What’s She Doing Now?
Tags: Breaking the Girl, Gabby Deveaux, Go Fish, Guido, Guinevere Turner, Happy Birthday, Itty Bitty Titty Committee, Kiss Me, Quiet Please, Rose Troche, Six Feet Under, South of Nowhere, The Fluffer, The L Word, The Safety of Objects, The Watermelon Woman, Ugly Betty, What's She Doing Now 
Go Fish is one of those moves that we all totally take the piss out of these days. It looks like it was made by five mates who won a camera. The acting is pretty…let’s be nice….average and the characters one-dimensional. Given all this, it makes it even more unbelievable that, fifteen years later, it is still the only lesbian-made, lesbian-themed film to get a general release in Irish cinemas. Don’t under-estimate just how important this film is/was as part of the history of lesbian visibility in this country.
Written by Rose Troche and Guinevere Turner, who were girlfriends at the time, Go Fish is about a cute lesbian, Max (played by Turner) and her efforts at finding a girlfriend. It was directed by Troche and made for the cost of a bag if chips, but it reached holy ground when it ‘went mainstream’ and was actually noticed by the mainstream media. The review it got at the time were kind and looked forward to the emergence of Troche and Turner as talents of the future. So, were they right?
Rose Troche
Rose Troche was 30 when she made Go Fish, having finished film school at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She’d been making short films and videos when she and her girlfriend decided to make their own feature-length film. Go Fish premiered at Sundance in 1994 and was loved by the audience, winning the Audience and Critics awards.
After Go Fish, she directed Bedrooms and Hallways and the movie version of A.M. Homes’ short-stories, The Safety of Objects. As well as her film work, Rose has been very buy on the small screen. She directed an episode of hit drama Six Feet Under as well as Ugly Betty. She also wrote an episode of the lesbian-teen show South of Nowhere. She is probably best know, though, for her work on The L Word. For three seasons she was a director and writer and also served as producer for the series.
Guinevere Turner
Guin Turner has been one busy lady, working in front and behind the screen. After stealing hearts in Go Fish, she was courted by Hollywood but gave them the two-fingers deciding, instead, to stick to independent and short films. She was in many a gay and lesbian film including The Watermelon Woman, The Fluffer, Kiss Me, Guido and the Itty Bitty Titty Committee.
She is also an accomplished screenwriter and is much sought-after since her reworking of American Psycho and the original screenplay for The Notorious Bettie Page, both with Mary Harron. Guinevere joined up (professionally) with her ex when she began working on The L Word too. She was a writer and story editor for the first two seasons and also appeared as Alice’s on-off girlfriend, Gabby Deveaux.
Turner also co-wrote Quiet Please and lesbian film, Happy Birthday in 2008, and the up-coming Breaking the Girl which is due out in 2010.
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God, I loved Go Fish so much! It came out when I was 14 or so, and I watched it and re-watched it over and over.
I think I was about 17 or something and it was on at my local UCI (now UGC, yes I’m old). I was over the moon!!! I went to see it as much as I could and was aghast at Real Live Lesbians who were living real lives as lesbians!!!
I suppose it’s the things that are completely cutting-edge at the time, that date badly, but Go Fish was HUGE.
Younger readers, see how lucky you are
It came out the year I did my leaving cert, I was chuffed. I went to see it in the lighthouse on Abbey St and when Pulp Fiction came out I went to see that there too as I knew they’d show the trailer for Go Fish before it, how sad was that?
It has dated a bit but as you said in your post, it’s “the only lesbian-made, lesbian-themed film to get a general release in Irish cinemas” and that’s massive
Glad to see the two ladies doing well now too, fair play to them both
I remember seeing the ads for Go Fish at the back of the newspaper, when it was being shown in the Lighthouse (on Abbey Street, as it then was). I thought it sounded like the most amazing thing! (I must have also heard about it through one of my copies of Gay Community News – printed on newsprint! – that I had covertly smuggled out of the Virgin music shop..) I wasn’t out then, wee teenager that I was, so I didn’t get to see it on the big screen.
I eventually did watch it, though, soon after I joined OutYouth (now BeLonG To) at one of their meetings in OutHouse (when it was located upstairs at 6 South William Street). I have to say, after all those years of build-up, I still couldn’t help but giggle.
I suppose it would have been different though, had I seen it myself in the cinema, without the support of other young LGBT people and the growing confidence in myself that had emerged by that stage.
(Also, looking back on what I’ve just written – how times have changed! *sniffle*)
: )
I watched this film along time ago but my girlfriend who is from rural backwaters has never seen it can anyone tell me how I might get a copy of it? there is a serious shortage of places to get any lesbian films or am I just blind? Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks
Hi Mel
Are you in Dublin? If so, one of the best places is Laser on Andrew’s Street. They have a whole LGBT section and are a lovely bunch of people:
http://www.laserdvd.ie/
Thanks very much I will be up in Dublin shortly and I will do that. Thanks Again. Great to know I dont have to hang on to get Grey Anatomy for a glimpse of a lesbian storyline! Thanks again.