Blogs Rabble Rouser RABBLE ROUSER: The Lesbian Brokeback Mountain? | RABBLE ROUSER: The Lesbian Brokeback Mountain? |
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| Written by Curve Magazine/Kent Victor Schuelke | |
| Friday, 11 July 2008 | |
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Everyone is buzzing about Manan Singh Katohora's cross-cultural lesbian love story, When Kiran Met Karen — find out why some are calling it the lesbian Brokeback Mountain. IFD wrote about the film a couple months ago and are proud to announce that the film will enjoy its World Premiere this weekend at the 14th Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. The film will debut on Saturday, July 12 at 9:30 p.m. A second screening will take place Sunday, July 13 at 12:15 p.m. Both showings of the film will be take place at the Mainstage Theater at the Prince Music Theater complex and will be hosted by the cast and crew of the film. The film was recently profiled in Curve Magazine. Curve: WKMK was shot in and around New York City last winter. The buzz, even then, was almost deafening about this cross-cultural lesbian film on the order of Brokeback Mountain, just one of Katohora’s influences. The others being The L Word, the Indian lesbian-themed movies, Fire and Chutney Popcorn among others. And the inevitable question then was whether Katohora is gay. He doesn’t answer the question directly, instead saying, “I am in solidarity with my friends in the LGBT community.” Who cares, really? As Katohora predicted at the time, “WKMK is not about sleazy stereotypes nor even syrupy romantic comedy, but rather a quality story illuminating a range of possibilities for human connection, that cannot be compared to any other Indian-American lesbian film because there are so few.” The plot of WKMK centers around Kiran Lohar, a Bollywood starlet promoting her latest film, A Himalayan Love Story in New York City. Three days before the film’s premiere, Kiran (Chriselle Almeida) meets and falls for Karen (Kelli Holsopple), an out lesbian reporter chasing the story of a lifetime that could catapult her to international journalistic fame. What transpires next had been kept under wraps since before the filming ended. In fact, Holsopple didn’t even know the ending the night before full shooting commenced. The diminutive Holsopple (she is 5 foot, 1 inch) is a veteran of theater. She had just finished a run off Broadway as a lesbian who falls in love with a gay man, who both, when everything gets oh-so-boring, go gay again. The play, An Octopus Love Story by playwright Delaney Britt Brewer received mixed reviews, but Holsopple was ready to dive into the meatier role as the very out and very career-hungry lesbian journalist Karen Sorens in WKMK. Holsopple questions queer-themed films being written, directed, produced and acted by non-LGBT individuals and crews. “Can they be authentic? she asked rhetorically. “And by whose standards?” Holsopple seems to “get” the need for lesbians to be involved in lesbian films. Katohora actually did work with a script doctor and others from the Indian-American LBGT organization Boston Masala in addition to other queer groups. The film is about two women’s connection over the course of three very emotional, physical and philosophical days in New York City. As Almeida says, “It’s not a romantic comedy but a truer moment that catches the full range of emotions of a conflicted woman.” Alneida and Holsopple formed a fast friendship which created the trust required for them to play out their sex scenes. “But we also had to trust the crew to keep us safe and be respectful,” says Holsopple. Share It!                |
The Rabble Rouser
Kent Victor Schuelke is The Rabble Rouser. He is an actor and filmmaker, and the editor of www.independentfilmsdirect.com. He has acted in several independent films and on-stage in Los Angeles, and he plans to direct from his own script (but not act in) a digital feature in 2008. He has a long history in film and television production (check him out on IMDb), and also worked in the video game biz. He got his start in journalism as a college freshman in 1981. In 1986, he interviewed movie legend Cary Grant for his little college paper and when the actor died a couple months later Schuelke sold his Grant talk to Andy Warhol's Interview magazine. He is a product of Hollywood's last Golden Era (1967-1980). As a child, Schuelke remembers seeing Bonnie and Clyde on the big screen at about age six. Schuelke watched American Graffiti about 30 times on the big screen at the little single screen movie house in the tiny Iowa farming village where he was reared. He has been almost singularly obsessed by movies since age four. His favorite films are the ultra realistic ones — Dog Day Afternoon is among his favorites and the purest description of the type of filmmaking he holds in highest regard. Schuelke lives in Los Angeles, and loves it. His current professional life is focused on acting, making films and writing about movies, and he is so happy with his life path that he might even consider dropping his therapist. But the Rouser will not go off his medication — his co-workers at IFD will see to that, for everybody's sakes. 
