Chicago's Black Alphabet Film Festival presents The Same Difference, a documentary directed by first-time filmmaker and out lesbian Nneka Onuorah.
The documentary examines lesbians who discriminate against other lesbians based on gender roles as well as the hypocrisy and segregation that some lesbians face within the community. Windy City Times talked to Onuorah about what inspired the film, facing obstacles and the lack of Black lesbians on TV.
Windy City Times: The idea for The Same Difference was sparked by a conversation you had with your friends.
Nneka Onuorah: We were talking about how I grew up and where I really tried to stay away from the lesbian community as far as parties and events. There were always such negative vibes there and I was working at the time and I was looking for something to put out to the world that I actually cared about.
My friend suggested that I should do a film about that, and I thought that it was a great idea. It was perfect timing because I was looking to expand from television into film. I was also looking to do something that would make me feel self-actualized and something that I could do for our community.
WCT: The documentary shows that some lesbians take issue with femme lesbians. Why is that?
NO: I think there's an issue with seeing ourselves as being glamourous and "beautiful," and femininity being seen as vulnerable and not seen as being strong. It seems like there is a reverence toward masculinity.
WCT: One of the women in your documentary talked about being physically attacked by other women because she was considered to be too pretty to be a lesbian.
NO: That does happen, especially in the stud on stud community. A lot of times when other lesbians see two aggressive women, they don't understand it. They see two studs as two men together and they don't like what they see. Then they get angry and retaliate based on that anger.
WCT: Can the different groups of lesbians interact in a club setting despite their discriminating against one another?
NO: You have times when two studs will kiss and everyone will look at them like they are crazy. It's such an old-fashioned mentality and that's part of why I didn't want to be involved in that club scene growing up—because I thought it was unhealthy.
WCT: I know that the documentary was a labor of love for you as it was self-financed. How full was your plate at the time?
NO: I faced some obstacles while working on the documentary. I was working full-time as an associate producer at BET, I was in school trying to finish college and I was dealing with my mom battling cancer all at the same time.
WCT: Were there times when you wanted to give up working on The Same Difference?
NO: There were a bunch of times that I wanted to give up or put it on hold because I was kind of putting my job in jeopardy. Trying to give everything 100 percent is very difficult, so there were times when I had to stop thinking I was spending too much money and wondering if I was spending enough time with my mom.
WCT: Did you have to hide working on this documentary from the higher-ups at BET?
NO: I think everybody knew. I put out a teaser online trying to engage the response about the topic and I didn't expect it to get tremendous response. Almost everyone at work ended up knowing about it because it spread like wildfire online.
WCT: Was there a support system at the network?
NO: Yes. People would ask me if I needed an extra cameraman and they were really willing to offer their services.
WCT: How long did it take you to complete The Same Difference?
NO: It took me two and a half years to do the documentary. I did my first cut of it and then I felt that I needed to do it again to make myself happy with what I put in there. So that—and the obstacles that came within that time—is why it took two and a half years.
WCT: Why do you think that television tends to overlook—for the most part—the Black lesbian experience?
NO: I really think that a lot of it has to do with us being unimportant as well as sexism. A lot of gay men will get TV shows about fashion and that's their niche. There are popular transgender people who are on popular shows, but I feel that they don't know what the niche is for lesbians and for those who want to watch us. Black lesbians would get a cliché character here and there on a Showtime show like Shameless or a character on Orange Is the New Black, but not our authentic story.
The Same Difference will be screened at the Black Alphabet Film Festival July 24. For more info, visit www.blackalphabet.org/ .
