Date: 07/08/2005

Category: · Writing » Interview · Writing  » Topic  » lgbt

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Maybe, like us, you weren't lucky enough to catch the Frameline screening of Joy of Life last month. But fear not: this Monday (the eleventh), Jenni Olson's narrative-documentary-ish film premiers at the Castro, and plays until the fourteenth. It's hard to pin The Joy of Life down to any one genre of film; it consists of contemplative footage of San Francisco, accompanied by a calm voiceover, reading what sound like diary entries about dyke life, and about the Golden Gate Bridge's facilitation of suicides. Jenni wrote an op-ed piece in the Chronicle back in January, which played a major role in starting up new talk about a suicide barrier. (And we hasten to point out that, following her editorial, SFist was one of the first "news" sources to weigh in on the topic. We even interviewed our a therapist about it!)
The Joy of Life is all about SF, and garnered considerable buzz after its screening at Frameline. Jenni was kind enough to answer some of our questions about her film -- so, check it out.

Name, occupation, and favorite SF neighborhood?

Jenni Olson, filmmaker and LGBT film historian, proud resident of St. Mary's Park.

What projects did you work on prior to The Joy of Life?

I made a lot of short films and videos over the years (Levi's 501s Commercial, Sometimes, Blow-Up, Meep Meep! Matzo Maidels). My first 16mm short Blue Diary is very similar to The Joy of Life - it consists entirely of static landscape shots of San Francisco with a voice-over about pining over straight girls. I have also created a bunch of feature-length programs of coming attractions trailers. The first one, Homo Promo is a collection of vintage gay and lesbian movie trailers from the '60s and '70s. It's available on DVD from Strand Releasing. The others include: Neo Homo Promo, Afro Promo, Trailers Schmailers, Trailer Camp and Bride of Trailer Camp. I've also written a few books: The Ultimate Guide to Lesbian and Gay Film & Video, and most recently The Queer Movie Poster Book (Chronicle Books).

How long have you lived in SF? What brought you to here, and what keeps you here?

I came here from Minneapolis on New Year's Day 1992. Frameline hired me to work on the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival which I did for 3 years before moving on to become one of the founders of PlanetOut.com. At first I wasn't all that excited about the City but I soon fell in love with the people and the place. What keeps me here now is a love of the City and having set down a lot of roots - friends, family, etc.

How did you pitch as unusual a concept for a film as Joy of Life's? Did you encounter any "it can't be done" resistance from anyone?

I suppose the "it can't be done" resistance took more the form of "we won't give you any money." Almost all the funding came from individual donors, and all my crew worked for free or way less than their usual rates. I got one grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission and finishing funds from POWER UP in LA.

The Joy of Life pairs up two different subjects -- a lesbian searching for love, and a look at the Golden Gate Bridge's dangerous magnetism. Why combine those two elements? And in creating the film, how did you strike a balance between them?

They are indeed disparate topics. I had always wanted the film to have three parts (really coming out of a trio of my own personal interests). I wanted a personal reflection on butch identity; an archival audio segment; and a documentary component about San Francisco history. The film really has four parts of you also count the capsule production history of "Meet John Doe."

The personal reflection on butch identity came from a manuscript I wrote called Fuck Diary. For the archival audio segment I did research at The Poetry Center at SF State and they turned me on to this great performance of Lawrence Ferlinghetti reading his poem, "The Changing Light." For the documentary segment I had researched many other topics before choosing to focus on the Bridge. Ultimately it was my personal connection to the Bridge that led me to explore this particular topic (the history of suicide and the Golden Gate Bridge). My friend Mark Finch committed suicide by jumping from the Bridge back in 1995.

Did you have any specific goals in making The Joy of Life? Were you expecting the film to have the impact that it did on the discussion of a barrier for the bridge?

I hadn't initially had any particular activist agenda - it came much more out of a personal interest in this topic. But in the course of making the film I became convinced that if people were to become more thoroughly educated about all of the issues, they would come to the same conclusion I have: We must erect a suicide barrier in the Golden Gate Bridge. It is really a simple matter of public safety.

Have you gotten any feedback on your film from the officials involved in the suicide barrier study?

Yes, several of the bridge directors told me they appreciated seeing the film and found it illuminating (I had distributed video copies of it to all 19 members of the Board as well as to Bridge Director Celia Kupersmith and Public Relations Director Mary Currie).

Are there any elements of your film, besides the bridge, that you feel are very "only-in-San-Francisco"?

Well, of course, the landscapes and the light. One of my favorite lines got the greatest response in my San Francisco screenings (the folks at Sundance didn't get it quite so vividly). "My therapist is getting on my nerves. She keeps saying: 'That must have been really hard for you.'" I think of this as very San Francisco.

What brought you to Frameline for help with completion and distribution?

Well, Frameline brought ME to San Francisco in the first place (to program the lesbian & gay film festival), so. . . They didn't actually help with the completion of the film (though that is one of the many important things they do for queer filmmakers). Frameline is very adept at reaching gay audiences across North America. I always imagined (and hoped) that they would distribute the film. They're doing a bang-up job!

What's next for The Joy of Life?

It's opening at the Castro, July 11th to the 14th, and then at the Rialto Cinemas in Santa Rosa (July 22-28). Frameline is getting it out there to film festivals and theaters all over the place. The latest screening dates are always available on my website, by the way, at www.joyoflifemovie.com. The film will be released on DVD sometime in the next 6 months and I'm sure there will be many Bay Area screenings in the years to come.

What's the next project you'll be working on?

Thanks for asking! I'm in development on a documentary (an unconventional documentary) about the history of street design and urban planning in San Francisco. It goes into the history of how the streets were originally designed and laid out and lots of geeky urban planning details. It's called The Streets of San Francisco.