Directed by Jenni Olson • 2005 • United States
Multitalented performance artist Harry Dodge brings to life this innovative tale of a butch dyke in San Francisco searching for love. Against a backdrop of stunning landscape cinematography, Jenni Olson’s bold, lyrical essay film evolves from queer lust story to inventive documentary—encompassing everything from explicit descriptions of lesbian sexuality to an exploration of Frank Capra’s 1941 classic MEET JOHN DOE to a fascinating history of the Golden Gate Bridge as a suicide landmark. A true San Francisco experience, THE JOY OF LIFE also includes poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti intoning his ode to the City by the Bay, “The Changing Light,” and features music from legendary poet-painter (and probable Golden Gate suicide) Weldon Kees.
Directed by Jenni Olson • 2015 • United States
A cinematic essay in defense of remembering, THE ROYAL ROAD offers up a primer on the Spanish colonization of California and the Mexican American War alongside intimate reflections on nostalgia, the pursuit of unavailable women, butch identity, and ...
Directed by Jenni Olson • 1998 • United States
Through voiceover and static San Francisco landscapes, Jenni Olson’s experimental queer classic tells the melancholy story of a dyke pining over a one-night stand with a straight girl.
Directed by Jenni Olson • 2009 • United States
Jenni Olson resurrects the spirit of gay political icon Harvey Milk in this poignant short, which sets an original audiotape he recorded—to be played in the event of his assassination—to a meditation on the play of light and shadow on the walls of h...
