Out There, Thriving

Thank you for the interesting article “Out There, Struggling,” by John Anderson (Aug. 23).

I thought it especially ironic that it appeared at the end of a week in which the Republican Party had spent four nights of prime-time television declaring war on the lesbian/gay rights movement.

While I agree with most of the opinions in the article, I disagree with the speculation that lesbian/gay film is a wave that has crested and a mainstream fad that will burn out.

Both the AIDS crisis and attacks from the religious right have forced the lesbian/gay community to develop an identity that grows stronger every day. Along with this identity have grown the size and power of the lesbian/gay market, with many areas now so strong and dynamic that they are self-sufficient and leading the mainstream.

A perfect example of this in new lesbian/gay film, and one Anderson neglected to mention, is P. J. Castellaneta’s “Together Alone,” voted best film at the 1991 Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. At the prestigious Berlin Film Festival, it beat out “The Living End,” “Swoon” and “The Hours and Times” for best lesbian/gay film and was named best independent film. “Together Alone” tells a simple story from the lesbian/gay experience, so beautifully that the mainstream listens as well.

“We may already have seen (new gay cinema’s) crest,” Anderson writes. No we haven’t. Just speak to the lesbian/gay community. We want to listen, and we are willing to pay for it. And if it’s done well, the rest of the world will listen too.

CARL PRITZKAT

Los Angeles