Relationships Between Women, then and now
For Vividcon in 2007, I VJed a show called Relationships Between Women... and last year at Vividcon I joked that if only I'd waited until 2009, I could have more than doubled the available pool of fantastic vids to choose from for this theme. So, I thought it would be fun to post the playlist from the actual show with my comments about why I chose what I did then, followed by a playlist for a virtual encore vidshow, or Relationships Between Women 2009 (if I had to do it again now). In both cases, the vids all focus on relationships between women. I tried to include as wide an emotional range and variety of relationships as possible, and the women in these vids are friends, lovers, rivals, sisters, enemies, partners, alter egos, or all of the above.
Title: Tre Sorelle (Three Sisters), available on the VVC 2006 DVD set
Vidder: here's luck (heresluck)
Fandom: Farscape
Artist: Fiamma Fumana
Summary: "Once upon a time, there were three sisters..."
Comments: Several people suggested Superstar, but while that is one of my favorite vids of all time I knew I had to use this one, because it manages to capture the women of Farscape and their relationships with one another across the full emotional spectrum--aggression, sex, loss, celebration--to Italian techno-folk you can dance to!
Title: Whatever It Takes
Vidder: Eunice
Fandom: Bend It Like Beckham
Artist: Sinead Lohan
Summary: Putting the subtext back in soccer.
Comments: Eunice was the one who first suggested a show about women and relationships, and then she went and made a perfect vid for it. In the original script for Bend It Like Beckham the subtext in this vid was all text, and while I do love the movie as it is, no matter how you want to read it the friendship between Jess and Jules is what's driving the story.
Title: These Two Arms, offline
Vidder: Killa (killabeez)
Fandom: Xena
Artist: Still on the Hill
Summary: These two arms, these two lips, this one heart.
Comments:When I was trying to write blurbs for the program book I initially kept coming up with embarrassing phrases like "the epic scope of Xena and Gabrielle’s love" (because who knew writing blurbs could be so difficult?), but this vid has a fairy tale quality which is both visually and emotionally beautiful. It's gorgeous and heartbreaking at once, and I still cry watching it.
Title: Addicted (please right-click and save)
Vidder: Sam
Fandom: Blade: the Series
Artist: Kelly Clarkson
Summary: It's a vampire thing.
For those who attended the show, this is the vid which was out of sync; I encourage anyone interested in seeing the correct version to download and watch the original.
Comments: This vid was the one that made the hours of downloading and watching literally every femslash vid I could find worth it. Seriously, I just dumped them all into a folder--not renamed or separated by fandom or anything--and was watching the first twenty seconds of each vid and then stopping and (most of the time) deleting the files and moving on to the next. When I got to this one I didn’t even know what fandom it was from, but after about thirty seconds I realized it was not only watchable but kind of hot, and then around a minute in I was like, wait, are they vampires? I think you can see where this is going. Anyway, this vid got me to not only watch Blade: the Series but to regret its cancellation, so despite the fact that it is to one of the more overvidded songs in recent memory I knew it belonged in the show. (I actually do think the song works well here, but I couldn’t help having a moment of 'this is the "Bring Me To Life" of 2007, isn’t it?')
Title: The Wreckoning
Vidder: Charmax (charmax)
Fandom: Heroes
Artist: Boomkat
Summary: Niki and Jessica share a body and a complicated relationship.
Comments: Split screens and other effects combined with a great song choice deliver an insightful look at the Niki/Jessica relationship (and their fractured psyche). I knew going in that female vocalists would tend to dominate the selections for a show like this, and I find that a lot of vids about women are to typical "chick music"--Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan, Loreena McKennit, and so on--so I made a conscious effort to balance the slow ballads with as much dance music as possible. In conclusion: shiny!
Title: Ice
Vidder: Katharine
Fandom: Babylon 5
Artist: Sarah McLachlan
Summary: This Susan/Talia vid is the earliest about a relationship between women that I could find, and remains one of my favorites.
Comments: When I first discovered vids in 2002, I think one of the reasons I fell in love with the art form was that I was seeing it used to tell stories about women as well as men, and this was one of the vids that initially illustrated that for me. (The others were Laura Shapiro’s "Transparent" and "Tell Me" (see below for a link to Laura’s vids), gwyn_r's There’s No Way Out of Here (email the vidder for a password), and Killa and Luminosity’s "History Repeating".)
Title: Lovers (I Miss You (DJ Sade remix))
Vidder: Wicked Amp
Fandom: Tipping the Velvet
Artist: Everything But the Girl
Summary: BBC Victorian lesbian melodrama vidded anime style!
Comments: Wicked Amp has the distinction of not only being the author of some of the earliest femslash I read, but the maker of the first anime vid I ever saw, the gorgeous "One Million Miles" for Read Or Die. However, the main reason I picked "Lovers" for this show instead was that One Million Miles had been shown at a previous Vividcon, and the juxtaposition of live action costume drama with the AMV aesthetic was really unusual at the time.
Title: Tell Me
Vidder: Laura Shapiro
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Artist: Billie Myers
Summary: It's a Slayer thing.
Comments: I think this may have been the first vid I ever saw, before I even knew what a vid was, and Buffy/Faith is one of my all-time OTPs. I also knew I wanted to include some comparatively older vids in the show and I think this one stands the test of time, so it was an easy choice for me.
Title: Gravity of Love
Vidder: Sephiroth
Fandom: Revolutionary Girl Utena (The Adolescence of Utena)
Artist: Enigma
Summary: Love will revolutionize the world.
Comments: I confess that for the longest time I didn’t know anything about Revolutionary Girl Utena (beyond what I could glean from watching AMVs, which was basically that it was about a girl with pink hair and a girl with purple hair and they were in love, and occasionally the girl with pink hair could turn into a car). Still, I knew I wanted to include at least one anime vid, and when confronted with so many Utena/Anthy romance vids to choose from, I was drawn to lush, dramatic sensuality and angst because the source was so pretty.
Title: Mint Car
Vidder: Katheryn
Fandom: Multi
Artist: The Cure
Summary: "Here with you it's perfect" - a tribute to girlfriends.
Comments: You'd think it would have been a lot easier to find a femslashy "garbage can" vid, but you'd have been wrong. I was very pleased with this one though... happy and fun!
Title: Déjà Vu
Vidder: F1renze
Fandom: Veronica Mars
Artist: Something For Kate
Summary: One of us makes the other one come true.
Comments: Haunting, in the true sense of the word: all the ways in which Lilly is a part of who Veronica is and was.
Title: Faster Pussycat Kill
Vidder: talitha78
Fandom: Smallville
Artist: Paul Oakenfold ft. Brittany Murphy
Summary: Lana and Chloe: sex kittens.
Comments: The second I saw this, I knew I had found the perfect vid to close the show. It's still one of the hottest girlslash vids I have ever seen.
Title: I'm Your Man
Vidder: charmax
Fandom: Multi
Comments: Relationships Between Women: Part II is unofficially dedicated to charmax, who has made many amazing vids about women, and who also got married this year! (Which meant not only much happiness for her and her loved ones, but even MORE great vids for the rest of us.) Belated congratulations, and thank you for being so awesome.
Title: Gloria
Vidder: sweetestdrain (sweetestdrain)
Fandom: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Characters: Sarah/Cameron
Comments: Has anyone not seen this vid? It was in New York magazine!
Title: Non Lievi Alchun
Vidder: LithiumDoll (halcyon_shift)
Fandom: Merlin
Characters: Morgana/Gwen
Comments: "Love is colder than death." Gorgeous and chilling.
Title: Strength in You
Vidder: heresluck
Fandom: Gilmore Girls
Characters: Lorelai & Rory Gilmore
Comments: Awwww!
Title: Hera Has Six Mommies
Vidder: Katheryn (tallulah71)
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica
Characters: Hera, Boomer/Athena, Six, Laura Roslin, D'Anna, Maya, Tory
Comments: I think some of the most interesting vids I've seen recently have been coming out of BSG fandom, and this tour-de-force is an excellent example.
Title: The Tower
Vidder: butterfly
Fandom: Loving Annabelle
Characters: Simone/Annabelle
Comments: I would have put this in the first show if I had known about it in time, but it premiered at the same Vividcon. All you need to know is that it's based on a movie about a teacher at a Catholic girls school falling in love with one of her students... well, that was all I needed to know, anyway, but the movie and the vid are both beautiful.
Title: Don't Cha/Seether
Vidder: millylicious
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel
Characters: Buffy/Faith
Comments: It's a Buffy/Faith dance vid. To a mash-up. Can we say, made for me?
Title: Love Lockdown
Vidder: obsessive24
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica
Characters: Cain/Gina
Comments: It's all canon. Do not miss this one.
Title: Devotion
Vidder: charmax
Fandom: Xena
Characters: Xena/Gabrielle
Comments: The epic scope of Xena and Gabrielle's love! Seriously, it would be wrong to have a vidshow about relationships between women without including at least one Xena vid... there are rules, you know.
Title: The Reckoning
Vidder: astandra_lay
Fandom: Multi
Comments: I admit that watching this made me feel like someone had taken a look into my id, but clearly I'm not alone. Love, love, love it!
Title: She Blinded Me With Science
Vidder: counteragent
Fandom: Vidding!
Comments: This tribute vid illustrates the relationships created between vidders (and fans) through the art of vidding and the community that has grown up around it, showing how we teach and inspire each other to create vids celebrating ourselves and other women.
Title: Tre Sorelle (Three Sisters), available on the VVC 2006 DVD set
Vidder: here's luck (heresluck)
Fandom: Farscape
Artist: Fiamma Fumana
Summary: "Once upon a time, there were three sisters..."
Comments: Several people suggested Superstar, but while that is one of my favorite vids of all time I knew I had to use this one, because it manages to capture the women of Farscape and their relationships with one another across the full emotional spectrum--aggression, sex, loss, celebration--to Italian techno-folk you can dance to!
Title: Whatever It Takes
Vidder: Eunice
Fandom: Bend It Like Beckham
Artist: Sinead Lohan
Summary: Putting the subtext back in soccer.
Comments: Eunice was the one who first suggested a show about women and relationships, and then she went and made a perfect vid for it. In the original script for Bend It Like Beckham the subtext in this vid was all text, and while I do love the movie as it is, no matter how you want to read it the friendship between Jess and Jules is what's driving the story.
Title: These Two Arms, offline
Vidder: Killa (killabeez)
Fandom: Xena
Artist: Still on the Hill
Summary: These two arms, these two lips, this one heart.
Comments:When I was trying to write blurbs for the program book I initially kept coming up with embarrassing phrases like "the epic scope of Xena and Gabrielle’s love" (because who knew writing blurbs could be so difficult?), but this vid has a fairy tale quality which is both visually and emotionally beautiful. It's gorgeous and heartbreaking at once, and I still cry watching it.
Title: Addicted (please right-click and save)
Vidder: Sam
Fandom: Blade: the Series
Artist: Kelly Clarkson
Summary: It's a vampire thing.
For those who attended the show, this is the vid which was out of sync; I encourage anyone interested in seeing the correct version to download and watch the original.
Comments: This vid was the one that made the hours of downloading and watching literally every femslash vid I could find worth it. Seriously, I just dumped them all into a folder--not renamed or separated by fandom or anything--and was watching the first twenty seconds of each vid and then stopping and (most of the time) deleting the files and moving on to the next. When I got to this one I didn’t even know what fandom it was from, but after about thirty seconds I realized it was not only watchable but kind of hot, and then around a minute in I was like, wait, are they vampires? I think you can see where this is going. Anyway, this vid got me to not only watch Blade: the Series but to regret its cancellation, so despite the fact that it is to one of the more overvidded songs in recent memory I knew it belonged in the show. (I actually do think the song works well here, but I couldn’t help having a moment of 'this is the "Bring Me To Life" of 2007, isn’t it?')
Title: The Wreckoning
Vidder: Charmax (charmax)
Fandom: Heroes
Artist: Boomkat
Summary: Niki and Jessica share a body and a complicated relationship.
Comments: Split screens and other effects combined with a great song choice deliver an insightful look at the Niki/Jessica relationship (and their fractured psyche). I knew going in that female vocalists would tend to dominate the selections for a show like this, and I find that a lot of vids about women are to typical "chick music"--Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan, Loreena McKennit, and so on--so I made a conscious effort to balance the slow ballads with as much dance music as possible. In conclusion: shiny!
Title: Ice
Vidder: Katharine
Fandom: Babylon 5
Artist: Sarah McLachlan
Summary: This Susan/Talia vid is the earliest about a relationship between women that I could find, and remains one of my favorites.
Comments: When I first discovered vids in 2002, I think one of the reasons I fell in love with the art form was that I was seeing it used to tell stories about women as well as men, and this was one of the vids that initially illustrated that for me. (The others were Laura Shapiro’s "Transparent" and "Tell Me" (see below for a link to Laura’s vids), gwyn_r's There’s No Way Out of Here (email the vidder for a password), and Killa and Luminosity’s "History Repeating".)
Title: Lovers (I Miss You (DJ Sade remix))
Vidder: Wicked Amp
Fandom: Tipping the Velvet
Artist: Everything But the Girl
Summary: BBC Victorian lesbian melodrama vidded anime style!
Comments: Wicked Amp has the distinction of not only being the author of some of the earliest femslash I read, but the maker of the first anime vid I ever saw, the gorgeous "One Million Miles" for Read Or Die. However, the main reason I picked "Lovers" for this show instead was that One Million Miles had been shown at a previous Vividcon, and the juxtaposition of live action costume drama with the AMV aesthetic was really unusual at the time.
Title: Tell Me
Vidder: Laura Shapiro
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Artist: Billie Myers
Summary: It's a Slayer thing.
Comments: I think this may have been the first vid I ever saw, before I even knew what a vid was, and Buffy/Faith is one of my all-time OTPs. I also knew I wanted to include some comparatively older vids in the show and I think this one stands the test of time, so it was an easy choice for me.
Title: Gravity of Love
Vidder: Sephiroth
Fandom: Revolutionary Girl Utena (The Adolescence of Utena)
Artist: Enigma
Summary: Love will revolutionize the world.
Comments: I confess that for the longest time I didn’t know anything about Revolutionary Girl Utena (beyond what I could glean from watching AMVs, which was basically that it was about a girl with pink hair and a girl with purple hair and they were in love, and occasionally the girl with pink hair could turn into a car). Still, I knew I wanted to include at least one anime vid, and when confronted with so many Utena/Anthy romance vids to choose from, I was drawn to lush, dramatic sensuality and angst because the source was so pretty.
Title: Mint Car
Vidder: Katheryn
Fandom: Multi
Artist: The Cure
Summary: "Here with you it's perfect" - a tribute to girlfriends.
Comments: You'd think it would have been a lot easier to find a femslashy "garbage can" vid, but you'd have been wrong. I was very pleased with this one though... happy and fun!
Title: Déjà Vu
Vidder: F1renze
Fandom: Veronica Mars
Artist: Something For Kate
Summary: One of us makes the other one come true.
Comments: Haunting, in the true sense of the word: all the ways in which Lilly is a part of who Veronica is and was.
Title: Faster Pussycat Kill
Vidder: talitha78
Fandom: Smallville
Artist: Paul Oakenfold ft. Brittany Murphy
Summary: Lana and Chloe: sex kittens.
Comments: The second I saw this, I knew I had found the perfect vid to close the show. It's still one of the hottest girlslash vids I have ever seen.
Title: I'm Your Man
Vidder: charmax
Fandom: Multi
Comments: Relationships Between Women: Part II is unofficially dedicated to charmax, who has made many amazing vids about women, and who also got married this year! (Which meant not only much happiness for her and her loved ones, but even MORE great vids for the rest of us.) Belated congratulations, and thank you for being so awesome.
Title: Gloria
Vidder: sweetestdrain (sweetestdrain)
Fandom: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Characters: Sarah/Cameron
Comments: Has anyone not seen this vid? It was in New York magazine!
Title: Non Lievi Alchun
Vidder: LithiumDoll (halcyon_shift)
Fandom: Merlin
Characters: Morgana/Gwen
Comments: "Love is colder than death." Gorgeous and chilling.
Title: Strength in You
Vidder: heresluck
Fandom: Gilmore Girls
Characters: Lorelai & Rory Gilmore
Comments: Awwww!
Title: Hera Has Six Mommies
Vidder: Katheryn (tallulah71)
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica
Characters: Hera, Boomer/Athena, Six, Laura Roslin, D'Anna, Maya, Tory
Comments: I think some of the most interesting vids I've seen recently have been coming out of BSG fandom, and this tour-de-force is an excellent example.
Title: The Tower
Vidder: butterfly
Fandom: Loving Annabelle
Characters: Simone/Annabelle
Comments: I would have put this in the first show if I had known about it in time, but it premiered at the same Vividcon. All you need to know is that it's based on a movie about a teacher at a Catholic girls school falling in love with one of her students... well, that was all I needed to know, anyway, but the movie and the vid are both beautiful.
Title: Don't Cha/Seether
Vidder: millylicious
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel
Characters: Buffy/Faith
Comments: It's a Buffy/Faith dance vid. To a mash-up. Can we say, made for me?
Title: Love Lockdown
Vidder: obsessive24
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica
Characters: Cain/Gina
Comments: It's all canon. Do not miss this one.
Title: Devotion
Vidder: charmax
Fandom: Xena
Characters: Xena/Gabrielle
Comments: The epic scope of Xena and Gabrielle's love! Seriously, it would be wrong to have a vidshow about relationships between women without including at least one Xena vid... there are rules, you know.
Title: The Reckoning
Vidder: astandra_lay
Fandom: Multi
Comments: I admit that watching this made me feel like someone had taken a look into my id, but clearly I'm not alone. Love, love, love it!
Title: She Blinded Me With Science
Vidder: counteragent
Fandom: Vidding!
Comments: This tribute vid illustrates the relationships created between vidders (and fans) through the art of vidding and the community that has grown up around it, showing how we teach and inspire each other to create vids celebrating ourselves and other women.