Yvonne Welbon is the founder of the Chicago-based nonprofit Sisters in Cinema. She is an independent filmmaker whose films have screened on PBS, Starz/Encore, TV-ONE, IFC, Bravo, and the Sundance Channel and in over one hundred film festivals around the world.Alexandra Juhasz is Professor and Chair of the Department of Film at Brooklyn College, City University of New York; the coeditor of A Companion to Contemporary Documentary Film; and a documentary filmmaker.

• Preface. To Be Transparent: Seeing Directions and Connections in Black Lesbian Film / Alexandra Juhasz  ixIntroduction. The Sisters in the Life Archive Project / Yvonne Welbon  1Part I. 1986–1995Introduction / Yvonne Welbon  151. Birth of a Notion: Toward Black, Gay, and Lesbian Imagery in Film and Video / Michelle Parkerson  212. Narrating Our History: An Introduction / Thomas Allen Harris  263. Narrating Our History: Selections from a Dialogue among Queer Media Artists from the African Diaspora / Edited by RaÙl Ferrera-Balanquet and Thomas Allen Harris, with Shari Frilot, Leah Gilliam, Dawn Suggs, Jocelyn Taylor, and Yvonne Welbon  294. Construction of Computation and Desire: Introduction to Yvonne Welbon's Interview with Pamela L. Jennings / Kara Keeling  475. Ruins and Desire: Interview with Pamela L. Jennings, July 27, 2012 / Yvonne Welbon  516. the book of ruins and desire: Interactive Mechatronic Sculpture / Pamela L. Jennings  637. A Cosmic Demonstration of  Shari Frilot's Curatorial Practice / Roya Rastegar  668. Identity and Performance in Yvonne Welbon's Remembering Wei-Yi Fang, Remembering Myself: An Autobiography / Devorah Heitner  92Part II. 1996–2016Introduction / Yvonne Welbon  1159. Producing Black Lesbian Media / Candace Moore  12510. Stereotypy, Mammy, and Recovery in Cheryl Dunye's The Watermelon Woman / Karin D. Wimbley11. Coquie Hughes: Urban Lesbian Filmmaker. Introduction to Yvonne Welbon's Interview with Coquie Hughes / Jennifer DeVere Brody  16012. Stepping Out on Faith: Interview with Coquie Hughes, July 27, 2012 / Yvonne Welbon  16513. "Invite Me In!": Angela Robinson at Hollywood's Threshold / Patricia White  17614. Shine Louise Houston: An Interstice of Her Own Making / L. H. Stallings  19115. From Rage to Resignation: Reading Tina Mabry's Mississippi Damned as a Post-Civil Rights Response to Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddam" / Marlon Rahquel Moore  20516. The Circuitous Route of Presenting Black Butch: The Travels of Dee Ree's Pariah / Jennifer DeClue  22517. Creating the World Anew: Black Lesbian Legacies and Queer Film Futures / Alexis Pauline Gumbs  249Acknowledgments  261Selected Bibliography  263Contributors  269Index  273

"Sisters in the Life is an act of reclamation, a means of shining a light on the critical work that these women have done with little recognition or fanfare. . . . For those who are invested in the history of representation, Sisters in the Life is worth adding to your bookshelf." - Evette Dionne (Bitch) "This well-researched title is highly recommended for readers interested in African American, women's, LGBTQ, and general film studies." - Sally Bryant (Library Journal) "Sisters in the Life moves uninterruptedly from strength to strength. Along the way, its stories are eclectic but interrelated, U.S.-centered but increasingly global, alert to ongoing inequities but inspired by past and present accomplishments- and by futures that look brighter all the time." - Nick Davis (Film Comment) "In this academic but engaging anthology, contributors examine the important contributions of black lesbian filmmakers over the past three decades. Finally, filmmakers like Cheryl Dunye, Dee Rees, and Angela Robinson get their due. So too should Welbon (director of 1993’s famed Sisters in the Life: First Love.)" - Jacob Anderson-Minshall (The Advocate) "This is an eye-opening study that seems likely to become a classic in its genre." - Jean Roberta (Gay & Lesbian Review)

Yvonne Welbon is the founder of the Chicago-based nonprofit Sisters in Cinema. She is an independent filmmaker whose films have screened on PBS, Starz/Encore, TV-ONE, IFC, Bravo, and the Sundance Channel and in over one hundred film festivals around the world.Alexandra Juhasz is Professor and Chair of the Department of Film at Brooklyn College, City University of New York; the coeditor of A Companion to Contemporary Documentary Film; and a documentary filmmaker.

• Preface. To Be Transparent: Seeing Directions and Connections in Black Lesbian Film / Alexandra Juhasz  ixIntroduction. The Sisters in the Life Archive Project / Yvonne Welbon  1Part I. 1986–1995Introduction / Yvonne Welbon  151. Birth of a Notion: Toward Black, Gay, and Lesbian Imagery in Film and Video / Michelle Parkerson  212. Narrating Our History: An Introduction / Thomas Allen Harris  263. Narrating Our History: Selections from a Dialogue among Queer Media Artists from the African Diaspora / Edited by RaÙl Ferrera-Balanquet and Thomas Allen Harris, with Shari Frilot, Leah Gilliam, Dawn Suggs, Jocelyn Taylor, and Yvonne Welbon  294. Construction of Computation and Desire: Introduction to Yvonne Welbon's Interview with Pamela L. Jennings / Kara Keeling  475. Ruins and Desire: Interview with Pamela L. Jennings, July 27, 2012 / Yvonne Welbon  516. the book of ruins and desire: Interactive Mechatronic Sculpture / Pamela L. Jennings  637. A Cosmic Demonstration of  Shari Frilot's Curatorial Practice / Roya Rastegar  668. Identity and Performance in Yvonne Welbon's Remembering Wei-Yi Fang, Remembering Myself: An Autobiography / Devorah Heitner  92Part II. 1996–2016Introduction / Yvonne Welbon  1159. Producing Black Lesbian Media / Candace Moore  12510. Stereotypy, Mammy, and Recovery in Cheryl Dunye's The Watermelon Woman / Karin D. Wimbley11. Coquie Hughes: Urban Lesbian Filmmaker. Introduction to Yvonne Welbon's Interview with Coquie Hughes / Jennifer DeVere Brody  16012. Stepping Out on Faith: Interview with Coquie Hughes, July 27, 2012 / Yvonne Welbon  16513. "Invite Me In!": Angela Robinson at Hollywood's Threshold / Patricia White  17614. Shine Louise Houston: An Interstice of Her Own Making / L. H. Stallings  19115. From Rage to Resignation: Reading Tina Mabry's Mississippi Damned as a Post-Civil Rights Response to Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddam" / Marlon Rahquel Moore  20516. The Circuitous Route of Presenting Black Butch: The Travels of Dee Ree's Pariah / Jennifer DeClue  22517. Creating the World Anew: Black Lesbian Legacies and Queer Film Futures / Alexis Pauline Gumbs  249Acknowledgments  261Selected Bibliography  263Contributors  269Index  273

"Sisters in the Life is an act of reclamation, a means of shining a light on the critical work that these women have done with little recognition or fanfare. . . . For those who are invested in the history of representation, Sisters in the Life is worth adding to your bookshelf." - Evette Dionne (Bitch) "This well-researched title is highly recommended for readers interested in African American, women's, LGBTQ, and general film studies." - Sally Bryant (Library Journal) "Sisters in the Life moves uninterruptedly from strength to strength. Along the way, its stories are eclectic but interrelated, U.S.-centered but increasingly global, alert to ongoing inequities but inspired by past and present accomplishments- and by futures that look brighter all the time." - Nick Davis (Film Comment) "In this academic but engaging anthology, contributors examine the important contributions of black lesbian filmmakers over the past three decades. Finally, filmmakers like Cheryl Dunye, Dee Rees, and Angela Robinson get their due. So too should Welbon (director of 1993’s famed Sisters in the Life: First Love.)" - Jacob Anderson-Minshall (The Advocate) "This is an eye-opening study that seems likely to become a classic in its genre." - Jean Roberta (Gay & Lesbian Review)

Yvonne Welbon is the founder of the Chicago-based nonprofit Sisters in Cinema. She is an independent filmmaker whose films have screened on PBS, Starz/Encore, TV-ONE, IFC, Bravo, and the Sundance Channel and in over one hundred film festivals around the world.Alexandra Juhasz is Professor and Chair of the Department of Film at Brooklyn College, City University of New York; the coeditor of A Companion to Contemporary Documentary Film; and a documentary filmmaker.

• Preface. To Be Transparent: Seeing Directions and Connections in Black Lesbian Film / Alexandra Juhasz  ixIntroduction. The Sisters in the Life Archive Project / Yvonne Welbon  1Part I. 1986–1995Introduction / Yvonne Welbon  151. Birth of a Notion: Toward Black, Gay, and Lesbian Imagery in Film and Video / Michelle Parkerson  212. Narrating Our History: An Introduction / Thomas Allen Harris  263. Narrating Our History: Selections from a Dialogue among Queer Media Artists from the African Diaspora / Edited by RaÙl Ferrera-Balanquet and Thomas Allen Harris, with Shari Frilot, Leah Gilliam, Dawn Suggs, Jocelyn Taylor, and Yvonne Welbon  294. Construction of Computation and Desire: Introduction to Yvonne Welbon's Interview with Pamela L. Jennings / Kara Keeling  475. Ruins and Desire: Interview with Pamela L. Jennings, July 27, 2012 / Yvonne Welbon  516. the book of ruins and desire: Interactive Mechatronic Sculpture / Pamela L. Jennings  637. A Cosmic Demonstration of  Shari Frilot's Curatorial Practice / Roya Rastegar  668. Identity and Performance in Yvonne Welbon's Remembering Wei-Yi Fang, Remembering Myself: An Autobiography / Devorah Heitner  92Part II. 1996–2016Introduction / Yvonne Welbon  1159. Producing Black Lesbian Media / Candace Moore  12510. Stereotypy, Mammy, and Recovery in Cheryl Dunye's The Watermelon Woman / Karin D. Wimbley11. Coquie Hughes: Urban Lesbian Filmmaker. Introduction to Yvonne Welbon's Interview with Coquie Hughes / Jennifer DeVere Brody  16012. Stepping Out on Faith: Interview with Coquie Hughes, July 27, 2012 / Yvonne Welbon  16513. "Invite Me In!": Angela Robinson at Hollywood's Threshold / Patricia White  17614. Shine Louise Houston: An Interstice of Her Own Making / L. H. Stallings  19115. From Rage to Resignation: Reading Tina Mabry's Mississippi Damned as a Post-Civil Rights Response to Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddam" / Marlon Rahquel Moore  20516. The Circuitous Route of Presenting Black Butch: The Travels of Dee Ree's Pariah / Jennifer DeClue  22517. Creating the World Anew: Black Lesbian Legacies and Queer Film Futures / Alexis Pauline Gumbs  249Acknowledgments  261Selected Bibliography  263Contributors  269Index  273

"Sisters in the Life is an act of reclamation, a means of shining a light on the critical work that these women have done with little recognition or fanfare. . . . For those who are invested in the history of representation, Sisters in the Life is worth adding to your bookshelf." - Evette Dionne (Bitch) "This well-researched title is highly recommended for readers interested in African American, women's, LGBTQ, and general film studies." - Sally Bryant (Library Journal) "Sisters in the Life moves uninterruptedly from strength to strength. Along the way, its stories are eclectic but interrelated, U.S.-centered but increasingly global, alert to ongoing inequities but inspired by past and present accomplishments- and by futures that look brighter all the time." - Nick Davis (Film Comment) "In this academic but engaging anthology, contributors examine the important contributions of black lesbian filmmakers over the past three decades. Finally, filmmakers like Cheryl Dunye, Dee Rees, and Angela Robinson get their due. So too should Welbon (director of 1993’s famed Sisters in the Life: First Love.)" - Jacob Anderson-Minshall (The Advocate) "This is an eye-opening study that seems likely to become a classic in its genre." - Jean Roberta (Gay & Lesbian Review)