The Owls
Cheryl Dunye, Lisa Gornick
The Owls by Cheryl Dunye
USA 2009, Panorama
Guinevere Turner, V.S. Brodie
The Owls by Cheryl Dunye
USA 2009, Panorama
Ten years ago ‘The Screech’ was the hottest lesbian band around. Iris and Lily were the lead vocalists, MJ the producer, and Carol always went on tour with them. But the days of big dreams and wild nights have long since past. Sexy Iris now drinks too much and fantasises about a comeback that has yet to materialise. She and MJ split up years ago, but just can’t let go. Carol and Lily are so bored by their relationship that they can’t seem to decide on anything, except perhaps to have a child together.
And then Cricket enters this Bermuda triangle of fallow desire, disappointment, anger and boredom. This argumentative twenty-year-old is looking for trouble – and finds it. After a pool party awash with cocaine and alcohol, Iris winds up on Cricket’s lap. This makes MJ – to whom Iris has been unfaithful so often before – even more furious. An argument ensues and escalates into a fight during which Cricket is badly injured and dies. The girlfriends decide to overcome their differences, pull together and get rid of the corpse. Their complicity creates a firm bond. But then, a year later, Skye turns up on Lily and Carol’s doorstep. Revenge is her aim and seduction her strategy …
Director Cheryl Dunye and producer Alexandra Juhasz, Candi Gutteres and Ernesto Foronda invited a group of lesbian and gay artists with creative links to work on this project. This marked the beginning of the ‘Parliament Collective’, a large multiethnic artists’ collective that developed the story for THE OWLS.
And then Cricket enters this Bermuda triangle of fallow desire, disappointment, anger and boredom. This argumentative twenty-year-old is looking for trouble – and finds it. After a pool party awash with cocaine and alcohol, Iris winds up on Cricket’s lap. This makes MJ – to whom Iris has been unfaithful so often before – even more furious. An argument ensues and escalates into a fight during which Cricket is badly injured and dies. The girlfriends decide to overcome their differences, pull together and get rid of the corpse. Their complicity creates a firm bond. But then, a year later, Skye turns up on Lily and Carol’s doorstep. Revenge is her aim and seduction her strategy …
Director Cheryl Dunye and producer Alexandra Juhasz, Candi Gutteres and Ernesto Foronda invited a group of lesbian and gay artists with creative links to work on this project. This marked the beginning of the ‘Parliament Collective’, a large multiethnic artists’ collective that developed the story for THE OWLS.
