Queer Cinema plays such an essential role in the LGBTQ+ community on so many different levels. In the case of T.J. Parsell’s fascinating new feature-length documentary INVISIBLE, it’s about educating us. By sharing the tale of how a group of queer women are still dealing with such a persistent and pernicious form of homophobia that hardly anyone outside the world of country music are ever aware of.
Parsell’s tale is set mainly in the South where you must emigrate too if you want to be a country music star. He manages to interview a whole roster of female singer/songwriters and although they include a couple of household names such as Linda Ronstadt and Emmy Lou-Harris most of them are unknown talents to us outside of the industry. One after another they share similar tales, that whilst the chances of women breaking into this heavy machismo business were very slim, but if they were lesbian too, they were non-existent.
It’s a real eyeopener listening to story after story of these artists who although they wrote Number 1 Hits for country legends such as Charlie Pride, Johnny Cash, Reba McIntire, etc yet they could never publically perform their own material. It was actually hard to stop pinching oneself to remember that they were not talking about the distant past BUT the present day.
Dianne Davidson, is one of the few singer/songwriters that managed to break through and have a successful career. That is until she recorded a track about her girlfriend, and suddenly she was totally dropped by her record company and from all her gigs.
Leading an unhappy closeted life eventually empowered the very successful Chely Wright to ‘come out’ at the height of her career. Now she’s also an LGBTQ activist, but she recounts on camera how at the time it was very touch-and-go that she wouldn’t also be completely dumped by her record company and even her fans,
The upside of what Parsell discovered is that despite the undisguised hatred and prejudice of the people (men) that controlled the world of country music, this clique of queer women somehow bonded together. He showed whilst their professional lives may have been full of disappointments, their personal ones were not.
Parsell also shares the heart-touching and very happy story of singer/songwriter Cidny Bullens who was originally known as Cindy before he transitioned in 2012. Another happy-ever-after-ending is from Dianne Davidson who is back performing her own work and recording again too on an indie label. She neatly points now that major record labels are losing their dominance, people like her can re-emerge and control their own careers and destiny.
It is so way past time as for every very-out Mary Gauthier, (nominated for three Gay and Lesbian American Music Awards (GLAMAS), there are seemingly so many many more who are too scared/worried to put their careers on the line.
We do hope that Invisible reaches the audience it so deserves
