Coal Miner's Granddaughter
1991, 80:00
video clip

Starring Leslie Singer, Didi Dunphy, Kevin Killian, Glen Helfand, Amanda Hendricks, Clancy Cavnar, Ramon Charruca, Valerie Soe, and Claire Trepanier

Music by the She Devils, and by Mermaid Tattoo

Coal Miner's Granddaughter is a feature length video, is somewhat autobiographical, and is chiefly shot using a Fisher Price pixel camcorder. This video piece was inspired by two sources: Chronique d'une ete, the 1960 documentary masterpiece by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin, and the 1970s PBS series An American Family, produced by Craig Gilbert.

My video uses mostly improvised dialogue with specific scene direction, combined with a documentary style of shooting to create a narrative about a young working class woman coming out queer in the 1970s. The video is an experiment in improvised narrative construction and an examination of the difference between fiction and documentary.