Please join us for the 4th annual installment of the Queercrow Archive presented by Scarecrow Video and MIPoPS!

Among Scarecrow Video’s vast physical media archive, one will find shelves loaded with VHS-only treasures: analog releases of feature films, instructional videos, DIY presentations, and all manner of cultural ephemera that never made the leap to digital formats. With the archivists at Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound, Scarecrow has been working to digitize these releases and preserve these irreplaceable objects of our cultural heritage.

When MIPoPS received its first boxes of videotapes from Scarecrow to digitize, they were loaded with rare artifacts of our queer history, including decades of Seattle-specific memories: 30-year-old footage of Neighbors, R Place, and clubs of days long past; lesbian buddy-detective films that look suspiciously like they were shot in the offices of The Stranger; interviews with attendees of an International Association of Gay and Lesbian Square Dance Clubs convention; and so much more.

Seattle’s queer roots run deep, and in its 38 years, Scarecrow has absorbed a share of that history. Come prepared to be enchanted and enlightened as we dive into this newly digitized treasure trove and present some highlights of queer culture from Seattle and around the globe.

Filmmaker Spotlight: Ingrid Wilhite

Ingrid Wilhite (May 4, 1959 – January 15, 2008) was a noted San Francisco Bay Area television and film editor and independent filmmaker. Wilhite produced, wrote, and directed often campy and political shorts that screened and won awards at numerous LGBT film festivals in the U.S. and abroad. In her book Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us, author Kate Bornstein describes Wilhite’s shorts Mister Sisters and Fun with a Sausage as “stretch[ing] the limits of lesbian identity and nicely blur[ing] the lines of sexual identity and orientation.” A collection of her work is held at UCLA Film & Television Archive as part of the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project for LGBTQ Moving Image Preservation. Two shorts from Wilhite’s compilation VHS, Lesbovision, are included in this program.

Lesbian Impress Card (1990) — This spoof ad offers comic commentary on butch/femme roles and consumer culture. A lesbian woman’s non-existent social life is radically altered when she receives “the Lesbian Impress card” in the mail. With it, she purchases a new leather wardrobe, gets a trendy hairstyle and so transformed, becomes a sought-after celebrity. The Lesbian Impress Card – “The chicks won’t notice you without it.“ Directed and produced by Ingrid Wilhite and Sue Bahns.

L’Ingenue (1985) — Wilhite stars as a virgin lesbian in search of her first sexual experience. Directed and produced by Ingrid Wilhite.

Q&A

Please join us after the screening for a brief Q&A session that includes friends and colleagues of the late Ingrid Wilhite. We’ll be hosting a conversation about Ingrid’s work, independent queer filmmaking, and the preservation of LGBTQIA+ history.

This installment of The Queercrow Archive series has been made possible by grants from Human ities Washington’s Washington Stories Fund and 4Culture’s Doors Open Sustained Support. Attendance for this event is free thanks to a Public Free Access grant from 4Culture.