Movies: Jenni Olson

A feature-length documentary film-in-progress chronicling the birth and development of LGBTQ comics through the eyes of several of its pioneers. The film was inspired by the Lambda award-winning book of the same name, and dives deeper into the person...

A young woman in the Army must make tough decisions when her love for an older woman causes her to question just where she is going. Adapted from Deb Shoval's 2011 short film of the same name....

A gay Naked Yoga teacher examines how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict affects the lives of American Jews....

In the aftermath of Stonewall, a newly politicized Vito Russo found his voice as a gay activist and critic of LGBTQ+ representation in the media. He went on to write "The Celluloid Closet", the first book to critique Hollywood's portrayals of gays on...

A documentary following the exploits of a group of filmmakers as they take their independent feature, Ten 'til Noon, along the film festival circuit, and the politics, pitfalls, triumphs and comic tragedies they encounter along the way. Full of inter...

A chronological look at films by, for, or about gays and lesbians in the United States, from 1947 to 2005, Kenneth Anger's "Fireworks" to "Brokeback Mountain". Talking heads, anchored by critic and scholar B. Ruby Rich, are interspersed with an advan...

Over 30 filmmakers and friends of Strand Releasing have come together to honor the company’s indelible contribution to independent cinema over the past thirty years. The participating filmmakers have each created a short film for the project, all sho...

Images set to a tape recording that slain San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk made in November 1977 to be played in case he was killed....

Girl, knife and doll come together in this controversial dramatization of the original early 1990s Tribe 8 queer punk band "Masochist Medley" stage act featuring San Francisco drag king Marya's legendary stage performance as Uncle Rod....

a chronological coming attractions overview of Jodie Foster’s career...

Film archivist and former director of the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festival Jenni Olson created this fast-paced and often funny, campy 75-minute film comprised entirely of spliced together movie trailers. Some of the segments have themes su...

A compilation of "coming attractions" from bad '50s melodrama through the greatest disaster movies of the '70s. Features a chain of your divas including Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Jeanne Moreau in Mademoiselle, Elizabeth Taylor ...

A brief reflection on faith, self-loathing and Studs Lonigan....

A blending of documentary and experimental narrative strategies, combining stunning 16mm landscape cinematography with a bold, lyrical voice-over to share two San Francisco stories: the history of the Golden Gate Bridge as “suicide landmark,” and the...

A concise poetic summary of butch identity....

A provocative lesbian spoof of the famous early '90s ad campaign: "What do you do in your 501s?" “Jenni Olson’s Levis 501s Commercial literally captures the essence of the lesbian experience in a one-minute quickie.” — San Francisco Bay Times, 1992...

Through voiceover and static San Francisco landscapes this experimental narrative short tells the melancholy story of a butch dyke pining over a one night stand with a straight girl....

A fascinating and unlikely reinvention story, The Royal Road simultaneously explores cinematic spiritual channeling, the conquest and colonization of Mexico and the American Southwest, fading historical Californian urban landscapes, and the passions ...

Brooklyn Bloomberg and friends do some steamy kibbutzing in this fascinating piece of Yiddish-keit, circa 1923. Rare 16mm archival erotica footage is overlaid with a hilarious Jewish porno voiceover - sprinkled with colloquial Yiddishisms....

Shy is a transgender man who leaves his small town after the death of his father, and heads to the big city to live a life of crime. Along the way, he encounters Valentine, a quirky adoptee, in search of his birth mother. An immediate kinship is spar...