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Courtney YeagerCJ222
Print StoryDr. V
Eau Queer Film Festival attracts record-breaking crowds
An LGBTQ film festival in rural Wisconsin had the highest attendance in its five year
history thanks to its opening film, which documents a situation involving gay women and
unjust media.
The 5th Annual Eau Queer Film Festival was held from September 24-28 in the
Woodland Theater in the Davies Center on the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire campus.
The festival aims to embrace the diversity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and
queer/questioning communities through the medium of film.
This year, the festival had its highest attendance ever, totaling 1,100 attendees over
the five days. 253 of these
attendees were just on
opening night, thanks to
the showing of "Out in the
Night," a documentary
directed by blair dorosh-
walther, who prefers her
name be spelled using
lower case letters.
dorosh-walther, a
director, producer, artist,
production designer and
activist based in Washington D.C., came to the University as a visiting filmmaker and guest
speaker. She created the film to tell the story of four African-American, lesbian women in
New York City. The women were unjustly imprisoned under the charge of gang violence
after the women defended themselves after being verbally and physically assaulted by a
straight man.
The women, Renata Hill, Patreese Johnson, Terrain Dandridge and Venice Brown,
served prison terms ranging from three to eight years, plus probation after appealing the
longer sentences they were originally given. During the process of their incarceration, the
Co-Executive Directors of the Eau Queer Film Festival Ellen Mahaffy and Pam Forman, along with a few student staff members converse with visiting
filmmaker blair dorosh-walther and documentary participant Renata Hill after the Q&A session on opening night. ©2014 Courtney Yeager
Courtney YeagerCJ222
Print StoryDr. V
women were immediately and inaccurately portrayed as a “gang of lesbian killers” by
media such as The New York Times.
“…it was completely inaccurate and derogatory and
kind of assassinated my character.” – Renata HillRenata Hill, one of the four women, accompanied dorosh-walther to Eau Claire to
speak about her experience. She talked briefly about the media’s portrayal of her and the
three other women and how her perception of the media has changed since her ordeal.
“I’ve kind of had a resentment or a strong dislike for the media for a long time
because I guess they kind of just killed my trust in what you read in the paper and what you
see on the news,” she said.
Jerrika Christianson, Director of this year’s festival, said that she would be curious to
know what would be different about the women’s sentencing if the media had gotten the
women’s side of the story.
“I think that they (the women’s sentences) would be different, but at what point
would they have interviewed the women? They still haven’t interviewed any of them and
this happened about ten years ago. It just goes to show the lack of care that some mass
media has for the truth. They just want to say things in a way that sells,” she said.
Hill confirmed that the media has never contacted any of the four women and that
the way they were portrayed has had a lasting effect on her.
“They just came up with these crazy headlines and information all put together
about us, and it was completely inaccurate and derogatory and kind of assassinated my
character. These are words that basically are gonna be out there forever. You can’t take
them back,” she said.
Having dorosh-walther and Hill visit and speak was an important piece of the
festival, according to Assistant Director, Ryan Spaight. He said that their visit is what he
thinks helped bring so many attendees to opening night, and the festival in general, and
that dorosh-walther and Hill’s message affects a lot of people.
Courtney YeagerCJ222
Print StoryDr. V
“We knew that the message that they were going to be bringing to the table was one
of inter-sectionality and one of lived experience. It is a really complex story but it also
affects a lot of different communities and resonates with a lot of different people and that is
why we think it was so important to bring them,“ he said.
Dana Strothenke, a UW-Eau Claire student and attendee of opening night, said that
seeing the film and hearing the story of Hill and the other three women opened her eyes to
the privilege she has as a white, straight female.
“I don’t have to worry about the same kinds of things that other people do. I knew
that, but I didn’t really know that,” she said.
dorosh-walther’s film was the first of 14 films shown at the festival over the course
of five days. Christianson says that she is pleased with how people reacted to dorosh-
walther’s film and how many people attended the festival overall.
She said, “I’m really happy at the turn out. As a director of the film festival, what I
wanna do is bring people into the seats and I am just very pleased at how many people
came to the film, and how they all had a very similar reaction. I liked how people were
asking ‘How can we help? What can we do?’ That is the power of film. It helps you want to
create change.”