Educational Media Reviews Online

An informative documentary for both what it proves as well as what it asks its audiences, Swimming with Lesbians documents the accomplishments of Madeline Davis, a ground-breaking individual in the American GLBT movement, as well as her spearheading a committee to save and rescue, house and promote archival records, papers, images, and ephemera essential to the history of GLBT history in the Western New York region.

(As an essential point of note, this reviewer’s workplace has worked with Davis, and, indeed, is featured [in, admittedly, mixed light] in the film. As a point of full disclosure, this reviewer also knows Davis; and my home institution is now [as the “more sympathetic educators” noted at the close of the film] working to place her and her Board’s collections in appropriate, accessible archival spaces. I believe that my familiarity with the subject and subject matter as well as my archival training can speak more fully to the uses of the film, and any and all biases are, I hope, expunged unless noted and where they may be instructional to educators. Too, I have not asked any of the individuals involved for any clarifications on some points, preferring to let the film—and what I, as a viewer, take from it—explain for itself.)

Swimming with Lesbians begins with some discussion about Davis’ entry into the gay community, how, following Stonewall, she and a local delegation travelled to the state capital to promote gay rights. Admitting to the sense of inclusion that is common to the GLBT community should they find other representatives of the oft-quoted “ten percent of the population,” Davis’ interest in history is already made manifest. Archival images (from Davis’ own collections) bridge the narrative into the director’s notation that his primary interest had been in further studying Davis’ Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold —a seminal study of lesbianism in the post-WWII/pre-Stonewall region. Most of those subjects, notes Davis, sadly, are deceased—this is a history that has “passed us by.”

And so the narrative transitions to a study of the Madeline Davis GLBT Archives, utilizing material from the collections themselves, and beginning with the story of Peggy, a transsexual who was “rejected immediately and totally” from her family. (Indeed, for GLBT scholars, how interesting to find the rescue of these collections motivated by a “T,” so often marginalized even in the gay community!) Further images and documents from the Archives will similarly lend a sense of immediacy as well as the essentiality of saving history to audiences.

Too, in both showing personal material from the subject’s life and in utilizing material from and voices of individual Archives’ Board members and others who contributed to the overall collections, Swimming with Lesbians—through perhaps shocking as well as more tenderly amusing episodes—always gently if irresistibly guides viewers back to the point of the film: the codification, preservation, and accessibility of history; and what it means to have a viewpoint and how this is to be communicated through individuals, groups, and histories.

In meeting with representatives of this institution, the film shows some tension. Again, I cannot allow personal biases to flavor my thoughts on this film, though I am not sure that the answer to the director’s question when, after an unsatisfactory meeting, he asks, “Do you think it’s a gay/straight thing?” is, as Davis, responds, “Yeah.” It is surely up to individual audiences to decide for themselves, though this reviewer sees the problem more as potential curators of a—any—large collection not having understood the real scope and importance of the material. This is not to say that archives, museums, and other repositories cannot intellectualize intrinsic values, extrinsic uses, etc., of any historical material; but it is certainly to say that such institutions need to realize the importance of documentation—especially to and within the traditionally “underdocumented populations.” Indeed, there is no more “underdocumented” group in historic societies than the GLBT community; but gatekeepers of such material must realize that unique documentation is sometimes exactly that: The last existing link in a chain without which there is “stuff,” perhaps, but no story. “Gays,” the film reminds us, “have a past, but no history.” Swimming with Lesbians makes this important point very clear and, thus, perfectly shows this essential point to general audiences, but especially to historians, archivists, and museum curators. The film, perhaps without meaning to, then, provides a useful lesson for any educator working with the “underdocumented,” the non-documented, or the otherwise marginalized.

This, then, might be the largest message of Swimming with Lesbians: personal stories reflect cultural histories. We might teach students how most (all?) conquering armies “remove,” destroy or otherwise suppress subsumed nations’ archival material, their written cultural memoires and sense of national selfhood; and isn’t this the same as the discovery that Peggy’s family destroyed all existing images of her, “like they wanted to erase her history”? (Peggy, by the way, was, in 20th century America, repeatedly and literally routinely stoned by the townspeople, the film—through archival documentation—tells us.)

Near the conclusion of the film, Davis notes the importance of both her speech at the 1972 Democratic National Congress, but equates its importance in a historical context to drag performances. All these histories are equal, she seems to say, it is the “cosmology of who we are.”

There are some concerns with the film, though, but most of these might be due to particular audiences. For example, much is made in the film of Buffalo, New York, being a “Rust Belt city on the edge of the Midwest,” and given some of the subtle experiences and episodes shown in Swimming with Lesbians, it is difficult to know if this would translate to much larger cities. Could a GLBT or gay-friendly audience derive as much of an impact from the film as might viewers from similar geographic areas? Also, there is a “pulling no punches” tone to the film. Davis is outspoken and has strong opinions; but the narrative both proves and supports her contentions. Naturally, this reviewer finds that this heightens the sensibilities of the film and authenticates the experiences of the individuals shown and of the reason for the Archives overall—but there is not much of a sense that equality for gays is right around the corner. Davis herself opines that gay pride “will be a protest [as well] until I’m long gone.” Is this a bit depressing and maybe surprising to many viewers of documentaries of this type, which tend to highlight how close (?!) the GLBT communities are toward fair recognition and equal rights? Perhaps. But surely this conclusion is an important and essential lesson for activists and those who document their stories alike.

Similarly, viewers may question the sequence of vignettes within the narrative. Why are we talking about drag queens? Why is there a sequence at an art gallery? ….But like all historical art and documentary collections (a term that denotes a necessarily “artificial” assembly of material in some order), the parts are arranged amongst themselves and help to describe the whole. Swimming with Lesbians’ self-reflexive narrative episodes comment on each other, move the “story” forward, and provide biography and history in a commendably economic and informative manner. This is great, instructive (hi)story-telling here. Really, then, these criticisms of the film are essentially nit-picking, though might be considered by librarians and other educators when obtaining material exactly suited to their particular audiences.

And this is all, then, subtle but extremely powerful imagery, and will provide a great deal of food for thought for more mature students, adults and professionals in the history and education fields. There is some swearing, some risqué tunes, and nudity portrayed in art, notably, so the film may not be suitable for younger audiences. Recommended, though, for historical and museum-centric collections as well as, perhaps, Rust Belt area studies, Swimming with Lesbians is similarly very much recommended as well for gay and lesbian as well as gender studies collections.