Trailblazing Lesbians of Coachella Valley: Film Event

Celebrate LVW North America: Joani: Queen of the Paradiddle & Looking for Lesbians: Queer Female Identity in Alternate Film Histories

Celebrate Lesbian Visibility Week with two great film screenings:

Documentary Short: Joani: Queen of the Paradiddle (2015) (31 min.)

In 1935, Joani (Georgia Joan Hannan) picked up a pair of drumsticks and beat her path in entertainment history, becoming a pioneer female jazz drummer. From playing with Marilyn Monroe to running clandestine LGBT bars, she exemplified strength, self-love and courage to be true to oneself no matter what. Written and Directed by Tina Gordon.

Looking for Lesbians: Queer Female Identity in Alternate Film Histories (60 min.)

Presented by Deserted Films

Lesbian (in)visibility in film and television is a much-discussed topic, often centered on non-representation and/or problematic representations. But what was happening outside of Hollywood?

Join local home movie archive Deserted Films (Melissa Dollman and Devin Orgeron) for an enlightening and celebratory Lesbian Visibility Week program featuring unique materials from their own collections and from archives around the country that provide a glimpse of queer female identity outside of mainstream Hollywood. Midcentury educational films, exploitation films, liberation era documentaries and home movies will be explored for their varying degrees of inclusion and their fit within the wider queer media landscape.

About Deserted Films:

Deserted Films (Melissa Dollman and Devin Orgeron) is a nonprofit home movie archive in Palm Springs, Ca. They collect, care for, and make accessible, 8mm, Super 8, 16mm and some VHS home movies of the Coachella Valley and beyond and advocate locally and nationally for the preservation of films produced by amateurs.