The Storyline
Plot Summary
In 1974, women inspired by the back-to-the-land commune movement and women's liberation politics began forming women's intentional communities. Women living in these communities were called land dykes or country lesbians. Women pooled their money together to purchase land in rural parts of the United States, where they sought to create a life outside of mainstream society and the violences against women, gay people, and the natural world.
Living outside the mainstream allowed them to relinquish gender norms and experience their bodies differently—their lesbian identity was not just a sexual orientation, it was a gender fluid radical feminist practice of resisting patriarchy. These utopian experiments in feminist and ecological living were particularly abundant and resilient in Southern Oregon where women were able to purchase large parcels of forested land that provided the privacy and separation from the outside world that they were seeking.
This documentary traces the history of these communities and their spectrum of “failures" and "successes," as well as the varying forms in which they still exist today. In 2022 these lesbian elders still live collectively on land and in community—they gather together every equinox and solstice to share food, stories, and songs. The land they purchased decades ago is situated in the middle of logging country: huge swaths of land around them have been clear-cut over the years, while the lands they occupy now serve as conservation sites for old growth forests. Aerial views of these areas reveal the scope of their ecological impact—the devastated land around them appears brown on the map while their land remains dark green.
We meet various women in the community who have been there since the 1970s and travel with them to the past in order to understand the present. The film features a robust archival component including photographs, publications, and super-8 footage depicting the history of this community. The film is unafraid in its slow raw beauty. There are abundant depictions of the humans and wildlife that have created a world together where both can flourish. The film evokes nostalgia for the 1970s political uprisings, but also a feeling of possibility for resistance movements today.
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