Harriet "Harry" Dodge Movies
The sixty-five minute, avant-garde experimental film Joy of Life opens as a feature on the day-to-day experiences of a militant lesbian in the San Francisco Bay area, and her bittersweet, occasionally heartbreaking search for love and lust. It then uses these themes as a springboard, segueing, free-form, into a documentary exploration of lesbian sexuality, Frank Capra's 1941 classic Meet John Doe, and the history of the Golden Gate Bridge as a point of departure for suicides. In voice-over, Lawrence Ferlinghetti delivers his poetic elegy to Frisco, City of Light, while the late Weldon Kees (rumored as a Golden Gate jumper) composed the music used in the film. Writer-director Jenni Olson authored this picture, which premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and received high praise from The San Francisco Examiner and The Village Voice. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Two women find love while trying to learn the fine art of bank robbery in this independent comedy-drama. Shy (Silas Howard) is a young butch lesbian from a small town in Kansas who has never figured out what she wants to do with her life. After the death of her father, Shy decides it's time she did something with herself; unable to think of a better career option than becoming a bank robber, she decides to hit the road for California, where the banks have more money than those at home. Along the way, Shy meets drag king Valentine (Harry Dodge) while rescuing her from a beating by a pack of rednecks, and for Shy and Valentine it's love at first sight. Shy and Valentine decide to join forces and head West like a same-sex Bonnie and Clyde, while Valentine also hopes to track down her birth mother along the way. But if Shy and Valentine are to become career criminals, it would be helpful if they had guns or knew anything about bank robbery, and the voyage teaches them a few practical lessons about living on the wrong side of the law. By Hook or by Crook was written and directed by its leading actresses, Silas Howard and Harry Dodge. Howard is best known as a member of the radical feminist punk band Tribe 8, while Dodge is a performance artist who appeared as one of the "Sprocket Holes" in John Waters' Cecil B. Demented. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Silas Howard, Harriet "Harry" Dodge, (more)
Iconoclastic satirist John Waters bites the hand that (periodically) feeds him in this humorous look at the underside of the film industry. Self-styled guerrilla filmmaker Cecil (Stephen Dorff) leads a Baltimore movie-making collective/street gang called the Sprocket Holes, which includes Cecil's girlfriend and frequent leading lady, a low-rent porn actress named Cherish Oh Lordy (Alicia Witt). Desperate for attention, they kidnap famous Hollywood actress Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith) during a Baltimore publicity stop and force her at gunpoint to star in their latest production, Raving Beauty. Before long, Honey comes down with a severe case of Stockholm syndrome and joins the Sprocket Holes in their bid to destroy the mainstream film industry. Waters regulars Ricki Lake, Patty Hearst, and Mink Stole highlight the supporting cast, and techno star Moby contributes to the soundtrack. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melanie Griffith, Stephen Dorff, (more)
