a review of

i wanted to like this more but it would have required turning off my brain. i enjoyed the interviews with all the old lesbians and the historical interviews and tone of the whole thing. some of the b roll was a bit jarring, but some of it was really nice, either it was vintage or made to look that way. it did make me want to seek out more of her work. a big "However," i didn't know a lot about her but the single line about her prejudices near the end didn't sit well with me and I spent the rest of the doc going "Wait but what about --" it doesn't seem like the kind of thing that can be mentioned that quickly and explained away and i'm not sure about that choice. (edit: sorry about editing this review over and over but) i read more about her after the doc and... yeah. decades of bigotry made to seem like they only occurred later in life, and explained away extremely unconvincingly. Elsewhere, Marijane Meaker has said, "I knew Pat when she was young and not yet so jaded and bigoted." yet nothing of that sort is included in the interviews. It seems like such a big part of things that it's hard not to think it was intentionally cut out for the image they were trying to portray. as others mentioned, she only lived in Texas until she was six years old, yet the cowboy b roll is used over and over. i also found the footage of the rodeo with the calf being lassoed to be rather upsetting to watch and didn't make any sense to be there. now off to learn more about marijane meaker and tabea