JEWELLE: A Just Vision

A celebration of the achievements of Jewelle Gomez, whose vampire stories and engagement with Black and Indigenous histories were well ahead of their time.

It is always a pleasure to present a touching and sensitive documentary about a writer who is still living and working. Not least, when that writer’s life and work is so intimately connected with the political paradigms of today. From a modest background, Jewelle Gomez rose to become one of the foremost lesbian writers of speculative fiction, a form that engages in imaginative conversations around race, sexuality, gender and ecology. Her 1991 novel The Gilda Stories in particular helped shape the emergence of Afro- and Indigenous futurisms. But this is also a portrait of a different time, of an independent women’s press and grassroots festivals that championed an alternative vision. Jewelle cuts a wonderful figure, imparting fire for the conscience and food for the soul.

Jay Bernard

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