I was pretty excited to start my
A4 assignment on Stone Butch Blues.
As the first piece of literature for this course, it opened my eyes to a new
world. Now, going back and reexamining the novel allowed me to appreciate the
story in a new way.
We decided to film in a
documentary-like setting, interviewing the main characters from Jess Goldberg’s
past. When we studied this novel in class, the focus was on Jess and her
character, her struggle, her life. But with this assignment we were able to
take a different approach. What impact did Jess have on other people’s lives?
How did her struggles reflect the hardship that so many others go through
today? Writing the script and putting myself in the shoes of the other
characters brought Jess to life. She was an old girlfriend. She was a past
student. She was my Baby Butch. I
felt the novel in a whole new way.
My favorite piece to film was
Theresa’s interview. As a character, she had a large impact of Jess’s life. The
novel even opens with an apology letter from Jess to Theresa. It was
interesting to think from her perspective. Most of the novel is told through
Jess’s eyes and we remain unaware to the thoughts of the characters. I liked
pretending to be Theresa, getting inside of her mind to write the script. In
the interview we tried to show her to be remorseful but also happy. We wanted
to give the characters a good ending, especially after all of the struggles
that they had faced. Jan was also a great character to film. As a mentor to Jess,
she is able to see the growth that Jess goes through as a character. She sees
Jess before she develops into her new persona, before she finds out what it
means to be a butch.
I really loved this project because
the book is so important to me. I feel like we could never do the characters
the justice they deserve, but we did try our best. I liked this assignment because
we were able to take a novel about a topic that felt so far removed, and make
it into something that we could relate to in a new way.
No comments:
Post a Comment