Is anyone... Afraid of Vagina Wolf? New release starring Guinevere Turner (dir Anna Margarita Albelo)

DVD Release Date: 29 September 2014 

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Rating :

Country of Origin: USA
Director: Anna Margarita Albelo
Cast: Anna Margarita Albelo, Guinevere Turner, Janina Gavankar, Carrie Preston
BBFC Rating: 15 (tbc)
Available: 25 August, Amazon
 
Anna is a charismatic but struggling filmmaker facing a midlife crisis, having turned 40, she lives in her friend's garage in L.A., dances in a vagina costume for money, and has neither job nor girlfriend. Just when she's about to give up on both, she meets sexy post-feminist, Katia.
To impress her new muse, Anna decides to write and direct an all-female remake of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? casting Katia and her best friends Chloe and Penelope in the film. Along the way, with the help of those around her, she discovers some home truths with hilarious results. 

From director Anna Margarita Albelo (A Lez in Wonderland, Hooters) comes this eccentric, semi-autobiographical romantic comedy with Albelo in her first feature fiction film.

With an award-winning performance from  Guinevere Turner (The L Word, Go Fish, outstanding as Penelope and playing everything from supportive best friend to a drunk lesbian version of Elizabeth Taylor) and an award-wining script, great supporting cast turns from Janina Gavanka and Agnes Olech, as well as significant amount of the film in a handmade vagina costume, Albelo has created more than a universe for her character, it's really a multi-verse. 

Listen to our interview with Director Anna Margarita Albelo and lead Guinevere Turner:




Mixing genre (from fantasy to comedy) and even style such as film noir juxtaposed against documentary, Albelo offers us a sometimes surreal, sometimes meta, often funny, sometimes very dark (imagine peeling off Guinevere Turner's face and sticking it over your own...) vision for a character who goes on a mid-life journey of self discovery after reaching rock bottom. With an honest look at herself, and help from the friends and family that surround her, she realises she can achieve her dream.  

This is Albelo's first feature and she plays with as many of the possibilities that are open to her as can fit in one 80 minute film. And it works.

Writer, Director and lead Anna Margarita Albelo says  

"Who's Afraid of Vagina Wolf? based on my original, semi-autobiographical story, is a film about honesty and unites many of the themes that concern me and my work for the past 20 years: the anti-hero's quest, unrequited love, unconditional love, facing demons, and creating change through our own hands.  

By using my life and becoming the protagonist, I am giving a voice to a person who is a woman, a Latina, a lesbian, out there in the world trying to give meaning and importance to her life and desires. Universal themes explored, with humour, by one person's personal experiences, this is the base of my work both in documentary and fiction.

"Inspired by the mid-life crisis films of two of my cinematographic heroes: Fellini's 8 1/2 and Woody Allen's Stardust Memories, I unite the different story-telling techniques I've perfected over the years combining fantasy, documentary, comedy, and drama. Who's Afraid of Vagina Wolf? is a movie about a filmmaker telling you her story, illustrating her trials and tribulations and somehow understanding what it all means at the end. It's also about how humour, friendship, family and creativity can illuminate even the most dire of situations. How does one have love in their lives? They start with themselves!" 

Click on the banner to order your copy today!

By Katie

 

Here it is! 'Grrls Guide to Film making' with Rolla Selbak

Award-winning out filmmaker Rolla Selbak is releasing the new online “interview” series, in which she shares her personal Hollywood vlogs as she visits some of the most prominent lesbian filmmakers making it happen today.   
Grrl's Guide To Filmmaking offers an exclusive glimpse behind the scenes, showing the magic, behind the magic.

Selbak sneaks us into the Paramount writers room with Faith Soloway, writer on the breakthrough Amazon series Transparent; stumbles into Cathy DeBuono's backyard; gets the juicy details from Guinevere Turner and how she came up with the title "The L Word", and much....much more.  

Says Selbak about advice she would give to young lesbian film makers starting out today:

"Watch my show, lol

"No, but in all seriousness, I would say study and watch as much content as possible. Things you love, things you hate, guilty pleasure, things you would never ever consider watching.

"Watch them once for entertainment, then watch them again and really analyze why you connected or didn’t connect for you. Understand yourself as a viewer first, deeply understand your taste, then set out to create something you yourself would be love to see on-screen, with no fear.

"Keep on creating. That’s the only way you’ll evolve and learn about yourself creatively. Classes can teach you technique, but no one can teach you taste. That comes from you, and you alone."

Selbak explains what she would have done differently as a young film maker, had she had the lessons of hindsight:

"I would have stopped giving a crap much earlier in my life about what people thought of me, namely society. I think my work starting really evolving when I came out. I was 25 at the time. I would’ve come out much earlier in life.

"When I analyze my work before I came out, I could tell it was stifled somehow, even if the subject had nothing to do with sexuality. It just was. Coming out really gave me the freedom to launch forward and express myself fully, and to never look back."

And her favourite non-LGBT directors to interview for Grrls Guide to Filmmaking would be
"Jane Campion. I’m in love with her work. Also the big B! (Kathryn Bigelow) ".
Season One kicked off on 10th August with episode one featuring an up close and personal interview with Faith Soloway, which streams on Tello at
http://www.onemorelesbian.com/tello/webseries/grrls-guide-filmmaking/

To get a taste of the series before it comes out tomorrow, view the trailer

  
Selbak is an award winning filmmaker who is part of the San Francisco Women's Film Institute Leadership council, and is responsible for creating and producing the S.F International Women's On-line Film Festival. She's queer, an Arab-American and a woman. 

But that hasn’t stopped the self-taught auteur from writing, directing and producing films that matter to her. Selbak is also known as the mastermind behind the web series sensation Kiss Her I’m Famous starring Tracy Ryerson and Ilea Matthews which satirizes the booming business of the sex tape madness, and how celebrity wannabes utilizes their home movies as a ticket to greater stardom and a major payday.

Selbak has scored some major names in LBQ film making for this series, which promises to be an insightful and inspiring source for all aspiring LBQ film makers. Episode Guide: EP1 - Faith Soloway -10th August EP2 - Cathy DeBuono -17th August EP3 - Cathryn Hayes -24th August EP4 - Heather de Michele & Gretchen Michelfeld -31st August EP5 - Guinevere Turner - 7th September.

By Katie

#BFIFlare: 'Who's Afraid of Vagina Wolf?' dir Anna Margarita Albelo

The day after her 40th birthday, a filmmaker who sacrificed her love life for her film career realises she has neither, and decides to get them both by adapting an all-female version of, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
Rating :

With an award-winning performance from  Guinevere Turner (The L Word, Go Fish, outstanding as Penelope and playing everything from supportive best friend to a drunk lesbian version of Elizabeth Taylor) and and award-wining script, great supporting cast turns from Janina Gavanka and Agnes Olech, as well as significant amount of the film in a handmade vagina costume, Albelo has created more than a universe for her character, it's really a multi-verse. 

Mixing genre (from fantasy to comedy) and even style such as film noir juxtaposed against documentary, Albelo offers us a sometimes surreal, sometimes meta, often funny, sometimes very dark (imagine peeling off Guinevere Turner's face and sticking it over your own...) vision for a character who goes on a mid-life journey of self discovery after reaching rock bottom. With an honest look at herself, and help from the friends and family that surround her, she realises she can achieve her dream.  This is Albelo's first feature and she plays with as many of the possibilities that are open to her as can fit in one 80 minute film. And it works.

Writer, Director and lead Anna Margarita Albelo says

'"Who's Afraid of Vagina Wolf?" based on my original, semi-autobiographical story is a film about honesty and unites many of the themes that concern me and my work for the past 20 years: the anti-hero's quest, unrequited love, unconditional love, facing demons, and creating change through our own hands.  By using my life and becoming the protagonist, I am giving a voice to a person who is a woman, a Latina, a lesbian, out there in the world trying to give meaning and importance to her life and desires. Universal themes explored, with humor, by one person's personal experiences, this is the base of my work both in documentary and fiction.

'Inspired by the mid-life crisis films of two of my cinematographic heroes: Fellini's "8 1/2" and Woody Allen's "Stardust Memories", I unite the different story-telling techniques I've perfected over the years combining fantasy, documentary, comedy, and drama. "Who's Afraid of Vagina Wolf?" is a movie about a filmmaker telling you her story, illustrating her trials and tribulations and somehow understanding what it all means at the end. It's also about how humor, friendship, family and creativity can illuminate even the most dire of situations. How does one have love in their lives? They start with themselves!" 

Our interview with Albelo and Turner will be published in the summer.

By Katie