Damned if You Don’t

“‘Damned if You Don’t’ is a real prize. Beautifully shot in black and white, it blends ‘conventional’ narrative technique with impressionistic camera work, symbols, and voice-overs to create an intimate study of sexual repression… “[It begins with footage from] a stylish old potboiler about an isolated convent, filmed directly from the television screen, in silence, but with plot narration and plenty of dramatic close-ups. Its tale of passions leashed and unleashed provides the leitmotif for a young lesbian who watches it and the lonely nun she pursues and seduces. As the two women’s lives get closer to joining, voice-overs from the biography of a sixteenth century lesbian nun and the reminiscences of a woman ‘s closeted romances at a catholic school flesh out the theme. “When the two young women finally meet and make love, the woman’s careful unwrapping, piece by piece, of the nun’s complicated form of clothing is both foreplay and liberating metaphor. The film is as hypnotic as a dream.” – Andrew Rasanen, Bay Windows “…passionate and genuinely innovative… a lyrical evocation of the mystery of memory and the development of sexual identity.” – Amy Taubin, Village Voice “…an extraordinarily powerful film, equally potent as neurotic drama and as a political tool.” – Donna Mirkowitz, The Guardian “…the film energizes feminist deconstruction by locating it within a context of at least two forms of ‘redirected’ film pleasure: the excitement of melodramatic narrative and the sensuous enjoyment of cinematic texture, rhythm and structure.” – Scott MacDonald Selected Screenings: Film Festival, Montreal 1987; Chicago, New York and San Francisco Gay Festivals 1987; Whitney Museum (retrospective), New York 1987