A still from the film "Go Fish".
The 1994 film Go Fish opens in a classroom where the teacher asks the class to make a list of “women that you think are lesbians or that you know are lesbians.” The answers she gets are everything from Eve to Virginia Woolf to Margaret, Dennis the Menace’s next-door neighbor. One student then asks why they are making the list. The teacher responds: “Throughout lesbian history there has been serious lack of evidence that’ll tell us what these women’s lives were truly about.… lesbian lives and lesbian relationships, they barely exist on paper, and it is with that in mind and understanding that meaning and the power of history that we begin to want to change history.”
On Saturday night Yale Film Archive gave its audience insight as to how Go Fish did just that. A new digital restoration of the Rose Troche-directed film was presented in celebration of LGBT History Month as part of the YFA’s Cinemix series. The crowd at the Humanities Quadrangle was also treated to a Q&A afterward with the film’s co-writer, co-producer, and lead actor Guinevere Turner (who plays Max in the film) moderated by Justin LaLiberty, director/curator at Cinematographe, a sub-label of Vinegar Syndrome, which recently released a new Blu-ray edition of the film in celebration of its 30th anniversary.
YFA’s own Archer Neilson welcomed everyone and explained that tonight’s screening was a new print of the film digitally restored by the Academy Film Archive and the UCLA Film and Television Archive, in conjunction with the Sundance Institute with funding provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Amazon MGM Studios, Frameline, Sundance Institute, and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. She then introduced LaLiberty, who asked the audience a question about the film.
“Who hasn’t seen it?” Many hands went up (including this reporter’s).
“This is the perfect opportunity to see it,” he said.
Turner expressed her joy in finding out how many people were coming to the film for the first time.
“I’m continually amazed at the new interest, that it’s not just repeat offenders,” she said with a laugh. “I don’t know what kind of alchemy that is, but thank you for coming.”
The film tells the story of Max (Turner), a college student with a penchant for writing and without a love interest. Her supportive roommate Kia (T. Wendy McMillan) — who is also the aforementioned teacher — wants to help Max find love. She thinks she’s on the right track when she introduces Max to old friend Ely (V.S. Brodie), who keeps being dismissed by Max as a “hippie” but also piques her interest once they get to talking. It is eventually revealed that Ely is still in a long distance, committed relationship … or is she?
Through a community of friends, lovers, ex-lovers, and maybe-one-day lovers, the viewer gets more than a glimpse into the personal and interpersonal struggles and success that has made Go Fish a landmark of queer cinema. As we meet each one of the crew, and especially when we hear them in their Greek chorus-type asides discussing behaviors and relationships — the budding one between Max and Ely but also their own — the film resonates in its balance between the personal and the universal, from a distinctly queer point of view. The moments of friendship and love are the heartbeat of the film, and it is difficult not to laugh and smile as you watch the characters try to make and keep connections and support each other. There is also a certain degree of fourth-wall breaking that I won’t spoil for you if you have never seen the film. It is worth experiencing yourself untethered to any explanation.
The moments of disconnect also make Go Fish stand out. One scene, in which the tough talking and distinctly charming Daria (played with loads of charisma by Anastasia Sharp) has sex with a man and is then questioned and criticized by her friends in a trial-type scenario, gives the viewer much to think about in terms of identity, labels, and judgment, not only of each other, but of ourselves.
There are also the more surreal moments, some with poetic dialogue and some with images of hands, bodies, and home-movie type pieces of film that give the viewer more than a few moments to reflect between the more linear narrative portions of Go Fish. Profound statements are made, yet there is also lots of laughter and a healthy dose of romance.
The 16-mm black-and-white film used, as well as the actors’ casual style, give the movie a documentary feel. According to Turner, that was somewhat the intention, to capture the feel and realness of their community. She explained that the origins of Go Fish lay she and Troche, who were dating at the time, watching an unrealistic scene in a lesbian bar in another movie.
“We don’t feel represented, these aren’t the people we know,” she recalled thinking in seeing this scene.
During the making of Go Fish the two ended their relationship, but continued to work together on the DIY project. They ended up at the Sundance Film Festival with the finished product, “surprised anyone but lesbians cared” about the film, Turner said.
“We thought we were making it for our friends and community,” said Turner. “We didn’t think anyone would pay attention.”
When LaLiberty asked if they were inspired by any queer filmmakers, Turner said they knew “what they didn’t want.”
“Our goals were positive queer representation and lesbian visibility,” she added.
Multiple audience questions and comments followed, including about the meta element of the film, the music, and whether something like this film could be made today. Turner noted that she works with “so many young people with so much impetus to beat the system.” She related to them, recalling herself, Troche, and those who worked on this now classic film 30 years ago.
“The nerve of people in their early 20s trying to make a movie and make a difference,” she said with a smile.
Asked about the endurance of the film, Turner said that though she had not seen it coming, she was “delighted” that “young queer women engaged with it.”
“We were talking about issues inside of our community,” she added. ‘We laid a baseline. It was not intentional; it was just what we were feeling. We ended up accidentally saying something universal.”
See the Yale Film Archive website for more information about its fall schedule of films, which are free to the public.
Q&A with Turner and LaLiberty.