Intimate Films
Holly Woodlawn Interview (1970s)
Holly Woodlawn was one of the first transgender actresses to star in a movie. Her first significant role was in a Warhol Film called Trash (mentioned in the Frank Films section). Though the part was initially intended to be smaller, Woodlawn impressed the director and screenwriter so much that he rewrote the film to give her character a much more significant part, which jump-started her career as a Warhol star.
In this interview, she mentions many things- her queerness, the explicit sexuality of the film, and even the political climate of the time. She allows her personality and identity to be fully displayed, even outside filming.
Woodlawn’s personality may have seemed like a farce to outsiders in the 70s- an act, much like her transsexualism itself. But both continued, even after her film career had ended.
"Holly Woodlawn Interview." Warholstars. May 12, 2009. Video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5wuwngAXGA.
Holly Woodlawn Interview (1992)
This later interview of Woodlawn covers her time acting for Trash and Warhol films in general. She again mentions the overt sexuality and queerness of the movie, but her age and the time that has passed allow her a more retrospective view of her life in that period.
Woodlawn’s personality softened and changed over the years, but her affectation and gender identity remained similar, if not constant. Her queerness wasn’t an act- wasn’t put on for the cameras or Warhol to film- but was part of her identity.
Though her queerness isn’t often explicitly mentioned in these interviews or the movie, these pieces were included to show how the idea that queer people were “playing up” their personality or identity, an idea that has continued even into modern times, is simply false. Woodlawn shows that even while not playing a character, her queerness is still a visible part of her identity.
Lowe, Skip E., interviewer. Holly Woodlawn--1992 TV Interview. 1992. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAe99AA0Z6U
Different From the Others
Before the rise of the Nazi Regime of Germany and the destruction of countless LGBT artifacts, there was a fleeting moment in German cinema where films were sympathetic to LGBT communities. Richard Oswald & Magnus Hirshfeld collaborated to create a silent German feature-length film credited with being one of the first sympathetic portrayals of gay men in cinema. Anders als die Andern (1919), also known as Different from the Others, was a tragedy about a queer musician who is blackmailed after starting an affair with his male student. This is critical to LGBT history as it portrays the difficulties LGBT men had to face in the early 20th century while humanizing them to the audience. It also reflects the turmoil of Germany’s political climate as it almost immediately got banned and was thought to be lost due to the 1920 censorship of Germany. Only one copy of the film survived after the Nazi Regime of Germany and was found decades after. This specific piece is also prominent as Magnus Hirschfeld was a leading researcher studying sex, gender, and sexuality in the early 20th century. Most of his works & collections were destroyed due to his new & open ideas about gender & sexuality. With this film surviving, it showcases the early 20th century in a light that was more open to LGBT than previously thought. This piece is a part of the intimate side of candidness as its sympathetic portrayal was not to be intently frank about homosexuality but instead to show the humanity of those who were queer and existing.
Frank Literature
ALFA Newspaper Article
Above is an article written by Martha Smith for The Great Speckled Bird, a newspaper based in Atlanta, Georgia. This specific article was published in August 1975. The piece talks about the assembling of The Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance softball team: the ALFA Omegas. The Omegas strived to show that there were gay women in sports and that they deserved to be out. They chant phrases that include vulgar language used against lesbians, showing the shameless and inspiring nature of this group. This team, along with the other lesbian softball teams, offers the unapologetic actions of lesbian feminist activists and how they established themselves in society. Overall, The Great Speckled Bird was focused on this type of exposure for ALFA, with multiple stories about the group making changes in their local community. This group, ALFA, is lesser known in the sphere of queer history, but that doesn’t mean it’s less significant to history. It is essential to learn local history through a queer lens. It builds a historic sense of community between the population of queer people who live around the area now and the ones that lived here before them. Not only does it develop a sense of community, but it also shows the Gay Liberation and Lesbian Feminist movements from a smaller perspective.
“Out in the Archives Gender and Sexuality Collections at Georgia State University.” Organizations – Out in the Archives. Accessed November 27, 2023. https://exhibits.library.gsu.edu/out-in-the-archives/finding-community/organizations/
Ann Allen Schockley’s short story “A Meeting of the Sapphic Daughters”, was featured in Sinister Wisdoms 1979 Spring edition of their 9th magazine titled “Bull-Dyke”. Schockley was a journalist, writer and teacher who focused her work on the black lesbian identity. Her specific focus was on the “triple oppression” black lesbians experience, which consists of the intersections of racism, homophobia, and sexism. In “A Meeting of the Sapphic Daughters” Shockley comments on the racism within white lesbian groups in the 1970’s, through the lens of two black lesbians who are trying to find a community. Shockley's illustration of the racism perpetuated throughout white lesbian groups is essential in centering a historically accurate depiction of the lack of intersectionality within the women's liberation movement and lesbian groups in the 1970’s. In Barker and Schlees book Queer: A Graphic History,Kimberlé Crenshaw defines intersectionality as, “No one axis of oppression... can be regarded separately from all others.”(47). In Mignon Moore’s academic journal, Intersectionality and the Study of Black, Sexual Minority Women, Moore says, “Sharing the life histories of lesbian women of color...reveals the critical importance of sexuality as an identity as well as a social location that structures individuals' lives alongside race, gender, and class” (34). One of Moore’s interviewees stated how the world perceives her as a black lesbian,“People see your Blackness...My sexuality is something that developed later on,” ( 33). Centering Black lesbian women’s voices is imperative to counteracting the whitewashing of history; uplifting the experiences of people who have marginalized intersecting identities is incredibly important in preserving an accurate representation of history through an intersectional lesbian feminist lens. Shockley's tone and content in her short story is frank, honest, and bold, which fits into the Candid theme of our exhibit.
Shockley, Allen, Ann. A Meeting of the Sapphic Daughters.Sinister Wisdom Archives. 1977. Sinister Wisdom 9.pdf
Moore, Mignon R. “Intersectionality and the study of black, sexual minority women.” Gender & Society, vol. 26, no. 1, 2012, pp. 33–39, https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243211427031.
Frank Films
Trash (1970)
Trash is a film directed by Paul Morrissey. However, it is commonly associated with Morrissey’s mentor, Andy Warhol, as it was produced under his company (even though it was made after Warhol had stepped away from an active role in filmmaking). The movie depicts Joe Smith living with his transgender girlfriend, Holly Sandiago, in a basement in the Lower East Side and focuses on a life of poverty in the streets.
Though Joe is the main character, Holly is arguably the protagonist, as her efforts are the only thing keeping the pair afloat. Holly Sandiago, the character, was played by Holly Woodlawn, the actress, and the pair are remarkably similar. Though the character’s queer (in the more generalized “odd” sense of the word) attitude may seem like a bold character choice, the actress’s similar demeanor shows that being queer, along with the more flashy attitude choices that accompanied the label at the time, were more than just an act. They were an identity.
Morrissey, Paul, director. Trash. 1970. https://archive.org/details/trash1970
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60s