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Oakland Dykes Ready for Their Closeup by Doniphan Blair
Filmmaker Florencia Manóvil relaxing at an Oakland icon popular among her preferred subject: the Lake Merritt colonnade and queer women respectively. photo: D. Blair
"Oakland is the dyke capital of the United States," director Florencia Manóvil told me at a cafe across from the city's lovely Lake Merritt the other day. "Gay men are centered in the Castro [San Francisco]. A woman walking around the Castro, in certain areas, is not really welcome. San Francisco is slick and night clubby but Oakland is down home, sunshine and art."
Argentine-born, Manóvil left home at 18 to study film at Emerson College in Boston. Unable to deal with cold, she went West and two years ago completed her first feature, "Fiona's Script", about a dreamy playwright who is challenged by her new lady love to stop the scribbling and live in the present. For more see her production company Mynah FIlms.
"Fiona's Script" aroused a flood of interest and Manóvil soon had new writing/producing partner, Arnetta Smith, and a contribution of $5,000, leading to the stylish and provocative television pilot "Dyke Central". Although the Director of Photography and Sound Person were paid, all the actors (all local) worked for spec. Best known among them is Giovannie Espiritu, who works in LA and runs the SF Actors Workshop and The Young Actors Workshop.
"When Arnetta and I met two years ago we started talking about it. People talk all the time about doing a dyke show but she had never met a filmmaker and I felt it was too daunting to take on my own. I was just coming out of my feature and a debt slump. But she convinced me."
"We started writing it, kind of loosely, but six months later a friend came into some money and said, 'Hey I want to donate $5,000 to your next project.' So January 2011 we went into high gear and shot in May and had a premiere at the Grand Lake in October."
Girls in lust in Manóvil's pilot for the television show, 'Dyke Central'. photo: courtesy Dyke Central
"We call it comedic drama or a funny dyke drama," Manóvil explained. "I have been looking at more shows that fit the half hour that are not a comedy. There seems to be more and more like 'The United States of Tara' or 'Weeds'. They are funny but their point is not to make people laugh."
It was not easy filling the roles. They had trouble finding a lead character who was very masculine since the standard of acting for women is to present as very feminine. Of the eight main cast members, only one was precast so they put out a call on Bay Area's Women in Film, SF Casting and Craigslist and spread the word in the community. Facebook yielded several actresses.
"I don't think people have to be queer to play queer," Manóvil told me when I wondered about the difficulties in casting. "What is tougher has to do with the gender expression. Giovannie [Espiritu], who plays Gin, she is pretty feminine, we had to sort of convert her gender expression. An actor has to study, change the way they walk and talk."
"It is a very underrepresented community," Manóvil explained, "So many people are excited about the project, especially those who belong to the queer community. Queer people are everywhere in the industry. The person representing us is a black queer woman—she is super excited."
"The queer shows out there tend to be low production value. After 'The L Word,' there was pretty much nothing."
They have prepared a press kit and sizzle reel and dispatched their sales agent, India Alston, who runs BEAM, a marketing and branding company out of Oakland, to tour LA.
"We see it as a show about the characters of the community and Oakland is one of those characters," Manóvil said. "It is not like, 'This could take place in any city.' There is very specific culture for those of use who live here and especially the queer community. When we leave, we are reminded how special it is. Queers aren't in the majority in any other city. Where as here, just walking around, and at some events, it is really like being queer is normalized, which allows people to live on a different level."
Although Manóvil has hung out in Brazil and speaks Portuguese, she can be quite camera shy. photo: D. Blair
"We use the weed element, which is big part of the Oakland culture and economy. One of the characters [is] eventually going to work at a dispensary. Crime is already associated with Oakland to a disproportionate degree. Instead, we want to highlight all the artistic strengths and cultural diversity."
As accepting as Oakland may be, it is still largely African-American a community which has been historically slow to embrace homosexuality, even though virtually every church choir director does, let alone lesbianism.
"People who grew up here, their families are very accepting," Manóvil informed me when I asked about this. "People who struggle with their family, it has nothing to do with race. My family is still in Argentina, Buenos Aires, and they are pretty accepting."
"We got a gay marriage law passed a few years ago [but], as opposed to here, first the law was passed and then it got widespread cultural acceptance. There has been a lot of queer characters on mainstream media in Argentina for the last ten years and that really affects people. When I talk about being queer with family members, they say, 'Oh yeah, there is this female couple in the soap opera and they are cool.'"
"Anyone with a vision [is] disqualified from the [Hollywood] club. If it turns out the only way for us to retain creative control is to do it our own way, we will. There is not that much we are willing to compromise on."
Manóvil calculates $15-20,000 per episode. She and Smith have already written treatments and breakdown for the rest of the first season. "[Although] we have had a lot of support, I don't know what the chance is of getting industry support. So we are also exploring doing a web series."
"The multicultural aspect is [also] a big thing for us. When you look at the queer shows that are part of mainstream media, they are not diverse at all, like one brown character. We have only two white characters in the main eight."
Manóvil is not recalcitrant however about promoting her projects or life goals, like changing the media portrayals of women, dykes, and people of color. photo: D. Blair
"I recently read this interview with Meryl Streep in which she said, growing up female you work so that you can empathize with a male protagonist. But it doesn't translate the other way: if there is a female protagonist that excludes the entire male population from identifying with the lead. That applies with people of color. I feel it is my life mission to change that for women and people of color."
"We want to represent reality so I tend to shy away from the attention grabbing characters," Manóvil told me when I wondered about including colorful drama queens or "spies in the house of love. "
"All of our characters are quote unqoute normal but they will go through their dark places. Some of them make more money than others. The lead just turned 30 and she doesn't know what she wants to do. She works as a paralegal and might want to become a lawyer but it's not her passion. Her girlfriend is a social worker who has been doing what she loves to do for years. They are conflicted about that."
Of course the issue is exes, not-so-exes and possible flings that roil the dyke community as much—or probably more, since both parties are emoters—as other groups. Indeed, this is the tense note that Manóvil and Smith's pilot ends on, leaving us to hope they find funding just so we can learn the answer to the eternal question of all communities: "Who is making love with whom."
To see "Dyke Central", check the Queer Women of Color Film Festival, Friday June 8 at 7:30pm. Manóvil is also fundraising for her second feature, "Star-Crossed".