AMAZONS THEN, LESBIANS NOW: 40 YEARS LATER

Amazons Then, Lesbians Now: 40 years later

Amazones d'hier, lesbiennes d'aujourd'hui, 40 ans plus tard (original title)

Directed by: Dominique BOURQUE, Johanne COULOMBE & Julie VAILLANCOURT

Canada. 2022. Documentary. 57min. Color. VOF-STMF.

Synopsis

Amazons Then, Lesbians Now: 40 years later offers images of the creation of Amazones d'Hier, Lesbiennes d'Aujourd'hui (AHLA), a lesbian collective behind the video of the same name shot in 1979 and also the review eponymous published between 1982 and 2014. Based on interviews conducted in May 2021 as well as archive footage, this documentary highlights the four founding members of the collective – Gin Bergeron, Ariane Brunet, Louise Turcotte and Danielle Charest (1951-2011) – and the need to document our lives. The sudden death of co-director Johanne Coulombe in July 2021, when the film had not yet been edited, underlines the importance of this work of memory.

Dominique Bourque, Johanne Coulombe & Julie Vaillancourt

Dominique BOURQUE, Johanne COULOMBE (1957-2021) & Julie VAILLANCOURT

Dominique Bourque has directed Les Éditions sans fin - The Never Ending Press since 2015 and has taught at the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies and the Department of French Literature at the University of Ottawa since 2003. Her research focuses on the self-representations of marginalized figures in literature and the arts.

Johanne Coulombe (1957 - 2021) directed Les Éditions sans fin - The Never Ending Press from 2015 to 2021, digitized the issues of the review Amazones of yesterday, Lesbiennes d'Aujourd'hui; published the catalog of this journal Collection complet (1982-2014), in 2019, after having been a member of its collective from 1984-2014; as well as writing texts in this journal. Coulombe has also presented numerous comedy shows and worked as a volunteer in several lesbian organizations, including the Quebec Lesbian Network.

Julie Vaillancourt has been interested in film and LGBT activism for nearly two decades. A film teacher at the Cégep de Saint-Jérôme, she has been a journalist for the LGBTQ+ magazine Fugues for nearly fifteen years, in addition to lending her pen to the film magazine Séquences. Her writings have been published in Cinematic Queerness by Éditions Peter Lang, Sapho Magazine, Revue Dire, Literary Arc-en-ciel, and Lez Spread among others. She produced various videos, notably for the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse and for the Réseau des Lesbiennes du Québec (RLQ). In 2018, she directed the short film Femmes:(Ré)flexions identitaires presented at various festivals, then co-scripted the Lesbo-Queer comic strip (in 2019). In 2022, she wrote the ambitious book Archives lesbians: from yesterday to today (Tome 1 and 2) still on behalf of the RLQ.

October 26 to 29, 2023

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