The Owls

Ten years ago ‘The Screech’ was the hottest lesbian band around. Iris and Lily were the lead vocalists, MJ the producer, and Carol always went on tour with them. But the days of big dreams and wild nights have long since past. Sexy Iris now drinks too much and fantasises about a comeback that has yet to materialise. She and MJ split up years ago, but just can’t let go. Carol and Lily are so bored by their relationship that they can’t seem to decide on anything, except perhaps to have a child together. And then Cricket enters this Bermuda triangle of fallow desire, disappointment, anger and boredom. This argumentative twenty-year-old is looking for trouble – and finds it. After a pool party awash with cocaine and alcohol, Iris winds up on Cricket’s lap. This makes MJ – to whom Iris has been unfaithful so often before – even more furious. An argument ensues and escalates into a fight during which Cricket is badly injured and dies. The girlfriends decide to overcome their differences, pull together and get rid of the corpse. Their complicity creates a firm bond. But then, a year later, Skye
turns up on Lily and Carol’s doorstep. Revenge is her aim and seduction her strategy …
Director Cheryl Dunye and producer Alexandra Juhasz, Candi Gutteres and Ernesto Foronda invited a group of lesbian and gay artists with creative links to work on this project. This marked the beginning of the ‘Parliament Collective’, a large multiethnic artists’ collective that developed the story for THE OWLS.
THE OWLS is an anthem for Older Wiser Lesbians, a community for 35 and up lesbians. They all have the same vision of a Lesbian Nation. They’ve reached middle age without fulfilling their dream of a revolution. The dominant hetero-culture has no place for them, and their story doesn’t have anything more in common with the following generation of lesbians and queers. With four OWLs, director Cheryl Dunye has made a thriller about older lesbians who kill a young lesbian and must get rid of the body. The film is in the tradition of Patricia Highsmith’s works and the psychological dramas of the 1960’s (THE FOX, THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE), in which lesbians were often killed. Cheryl Dunye (THE WATERMELON WOMAN, which received the TEDDY AWARD 1996 for BEST FEATURE FILM) is known for confronting the uncomfortable realities of women and for her biting commentary. THE OWLS is made in Dunyes signature style, a mix between narrative film and documentary.