Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives
Encyclopedia
Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives is a 1992
Canadian
documentary film
about the lives of lesbian
women and their experiences of lesbian pulp fiction
. It was written and directed by Lynne Fernie and Aerlyn Weissman and featured author Ann Bannon
. It premiere
d at the 1992 Toronto Film Festival and was released in the United States
on 4 August 1993. It was produced by Studio D, the women's studio of the National Film Board of Canada.
A discussion of the impact of lesbian pulp fiction
for women in the 1940s and 1950s begins, featuring Ann Bannon
, discussing her experiences as a writer in the 1950s. Nine Canadian women are interviewed throughout the documentary: Keely, a butch
woman living near Vancouver
, Stephanie, also in Vancouver, Reva, in Victoria, B.C., Lois, also in Toronto
, Nairobi, a black woman living in Montreal
, Jeanne, also in Toronto, Amanda, a Haida woman who lived in several Canadian cities, Carol, a butch woman living in Ontario
, and Ruth, also living in Vancouver.
Each woman discussed her experience in realizing her attraction to women, and how they pursued relationships in the repressive society. Some women felt they had to choose to be butch or femme as all women who went to bars during that time had to choose one or the other. The women who frequented the bars discussed the kinds of establishments they were, secretive and usually dingy. Ruth described the only bar where women were allowed to dance with each other in Vancouver as a "dive". Bars sometimes were open for a year before they were shut down or changed management. Some higher class establishments would only allow women with male escorts, so the women took gay men along. Stephanie, Lois, and Carol discussed the fights that took place between butch women over femmes since the ratio was about ten to one. Amanda discussed her experiences living in a white society. She found gay bars depressing since most of the people were usually very drunk, so she often went to bars where black people went since she was bothered less there. Nairobi described in detail what it was like to be in a police raid, and Stephanie described how the women met with police harassment. Each woman also described the relationships they had. Reva and Jeanne both discussed how they began relationships with ex-girlfriends of ex-girlfriends, who in turn lived with each other and Stephanie discussed being in an abusive relationship
. Each woman talks about her life with frankness and humor. The interviews conclude with summaries of the past 20 years of each woman's life.
The interviews are interwoven with the dramatization of Laura entering a gay bar for the first time and meeting a woman named "Mitch" who buys her a drink, and they end up at Mitch's apartment.
ends very much like the opening sequence of the film, with Beth leaving Laura at a train station while a man named Charlie waits for her, as a Charlie waits for the Beth in Forbidden Love. Bannon has stated that a major influence on her choice to write lesbian pulp fiction was the novel Spring Fire
by Vin Packer, which features a lesbian character named Susan Mitchell, who goes by her nickname Mitch.
in Montreal called it "deliberately campy" and director Lynne Fermie spoke of her intentions for the film. "We wanted this film to be on television. This part of Canadian history has been so silenced that we should be able to hear all our divergent stories, and we should be able to see them on the CBC
." The Globe and Mail
reviewed it and wrote, "There are scores of stories, all well told and crisply edited, that range from the very funny to the very sad and they are so compelling that the erotic fiction segments...seem dim only in contrast. The power of Forbidden Love is the extraordinary honesty and courage of its players." The Toronto Star praised the direction and production. "Weismann and Fernie's film is designed to contribute to the fast-growing records of the gay culture. After decades of suppression and shame, homosexuality is finally gaining the tolerance (if not, unfortunately, the acceptance) of the general public - and it's heartening that their voices can now be heard through an institution like the NFB. This movie touches on 10 stories; there are undoubtedly thousands more waiting to be told."
gave it positive reviews in the context of the pulp fiction at the time saying, "Repudiating the obligatory disastrous endings in those old novels, they seem to have enjoyed their lives as lesbians, and this film encourages us to share the liberation they had to steal from an oppressive, provincial society not disposed to give them any break at all." Like most of the other reviews, The New York Times
was more impressed with the interviews than with the dramatic scenes, writing, "Whether they look like truckers or cowboys or sweet-faced grannies, the women seen in "Forbidden Love" have a shared sense of humor...Even in discussing the more turbulent aspects of their history, though, most of these women retain their wry outlook."
wrote, "What wonderful, feisty women they are. Dare I say, some of the original wicked women...A corny lesbian mini-soap inspired by the pulp runs through the film. Just an excuse, so the directors say, for squeezing in a gratuitous love scene. This film is a hoot."
for Outstanding Film (Documentary).
1992 in film
The year 1992 in film involved many significant films. -Top grossing films:-Awards:Academy AwardsGolden Globe AwardsNational Film Awards...
Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
about the lives of lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
women and their experiences of lesbian pulp fiction
Lesbian pulp fiction
Lesbian pulp fiction refers to any mid-20th century paperback novel with overtly lesbian themes and content. Lesbian pulp fiction was published in the 1950s and 60s by many of the same paperback publishing houses that other genres of fiction including Westerns, Romances, and Detective Fiction...
. It was written and directed by Lynne Fernie and Aerlyn Weissman and featured author Ann Bannon
Ann Bannon
Ann Bannon is an American author who, from 1957 to 1962, wrote six lesbian pulp fiction novels known as The Beebo Brinker Chronicles. The books' enduring popularity and impact on lesbian identity has earned her the title "Queen of Lesbian Pulp Fiction"...
. It premiere
Premiere
A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...
d at the 1992 Toronto Film Festival and was released in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on 4 August 1993. It was produced by Studio D, the women's studio of the National Film Board of Canada.
Subject Matter
The movie opens with a dramatized scene of two women saying goodbye at a train station, alluding that they were to run away together. One of the women, named "Beth" declines to go with "Laura" and leaves her at the station.A discussion of the impact of lesbian pulp fiction
Lesbian pulp fiction
Lesbian pulp fiction refers to any mid-20th century paperback novel with overtly lesbian themes and content. Lesbian pulp fiction was published in the 1950s and 60s by many of the same paperback publishing houses that other genres of fiction including Westerns, Romances, and Detective Fiction...
for women in the 1940s and 1950s begins, featuring Ann Bannon
Ann Bannon
Ann Bannon is an American author who, from 1957 to 1962, wrote six lesbian pulp fiction novels known as The Beebo Brinker Chronicles. The books' enduring popularity and impact on lesbian identity has earned her the title "Queen of Lesbian Pulp Fiction"...
, discussing her experiences as a writer in the 1950s. Nine Canadian women are interviewed throughout the documentary: Keely, a butch
Butch and femme
Butch and femme are LGBT terms describing respectively, masculine and feminine traits, behavior, style, expression, self-perception and so on. They are often used in the lesbian, bisexual and gay subcultures...
woman living near Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, Stephanie, also in Vancouver, Reva, in Victoria, B.C., Lois, also in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Nairobi, a black woman living in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Jeanne, also in Toronto, Amanda, a Haida woman who lived in several Canadian cities, Carol, a butch woman living in Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, and Ruth, also living in Vancouver.
Each woman discussed her experience in realizing her attraction to women, and how they pursued relationships in the repressive society. Some women felt they had to choose to be butch or femme as all women who went to bars during that time had to choose one or the other. The women who frequented the bars discussed the kinds of establishments they were, secretive and usually dingy. Ruth described the only bar where women were allowed to dance with each other in Vancouver as a "dive". Bars sometimes were open for a year before they were shut down or changed management. Some higher class establishments would only allow women with male escorts, so the women took gay men along. Stephanie, Lois, and Carol discussed the fights that took place between butch women over femmes since the ratio was about ten to one. Amanda discussed her experiences living in a white society. She found gay bars depressing since most of the people were usually very drunk, so she often went to bars where black people went since she was bothered less there. Nairobi described in detail what it was like to be in a police raid, and Stephanie described how the women met with police harassment. Each woman also described the relationships they had. Reva and Jeanne both discussed how they began relationships with ex-girlfriends of ex-girlfriends, who in turn lived with each other and Stephanie discussed being in an abusive relationship
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
. Each woman talks about her life with frankness and humor. The interviews conclude with summaries of the past 20 years of each woman's life.
The interviews are interwoven with the dramatization of Laura entering a gay bar for the first time and meeting a woman named "Mitch" who buys her a drink, and they end up at Mitch's apartment.
Allusions to literature
The characters of Beth and Laura are allusions to characters in Ann Bannon's Beebo Brinker Chronicles, the six lesbian pulp fiction novels she wrote. Bannon's first book, Odd Girl OutOdd Girl Out (novel)
Odd Girl Out is a lesbian pulp fiction novel written in 1957 by Ann Bannon . It is the first in a series of pulp fiction novels that eventually came to be known as The Beebo Brinker Chronicles. It was originally published in 1957 by Gold Medal Books, again in 1983 by Naiad Press, and again in 2001...
ends very much like the opening sequence of the film, with Beth leaving Laura at a train station while a man named Charlie waits for her, as a Charlie waits for the Beth in Forbidden Love. Bannon has stated that a major influence on her choice to write lesbian pulp fiction was the novel Spring Fire
Spring Fire
Spring Fire, is a 1952 paperback novel written by Marijane Meaker, under the pseudonym "Vin Packer". It is often considered to be the first lesbian pulp novel, although it also addresses issues of conformity in 1950s American society...
by Vin Packer, which features a lesbian character named Susan Mitchell, who goes by her nickname Mitch.
Reception
The film received overwhelming positive reviews in Canada, the United States, and Australia.Canada
The GazetteThe Gazette (Montreal)
The Gazette, often called the Montreal Gazette to avoid ambiguity, is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with three other daily English newspapers all having shut down at different times during the second half of the 20th century.-History:In 1778,...
in Montreal called it "deliberately campy" and director Lynne Fermie spoke of her intentions for the film. "We wanted this film to be on television. This part of Canadian history has been so silenced that we should be able to hear all our divergent stories, and we should be able to see them on the CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
." The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
reviewed it and wrote, "There are scores of stories, all well told and crisply edited, that range from the very funny to the very sad and they are so compelling that the erotic fiction segments...seem dim only in contrast. The power of Forbidden Love is the extraordinary honesty and courage of its players." The Toronto Star praised the direction and production. "Weismann and Fernie's film is designed to contribute to the fast-growing records of the gay culture. After decades of suppression and shame, homosexuality is finally gaining the tolerance (if not, unfortunately, the acceptance) of the general public - and it's heartening that their voices can now be heard through an institution like the NFB. This movie touches on 10 stories; there are undoubtedly thousands more waiting to be told."
United States
The Boston GlobeThe Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
gave it positive reviews in the context of the pulp fiction at the time saying, "Repudiating the obligatory disastrous endings in those old novels, they seem to have enjoyed their lives as lesbians, and this film encourages us to share the liberation they had to steal from an oppressive, provincial society not disposed to give them any break at all." Like most of the other reviews, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
was more impressed with the interviews than with the dramatic scenes, writing, "Whether they look like truckers or cowboys or sweet-faced grannies, the women seen in "Forbidden Love" have a shared sense of humor...Even in discussing the more turbulent aspects of their history, though, most of these women retain their wry outlook."
Australia
The Australian newspaper The AgeThe Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
wrote, "What wonderful, feisty women they are. Dare I say, some of the original wicked women...A corny lesbian mini-soap inspired by the pulp runs through the film. Just an excuse, so the directors say, for squeezing in a gratuitous love scene. This film is a hoot."
Awards
In 1993 the film won the Genie Award for best feature documentary and in 1994 it won the GLAAD Media AwardGLAAD Media Awards
The GLAAD Media Award is an accolade bestowed by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to recognize and honor various branches of the media for their outstanding representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives...
for Outstanding Film (Documentary).