Alike is a 17 year old A-grade high school student, gifted poet
and daddy's girl. She's also struggling to find out who she is as a
teenage lesbian newbie. Should she hang out with her mentor at the
women's club where pole-dancers are thrown cash to entice them to
strip or with the church-attending friend approved by her
mother?
Alike comes from a two-parent family in Brooklyn and has a younger
sibling Sharonda. This outwardly perfect family however is slowly
disintegrating by not dealing with underlying tensions. Her cop
father works all hours, while her mother tries to be the good wife
and mother forcing Alike to conform to gender norms. As Alike gains
confidence in her lesbianism this causes an explosive outcome
leading her to make life-changing decisions.
Pariah is the feature-length version of the award-winning 2007
short film Pariah by Dee Rees and this, her first feature film, was
executive produced by Spike Lee. Rees met Lee when she
interned on his film Inside Man and he provided valuable feedback
on her script and editing process. The film went on to win a
standing ovation when it was premiered at Sundance in 2010.
Pariah is an achievement of imagination and self-belief over
mainstream cinema's commercial concerns. Very few studios - if any
- would fund a feature by a first time director, a black lesbian
making a film about a black lesbian with leads who are not "names".
So Pariah was self-financed and funded using private investors and
crowd funding on well-known crowd funding website,
Kickstarter.
The film does not betray its shoe-string budget and is a stunning
treatise on the frustrations, terror and confusion of coming out as
a teenager in the jungle that is high school. The film is
subtle in showing how patriarchy and religion keep women in their
place, and how mothers uphold the repression of their own daughters
by keeping their gender in check while the men pretty much do as
they please. Alike wrestles with the few choices apparently
available to her. She feels that on the commercial black club scene
she would have more attention if she were a stud, like her buddy
Laura and yet she is drawn to the underground afro punk lifestyle
introduced to her by her new best friend Bina. This storyline
represents a universal experience many baby dykes have in
struggling to belong, by styling themselves using outward symbols
that appear to demonstrate to other onlookers that they are an
"authentic" member of the Lesbian Nation. Pariah begins with a
quote from Audre Lorde which shows that although the film deals
with contemporary issues, Dee Rees is knowledgeable about African
American lesbian history and writing and is aware of her place
within that legacy.
Dee Rees also skillfully takes us on a journey of the complexities
of struggling African American family life in tough economic
times. She does not fall into the trap of showing the African
American family as existing in a climate of fear and relentless
abuse, which is now familiar trope for mainstream films. There is
one isolated shocking act of violence, and it comes as the family
reaches breaking point around the father's workaholic behavior, the
mother's anger and Alike's defiance.
Pariah is beautifully shot with high production values and raises
the bar in every way for any minority filmmaker. This film is a
must-see for anyone who has a teenage daughter, a mother, a father,
or sister: entire families should watch this film. Pariah holds up
a mirror to us all. It shows the pressure young lesbians feel in
order to conform to gender and sexual orientation rules from their
peers in the LGBT scene or those in dominant society because their
families are afraid or too ashamed to simply let them be!
focusfeatures.com
sundance.org
Scroll down to watch an interview with director Dee
Rees
