Producers of a new Melbourne-based lesbian feature film want the community’s help to launch it into mainstream cinemas.
Kat Holmes, writer and producer of lesbian film, submerge, has made a big call. She says her production, due for completion by the end of the year, will be Australia’s first mainstream lesbian feature film.
‘It’s a controversial statement’, she says. ‘Because people might argue that Love and Other Catastrophes broke that barrier, or that Kylie Eddy’s film This Kiss would qualify. But submerge is different in that it is the first Australia feature that has the chance to be screened at a mainstream cinema, where lesbian sexuality is the core emotional identity of the main characters of the film. It is consciously not an indie film’.
Holmes has nursed the project for three years, as it evolved from a lesbian erotica flick to a full length drama feature. Originally titled The Passage, the film’s central character is Jordan, a 20-year-old ex-Olympic swimmer and university student. The film deals with Jordan’s path to self-destruction and rebirth. Holmes says although it is a lesbian film, her sexuality is both ‘incidental and central’.
‘It’s not a coming out film, we are sick of those. And it’s not just a coming of age story’, she said. ‘It’s a “coming of wisdom†tale’.
The co-producer is a man known as The Colonel. He’s the proprietor of St Kilda pansexual fetish club Abode and director of Blu After Glow, a consulting film company that specialises in all things fetish. His most notable projects include Ghostrider, Strange Bedfellows and Matrix III.
Singer Katie Underwood is a creative associate. She will compose the music and make a cameo appearance.
In submerge, Jordan tries to escape the pain of being rejected by Angie, the woman of her dreams, and becomes involved with the underground fetish scene. Here she meets Delilah, the sophisticated owner of a fetish nightclub played by Rachel Forgasz (My Life as a Dyke), the scenes for which will be filmed at Abode.
Holmes says she has already raised a significant proportion of funds for the film in the private sector but, in an unusual move, has launched a public fundraising effort for the final stages, appealing to the gay and lesbian community to get involved.
There are four investment packages available – $50, $100, $250 and $500 – benefits of which include DVD pre-release of the film, exclusive preview screenings and the chance to win a walk-on role. Investors who give $1000 or more become shareholders.
‘We want to bring this project back to the people who will be watching it’, says The Colonel.
The director is Sophie O’Connor, well known in theatre and festival circles and currently working on a film noir short called Double Take. submerge is her debut feature film. The lead role of Jordan is not yet cast, but Alexis Beebe (cousin of Oscar-winning cinematographer Dion Beebe), will play Angie and Kevin Dee, member of the queer rock band, The Minority, will play Lucas, Jordan’s best friend.
The film goes into pre-production in July and filming begins in Melbourne in September.
Article courtesy of www.bnews.com.au
