Search - Girl's View - A Collection of Lesbian Themed Short Films on DVD

Five Different Views

Amos Lassen | Little Rock, Arkansas | 08/06/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Girls View: A Collection of Award-Winning Lesbian Shorts"

Five Different Views

Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride

Brand new from Village Lighthouse and Alluvial Filmworks is a collection of amazing lesbian short films, "Girls' View". There is absolutely something for everyone here. The themes range from coming-of-age, open relationships, love, family and sexuality. It's a well balanced collection of absolutely amazing films and taken together, the collection is a real treat. Three comedies and two wonderful dramas make up the DVD and this is one that you will not want to miss.
The DVD's first film, "Open" takes a good hard look at lesbian stereotypes and tears them down. It also deals with the issue of open relationships and whether or not they can really work. The comedy also looks at sex toys, bingo and betrayal. The script is literate and the acting s top notch. The characters are funny and real and they prove that old adage that hindsight is 20/20 as it carefully studies, backwards, the dynamics of an open relationship. Two women in their twenties, Sam and Gabby, live in the gay underground of New York City. At the beginning of the film Sam and Gabby have broken up and we learn that the reason for this is that there was a third woman. What we do not know is if it was the third women that ultimately caused the relationship to peter out or if there were destructive forces that had already been at work. As we venture backwards into the relationship we see shades of the sexual relationships between the women. Clues to the breakup are given throughout the film but we don't learn the truth until the very end. And all of this happens in just twelve minutes.
I love the way the themes are interwoven and dependent on each other. The film is told in two intersecting timelines with the main narrative moving backwards while a montage of items moves forward. What a great technique!
Next up is a beautiful drama, "Unspoken", a coming-of-age story which is presented as "a tale of desire, betrayal and lust." This is a film that belongs to the director, Fei-Fei Wang, who is also the writer. She looks carefully and very intensely at the thin line between betrayal and love and the film is hauntingly beautiful. It is the story of two sixteen-year old girls who are best friends and lovers but when jealousy rears its ugly head things change. Illusions fall apart and dynamics change with the entrance of two young men and sex and drugs change the landscape. The film is somewhat painful to watch in its profound beauty but the rewards for seeing it are great.
"Open Studio" is the third film. When her lesbian daughter (Dee) reveals her lesbianism to her mother (Rose), a woman in her fifties who is trying hard to find the artistic talent she once had, secrets are revealed as well. Rose has given her daughter everything and tried to make sure that her daughter achieved the success that she wanted for herself. Her daughter suddenly tells her of her pregnancy and Rose feels betrayed. She is now even more bent on finding herself once again. What shows through this film is the quest for emotional honesty and truth between mother and daughter. When Rose discovers her own emotional honesty, she also finds herself--her own inner being.
Isabella Chan's "Sugared Peas" is the fourth film. Two young girls who were "almost" lovers while in school meet again years later. They were once the best of friends while schoolgirls but they sublimated their lesbian feelings. They discover that they are both somewhat angry when they cannot find the way to express their feelings and that the relationship that they had once dreamed of wills mot happen.
"Different" is the fifth and last of the short films. This is the story of Liberty High School where being gay and lesbian is the norm. The school is busy preparing for its homecoming celebration while two of the students who are straight are pondering what to do for the celebrations. This is a clever look at the other side of the coin and is a wonderful addition to the collection.
In closing, let me say that the next time you are wondering what to do on date night and the bars have gotten you down, spend the evening with the girls in "Girl's View". You will not be sorry.
"

There's nothing funny about bad film making

L. Turner | 03/16/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Wow. I heard some positvie things about this collection of short films, but was shocked to find it to be scattered and poorly made. Sparing the first and last films, the collection was actually hard to watch. I have no idea how it won any awards.

"Open" is actually possibly the worst short film I have ever witnessed. And I have seen short films made on a zero budget by friends. The dialogue was trite and the acting horrible. There was a lot of "humorous" moments the fell short of even being tolerable. Like a lesbian pretending to hit on a chair? That is...what? funny? Or two girls doing exaggerated impressions of female porn stars that just go on and on. Is that supposed to be racy? Just the worst piece of film I have ever sat through. If only it had been longer than ten minutes I would have turned it off.
"Sugared Peas" makes me shudder to even think about. So obvious and contrived, it makes me wonder how anybody ever considered actually putting it out for release on this collection.
"Open Studio" is about a lady trying to reclaim her long lost artistic ability. It has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with lesbians. (I think her daughter might be a lesbian.) Also, the film is very poorly written and the overly dramatic acting just made it obvious that this was an amatuer work.
The first film, "Unspoken", is actually really well shot and professional. Decent acting and dialogue also contributes to it being a well made film. Only problem is that it has a beginning and a middle but no ending. It was like watching a part of a movie and then having someone turn the tv off. I know it's a short, but short films are still supposed to tell a story (last time I checked) and not just give you a snippet of someone's life.
The last film, "Different" was the only one I actually enjoyed. Seemed like a film school project, but one that was somewhat original.

Another odd thing about this collection is that it obviously collected films made over at least a decade. The films were only loosely bound by the lesbian theme. Other than that they had no relation to one another.
All in all this was not worth any money. It was a huge waste of my time.
I've seen enough poorly made short films to last me a lifetime and I didn't need to buy a new collection of them.
There are other collections of short films that are far better than this."