Kathy Wolfe :: Indie LGBT film’s Godmother
At the recently concluded QFest in Philadelphia, Kathy Wolfe, CEO of Wolfe Video, received the prestigious Barbara Gittings Award in recognition of her achievements over the past 25 years as a leading force in developing the niche LGBT film market. EDGE spoke her about the festival, her company and the award the day she received it.
"It’s probably the most exciting award I’ve ever received. I started to realize that I was somewhat of a marketing pioneer in terms of visibility. To have my work and name connected to Barbara Gittings, who was such a pioneer, takes it to a whole new level," Wolfe said in a phone interview.
(Editor’s note: According to her Wikipedia entry, Gittings was a prominent gay activist from the late 1950s onward. She helped form the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) from 1958 to 1963, edited the national DOB magazine The Ladder from 1963 to 1966, and worked closely with Frank Kameny in the 1960s on the first picket lines that brought attention to the ban on employment of gay people by the largest employer in the US at that time: the United States government.)
Trailer fanatic
Wolfe’s partner. Barbara Verhage was present when she received the award and also to celebrate their 18th anniversary together. Well, sort of, Wolfe said. "We were just saying this morning. This is around our anniversary, isn’t it, sometimes in July."
July was also the last time Wolfe recalls being in Philadelphia. What reminded her was the weather. "The last time I was here I was in also caught in thunderstorms," Wolfe recalled as the thunder roared outside.
Wolfe, though, is accustomed to all kinds of weather in her travels as a member "of a group called ’Sisters on the Fly’ -- a group of women who have vintage trailers who go fly-fishing." she said.
"I have about ten trailers; I’ve been collecting them for 40 years. The oldest is a 1957 Airstream. They are not all fixed up. It takes a lot to bring them up to current safety standards. That’s a whole story in itself."
Her better-known story is her dedication to finding and releasing hundreds of LGBT films over the past quarter century. In addition to its Internet and mail order distribution, the company’s theatrical wing -- Wolfe Releasing -- has been successful in marketing breakout gay hits including The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe; Big Eden; Loving Annabelle and (this year) Hannah Free.
"You have to remember what gay and lesbian entertainment looked like 25 years ago - essentially closeted - to get an idea of just how far the industry has come. Wolfe was one of our earliest pioneers," Lily Tomlin said in a statement in conjunction to Wolfe’s appearance at San Francisco’s Frameline Festival last month. The film version of Tomlin’s 1987 stage hit The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe was one of Wolfe’s first crossover hits.
A company is born
Wolfe pretty much started with just a concept back in the analog days when the VCR ruled and the Internet was merely a program under development by some geeks at MIT. It was in 1985 when Wolfe started the company by distributing some specialized product aimed at gay women: a video of the 1982 San Francisco Gay Pride march and series of women-teaching-women (made for a California public access channel) basic home repairs. To get them visibility she contacted lesbian bookstores throughout the country to see if they were interested in making the videos available for rental. The response, she recalled, was overwhelming.
Next she spoke to LGBT filmmakers about distributing their films, most of which could find (at best) limited theatrical distribution in major urban markets which made their films largely unavailable to large portions of the country. They responded positively and Wolfe was soon selling videos. "People found they could watch in the privacy of their own homes and could order through the mail and maintain their anonymity. They would write us letters saying, ’You saved my life,’ " Wolfe told the San Francisco Chronicle in June.
"When I started I didn’t know how Wolfe would pan out, but I’m very pleased with where we are now. Of course we experienced many changes in marketing since we started, but the most significant I think the creation of the Internet was a big component. There were a lot of people still in the closet and the anonymity of the Internet was a great tool."
Smaller film companies came to Wolfe to distribute their product as well. Soon they had hundred of titles in their catalogue, Over time Wolfe made deals with major DVD distribution outlets - Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon and Best Buy. And with the emergence of the LGBT film festivals, the company saw another way of presenting its product to the public.
Though the company’s success hasn’t been without its downside. "An area of great concern is the willingness people to download pirated movies. As good as the Internet has been for us that could be the end of the ride. It’s a big problem for Hollywood, but Hollywood is huge. But for independents... they are all compromised. I don’t know what the answer is."
Nonetheless Wolfe continues to expand her company’s content. We’re getting better movies than we ever have I think. We have Undertow (Contracorriente) playing at QFest and it’s been winning awards at the other festivals." Wolfe said.. "We’re having a great time. Hard not to when you are also being honored."
Her eye for recognizing quality films is one reason for the company’s continuing success. Undertow was awarded the Jury Award for Best Feature film at QFest. Simultaneously across the country at Los Angeles’ Outfest the film was given a Special Programming Award for Artistic Achievement. In fact the film has its roots in Outfest: back in 2003 its writer/director Javier Fuentes-León’s screenplay was accepted as part of the Outfest Screenwriting Lab. "The Outfest Screenwriting Lab helped me believe that I had something worthwhile to tell and that others were interested in seeing that story come to life," Fuentes-León wrote in the Huffington Post.
It wasn’t until five years later that Fuentes-León was able to get the financing to get his film made through a consortium of backers from Germany, Columbia and Peru. The film was shot in November and December of 2008 in a small Peruvian fishing village using a largely Latin American crew. Post-production took place in five countries Canada, Colombia, France, Germany and United States). Once completed, Undertow had its premiere at the San Sebastián International Film Festival on September of 2009 where it won the Sebastiane Award for best movie with a LGBT theme.
The film, Fuentes-León reported, premiered this past January at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. Since then it has been invited to more than 40 film festivals around the world and has won 13 awards in 6 months, 7 of which were given by audiences from different continents. Earlier this summer it tied for tied for the HBO Audience Award Best Narrative Feature at the Provincetown International Film Festival.
For more information about further screenings of Undertow and information about its pending theatrical and/or DVD release date, visit the Wolfe Releasing website.
And in conjunction with Wolfe’s 25th anniversary, the company is sponsoring a $25,000 DVD giveaway. Each month through December, two names (one male, one female) will be drawn from entries on the company Web site. One person will receive a Wolfe Gay DVD Library and the other the Lesbian DVD Library.
