From Tribeca: “You Can Live Forever” or I Kissed a Lesbian Jehovah’s Witness

It’s almost impossible to imagine that there was once a time when every other TV series or film didn’t feature at least one lesbian character in a positive light. Some now are even superheroes (Maeve in The Boys) who just might save the world.

But features, especially those both written and directed by lesbians have been far and in between, and when these films arrived, they seldom received the attention and the outlets they deserved. Some early pioneers who bucked the system included Chantal Akerman (Je Tu Il Elle (1974)), Cheryl Dunye (The Watermelon Woman (1996)), and Rose Troche (Go Fish (1994)). The latter inspired the highly illuminating 1998 essay by M. Dolores Herrero Granado with a title that tells all: “Go Fish: Resisting Silence and Invisibility and Coming Out as a Lesbian in a Post-Affirmation Era.”

Marike and Jamie leave their movie dates behind with the popcorn.

Well, now add Sarah Watts to this once sparsely membered grouping. Watts, a self-proclaimed Canadian lesbian who grew up in a Jehovah’s Witness community, has noted: “As a teenager, I was eager to see a story with a…