Madeleine Olnek, writer and director of ‘The Foxy Merkins’ will host a discussion and workshop during her stay in Athens.
There isn’t anything much better than enjoying a little lesbian buddy comedy on Easter Sunday, said Madeleine Olnek, director and writer of The Foxy Merkins.
The Athena Film and Video Festival featured a screening of the film Sunday with a Q&A to follow, and Olnek will extend her stay in Athens with a brown bag discussion and a workshop.
The film follows the friendship of two lesbian hookers, Margaret and Jo, in a world not like today’s.
“Lesbian hookers walk down the street and housewives, soccer moms honk at them in their cars,” she said. “It’s taking this idea of an all-female world for the purpose of comedy and introspection.”
Olnek, working on a smaller scale and a smaller budget than Hollywood blockbusters, said this allowed her to be able to run around New York City with a small crew during the filming.
“All of my movies have been shot in New York and I’m used to working on the streets and … as my movies go around the world people in other countries say that they … love seeing New York in my movies because you get to see parts of New York that you wouldn’t see in say, a Woody Allen movie, because it’s too heavily edited.”
Olnek has written and directed over 20 plays and is also the writer and director of Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, which was a selection of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
A large part of the process, Olnek said, was constant revising and editing of the script and directing to really get the comedic angle across.
“Comedy is performance centered,” Olnek said. “You can have the funniest script in the world and if you don’t capture the humor on camera in delivery and how the image is framed in what we understand of the character at that point, it becomes very clear to you in the editing room what is and isn’t working.”
She will host a brown bag on Monday at 11:50 in Elizabeth Evans Baker Theater in Kantner Hall. Following that will be a workshop on “Writing Queer Lives for Stage & Screen” and will be held in the Women’s Center, Baker Center 403, Monday at 3 p.m.
Sponsors of the event include the Division of Film, the Women’s Center and the LGBT Center.
“I think especially for women and LGBT people, (there is an) importance of telling our own stories because (we) often don’t find our perspectives in the dominate studio narratives that are presented, so figuring out ‘How can I get there?’ ‘How can I make a movie?’ ” Olnek said.
Sarah Jenkins, program coordinator for the LGBT and Women’s Centers, said this is an opportunity for students to get experience with a professional in the film field.
Susanne Dietzel, director of the Women’ s Center, said she is excited to view this film and to have students relate to Olnek and to have “some good laughs” during Olnek’s visit.
“Nothing surely could be more fun than a lesbian dating comedy,” Dietzel said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
@reb_barnes
rb605712@ohio.edu
