Lesbian Space Aliens Invade NYC!
I got the DVD of 'Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same' because I had been wanting to watch it for so long but couldn't find it anywhere. It was literally a hidden gem. How would you describe this movie to someone who hasn't seen it yet?
It's an underground queer comedy. I would say that you get to see the old New York in it too. There are so many queer movies that are sort of all commercialized, but this isn't one of them. Variety called it a 'family film,' which was funny. It's not a typical film. It's not a cookie-cutter romantic comedy.
For me, this movie perfectly captured not only a universal feeling of alienation – literally – but more specifically, the New York lesbian experience. Like, I loved when they went to Cubby Hole because that's still such an iconic space for queer women in the city. Would you say that you've seen lesbian culture in New York change much within the decade since the movie's release?
I don't know that the culture has changed – I think that the world has changed. It was heavily centered around bars in the past, I think because there were so few places where gay people or women felt comfortable. It still blows me away when I see young people walking down the street holding hands. When I came of age, women couldn't do that without being harassed non-stop. So it's changed, and to some extent in a good way. But coming of age and coming out as queer, you always go through something because you're still the same person but all of the sudden everyone is treating you differently. There's something that can feel very alienating about it. I didn't know if you had been at the screening in Williamsburg that we had on Valentine's Day at the Nighthawk Cinema. Every seat in the theater was taken. It has a timeless quality with references to 1950s sci-fi and certain iconic images of aliens and iconic images of lesbians. So it's still as relatable as it was.
It's funny you mentioned that screening because the movie seems to have gained almost a cult classic status within certain corners of the world. But I feel like my generation is so caught up in streaming and watching what's available, so have you seen a newer audience being drawn to this film?
Everyone in the audience had never seen it! There's something about seeing comedies in public that's fun. 'Cause one of the opportunities that queer people were denied growing up is just walking into a theater with an audience and having the story on screen relate to you in some way. You know, you can watch things in your bedroom, streaming on your laptop as much as you want, but there's something so fun about a group of people coming together for a screening. But it's true, it is officially viewed as an underground classic.
One thing I love about this movie is you can really tell it's made for lesbians. I feel like some of the references were so niche that I didn't even realize it was a thing until I watched it and I was like, ‘Oh my god.’ How did you come up with the story and how much of the script was based on real-life?
The feeling was a real-life feeling that I had. With the premise of the movie being that these aliens live on a planet where it's believed that if you love too much, the feelings leave your body and rise into the sky and widen the hole in the ozone – it was a realization I had at one point when I was totally crushed-out on this woman. I had this realization like, 'Wow, these feelings are so powerful it doesn't even feel like I'm having them. They just feel like they're hanging in the air – like they're in the environment. These are my feelings, but they feel like part of the weather.'
I often make comedies where there are ridiculous circumstances, but I try to write truthfully under those circumstances – that's what makes you feel like the story has stakes. So I drew on feelings that I had – that kind of yearning you often go through, how raw it often feels to be out and how alienated you feel. The other thing I would say is true to life is because we shot in the East Village, we could have people walking around the streets in full alien costumes with bald heads and pointy collars and no one take a second look. It sort of supported the premise, like, aliens could land in New York City and jaded New Yorkers wouldn't look twice. It made it more real.
Another thing that I really appreciate about the movie is its happy ending, which I feel is so rare to find specifically in lesbian movies nowadays.
Yes! It won a special award at Outfest, and they mentioned that she finds love even if she has to go to another planet to find it. Having a happy ending was very important for me because it's true – someone was telling me how when she came out, people were telling her to watch different movies and each one had an unhappy ending. And she was like, 'Is this what I have to look forward to?' It is really important, those happy, but believable, happy endings. I've seen movies that had happy endings, but because I don't believe them, it doesn't feel happy. Even though the writers or directors decided it's happy, you know deep down it's not because these two people aren't really gonna be able to make it work. But the movie is two oddballs who you know are right for each other – because that character of Jane is the only person you could imagine going out with someone who was really an alien, but she would never judge them. It was believable that she would be in that romance and find happiness in it too.
Right. Do you have a favorite film ending of all time?
It's funny that you ask that because I've often said I love the first two-thirds of every David Lynch movie, and it's really the last third where he's just jumped the shark and can't get back down from these things he set up. But the first two-thirds are so wonderful and exciting. For example, I loved 'Mulholland Drive' until the tiny old people shrunk to the size of ants and ran under the door of the woman's bedroom. I do consider that though one of my favorite lesbian films. But with a happy ending – Oh I know! Here's the greatest happy ending of all time: 'Nights of Cabiria.' It's Fellini and it's from I believe the 1950s. I don't wanna tell you what happens, but when you see it you'll see what I mean about a happy ending that's truthful and how satisfying that is. But I wanna answer this, let me think of just an over-the-top happy ending.
For me, it's not really over-the-top, but the ending of 'Carol.'
Oh yeah! That's a great ending. It was so funny – I remember opening weekend of 'Carol' in New York. After I saw the movie, everyone came out with – they looked like they had just been huffing something in a paper bag. Like, everyone was so dreamily happy. I wanted to stand there and take pictures of people and make a webpage like, ‘Audience Members Coming Out of 'Carol.'' 'Cause everyone just looked like whatever they had ingested had just hit them. They were so happy. It was a happy ending. I can't even remember exactly what happened, but I remember what everyone looked like.
You might not have realized this, but the ending of ‘Space Aliens’ was in color. I thought of it as a reverse 'Wizard of Oz.' One thing the lesbian playwright, Holly Hughes, said was ridiculous about ‘Wizard of Oz' is that Dorothy spends the whole movie trying to get back to the black and white world instead of staying in Oz where it's so fabulous. I never heard anyone put it so succinctly. But I'm gonna think of some more movies. I thought ‘D.E.B.S.’ by Angela Robinson had a very happy ending.
Yes! It's iconic.
It's true though. Part of the reason is there can often be more money and more support for something that's seemingly about social injustice. Once you have happiness or comedy in something, it's not taken as seriously. Like, a movie where someone's murdered, killed, et cetera, can draw more investors because it's like, 'We're part of this cause.' What's interesting with drama is like, just because something is presented with weight doesn't mean that it has weight. Comedies change you. Watching them changes you. It gives you hope, changes your neurological brain patterns. I think for women especially, it's important to watch comedies so you can laugh at the world – because you really need to.
Exactly. I like how you mentioned 'Mulholland Drive' because I can definitely sense some Lynchian vibes in ‘Space Aliens.’ Who or what else would you say has influenced your style?
Well, I'm totally flattered you would say there were 'Lynchian vibes' because I do think he is a true poet of cinema. I love Fellini and Italian neorealism. I also was inspired by the French New Wave and Agnes Varda. For example, if you look at 'Breathless,' there's scenes where they're walking down the street and supposedly had the camera in a postal bag – but you're in the middle of Paris! Like, this is not a tidy lockdown set. I always think it's sad when people do low-budget films and don't take advantage of what the form has to offer. You have a small footprint, you can really get out in the city and capture the life of it. That's what I did with 'Space Aliens' and my second feature, 'The Foxy Merkins' – which is about two women hustlers who pick up Republican and conservative women and turn tricks for them in this constructive world – and sleep in the bathroom of the Port Authority bus station. I also take a lot of inspiration from theatre because my background is in theatre – the idea of making things performance-centered. Those are more my inspirations than other filmmakers, per se. Although I'm also really inspired by documentaries and documentary filmmakers. How long they take to get it right and how well they research things and piece it together to make it have a shape and a flow – and there's real life in there! That's just so thrilling.
Now that it’s been 10 years since you’ve directed your first feature, is there anything you would say to yourself when you were just starting out?
I would say not to be so worried about things. I was also a producer on all my movies, and it was a lot of pressure to bear all that responsibility. I worried about a lot of things and I would rather that I just worry about things once they actually happen. There's something scary about it because you don't know if you're gonna be able to get to the end, but we made it to the end with every movie. So I guess I would say, 'Enjoy things along the way more.'
