Sisters in the Life -- Film Series

Film Series Origins

Way back in 1993, when I was in film school I came across a call for proposals for television pilots for a new cable station. They wanted to fund programs that were original, independent, and uncompromising. Well, there just weren't many images of black lesbian life portrayed on television in the early 1990s. (There still aren't many today.) So, I decided to create a television pilot for a show that would highlight our lives. I called a few friends and asked them what they would want to see of black lesbian life on television. The answers I received ranged from seeing a continuation of the lesbian story in Daughters of the Dust to a lesbian sitcom like A Different World . The response that most resonated with me was from the writer Jacqueline Woodson. She said, what we need most is coming of age stories.

And so I created one called Sisters in the Life: First Love. It is the only film, to my knowledge, about a black lesbian adolescent dealing with the fact that her feelings for her best girlfriend were stronger than her feelings for her boyfriend. It was to be the first film in a series of stories about our diverse black lesbian lives. [>>continued]