discussing the materials in the archive, and readings of some of the materials from her collection.<\/p>\n

The title of the film refers to actual swimming; Davis moved out to the Buffalo suburbs so she could have a swimming pool, and invites her friends over to swim because she believes that lesbians don\u2018t care what anyone else looks like. Those ideas of welcoming and acceptance are integral to the film’s focus on the importance keeping a community alive through the power of collective memory. The film also explores the ability of physical items to embody those memories and to help us know people long after their death.<\/p>\n

At times, the film is extremely personal; Davis shares details of her S\/M identity and sheds tears as she talks about friends who have passed on. While in some cases the dramatic reading of archived materials can be somewhat overwrought, these personal elements lend depth to the film, and remind us of the power of the personal to be political. The film also raises important issues about the institutional protection of gay and lesbian materials, including a scene with a group of archivists from Buffalo State College who become noticeably uncomfortable as Davis describes the contents of her collections.<\/p>\n

This film depicts, in Davis’ words,”a working class, impoverished rust belt city on the edge of the Midwest,” a part of New York that did not immediately see the effects of Stonewall. It reminds us of a time when coming out was literally an issue of life and death, when gay rights marches were faced with citizens armed with chains and bricks.<\/p>\n

Swimming with Lesbians<\/em> is recommended, as the film itself plays a role in keeping these memories alive.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by, Caitlin Shanley<\/strong>
\nInstructional Design and Technology Librarian
\nUniversity of Tennessee at Chattanooga<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Swimming With Lesbians. Dir. David B. Marshall. With: Madeline Davis, et al. San Francisco: Frameline, 2009. DVD. $250 (discounted pricing available for K-12 schools, public libraries, and small nonprofits). 67 min. Swimming with Lesbians follows author, songwriter, and activist Madeline Davis as she works to build an archive of LGBTQ history. In her seminal 1993 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27,35,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}