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 Alice Clarke catches up with Lisa Thrasher, producer of Itty Bitty Titty Committee, a witty coming-of-age movie about radical feminism.
The role of producer in Hollywood is often difficult to define and changes depending on the project. “Some producers will come in and just produce the production, some producers
will just do pre-production, but I take it from beginning,” Lisa Thrasher tells CHERRIE. “From raising the money, hiring the writers, getting the script written, I take the film through production and post-production, and I do all of the legal work, getting the music licences and everything, making sure our legal strings are tied up neatly and properly. I even take it on through distribution and I negotiate all of our distribution contacts all around the world.”
Thrasher is president of film production and distribution at POWER UP – a not-for-profit film company that is run largely by women, for women, to empower the community and get our stories told – such as the popular D.E.B.S film in 2003.
“POWER UP also does a tremendous amount of marketing,” Thrasher says. “The lesbian niche of filmmaking really needs that additional push and POWER UP are able to reach lesbians directly, a direct-to-consumer outreach through our magazine and through our organisation, all around the world, and get the film known.” For Itty Bitty, Thrasher teamed up with director Jamie Babbit (I’m a Cheerleader), a couple of actors from TV cult hit Popular and Daniela Sea (Max in The L Word). The result is a film about radical feminists that’s both funny and empowering. It was a huge hit at both Melbourne Queer Film Festival and Queer Screen’s Mardi Gras Film Festival. With Itty Bitty now nearing the end of Thrasher’s intense cycle, with its DVD release, you would think that she would be sick of it by now, but that’s not the case.
“I’m really proud of Itty Bitty,” she enthuses. “I think it’s a really fun, good film. It’s really a re-introduction for women of the feminist ideology and a gentle, comedic reminder that we still have far to go. It was a really fun project for me on so many levels and the music is great.” Charged with a soundtrack of Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney the film gets its point of the importance of feminism through loud and clear. “Itty Bitty presents two of the many camps of feminism,” Thrasher explains. “When you’re in your ’20s, everyone kind of goes over the top with their reactionary acts or ideals and as you get older like the character of Courtney you become a little bit more modified. I think both camps are necessary. And I think that we kind of poke fun really at both. We’re not saying one is better than the other or one is more effective than the other. For things to change you definitely need both, and I think the film is really a lot about the inclusion and acceptance of everyone in the groups. We really need the full spectrum of women and the full spectrum of feminists to get us to a place where we really are having equal access, equal opportunity and equal pay. ”Talking of pay, piracy is another big issue for Thrasher, who spent many years combating it in the intellectual property department of 20th Century Fox. She believes that the issue of piracy is especially relevant to lesbians, particularly those who work at film festivals and upload screeners onto the internet to share with their friends.
“You have spent all this time, all this money to try and make a career for yourself, to make a film, and your hope at the very minimum is to be able to sell it for distribution, and at least to recoup your costs for yourself and for your investors and make some money, either to pay your rent or to make another film,” Thrasher says. “Women still don’t make as much money as men, so a lot of times they think, ‘Well gosh, I don’t have that much money, I don’t really want to pay for a DVD, so I’m going to watch these lesbian films on the internet that have been pirated’ so they’re not participating in the commercial cycle of lesbian film making. And then you often hear lesbians complaining that there aren’t many films out
there for us!
“You have to be an active part of the process,” she continues. “You have to go to the theatre and buy a ticket or buy the DVD. A lot of times these women are happy to spend $50 or $100 a weekend on drinks, but don’t want to pay $20 for a DVD or $10 for a movie ticket, so they watch a pirated film and then get upset that nobody’s making lesbian films. Well nobody’s making lesbian films because you’re stealing it and nobody wants to pay for it.”
Itty Bitty Titty Committee is in stores now. Go buy a copy!
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