Meet the Director: Tiona McClodden (black./womyn.)

Every day she’s hustling

At a time when her filmmaker colleagues are leaving the industry and selling their cameras for more profitable ventures, director Tiona McClodden is charging forward.

She’s doing whatever it takes to finance and sustain her films: grants, self-funding, and a Do-It-Yourself resourcefulness that’s lead her to independent self-distribution, and a knack for learning new skills to keep costs down.

When I caught up with Tiona by phone, she’d just gotten her hands on a sweet Sony HD tapeless camcorder — the camera she’ll use to shoot her next documentary film, Baby Makes Me.

Tiona’s full-length doc black./womyn. Conversations with Lesbians of African Descent screened at NewFest 2009 and is joining the Best of NewFest screenings at BAM on August 30. black./womyn. is a conversation across a spectrum of black lesbians, aged 18-60, on the issues that affect them: sexuality, identity, activism, religion, and more.

Filmmakers David M. Young and Tiona McClodden, NewFest 2009
Photo by SMHayhurst (homo-neurotic.com)

Q&A with Tiona M.

NewFest: How was your NewFest experience this year? You screened black./womyn., and participated in The Director’s Roundtable.
Tiona M: I was really honored to sit on the panel, because my film is not a typical documentary film. It was a good chance to connect with the audience and explain my intent behind my film. NewFest takes care of filmmakers… and I extend that to Logo as well, because I hung out in the Logo Lounge forever! It’s one of the few festivals where you actually had the chance to interact with other filmmakers.

NF: The title of your movie sounds heavy and serious, but I see comments on your blog and YouTube where people say they laughed their asses off. Is there room for humor in this film?
TM: The reason for the titling was just to be very transparent. So when you see the film, you’re gonna see… conversations with black lesbians! [Laughs] It is what it is! But within those conversations is tons of humor. It’s honest. These are real people, it’s not staged. I wanted to let the women shine in whatever way they wanted to, so if they wanted to be super serious, they were taken as that — if they wanted to be funny, great.

NF: What’s next for the film?
TM: I’m excited to put the film in the next stage, which is distribution. That will provide a whole other life [for the film]. I’m going independent –- I have a printer for my DVD digipak, I’m figuring out which languages to put subtitles in… all that good stuff, and trying to put it out by the end of the year.

NF: You’ve traveled all over the country to screen black./womyn. Have you gone abroad yet?
TM: I had two very different London screenings –- one was with Black Filmmaker Magazine, and one was with the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. I had an offer to screen in Paris, but they wanted me to change the length, and I refused.

NF: You refused to edit your film on the grounds of being…. philosophical?
TM: I refused on the grounds of them being ridiculous! [Laughs] I’m aware of film festivals and what they show. People show crazy films of people not talking for three hours and then screen that in its entirety. This [black./womyn.] is one of the few films of its kind, and they want me to take 30 minutes off ??

NF: As you travel all over to screen, do you find a wide range of responses by region?
TM: In New York, they appreciate the film in different ways, but it’s very different from when I screen smaller towns. It was life-changing for them [smaller towns]… I come from a small town myself, and I know what it would feel like to see a film like this, given the fact that I may not even see over 10 other black lesbians in my community who are out.

NF: Have you been able to screen in your home state of South Carolina yet?
TM: When people find out what the film is, they don’t want to screen it. This has been my challenge in the south. Certain small colleges, the topic is too risqué for them, when it’s really not. It’s the same kind of resistance I’ve gotten from certain college programs, especially the HBCUs [Historically Black Colleges and Universities]. A lot of people won’t come to the screening because they’re worried about who will see them there. Honestly, when I screened at Bennett College, only 10 people showed up to my screening — but I promise you I shook hands with about 50 people. The DVD distribution will help… it will provide these private spaces. People can have a party or whatever and have people over in their own safe spaces.

NF: You have strong, high-profile black lesbians in your film, like poet and author Staceyann Chin. How did you hook up with her, and what voice did she bring to the film?
TM: She’s somebody I’ve known for a long time, as a good friend. Over the years, we’ve been supporters of each other’s work. A lot of people know her in a mainstream way from her book [The Other Side of Paradise] — she was an Oprah talking about being gay and Jamaican. She’s a really hard worker, I respect her producing really authentic work when nobody’s cheering or when you don’t have an audience. She’s been able to speak so candidly about the homophobia she faced in Jamaica — she represents that voice of the Caribbean. In the film, I didn’t want too many people who were super high-profile people — but the ones that I did, I wanted them to be the ones that I respected.

NF: You wanted people who are relatable, accessible.
TM: Right. I’m not gonna go and get… oh [expletive]… there’s nobody who’s out and black that I could get… [Laughs]

NF: Ha! Like the black Ellen?
TM: Right, the black Ellen! I’m not into super-duper celebrities that people would more so worship rather than respect. With Staceyann or Cheryl Clarke or KIN, these monumental artists, people can see them and say, “These people are doing it. Maybe I can do what I want to do.”

black./womyn. screens @BAM Aug 30

Tickets available now the for black./womyn screening at NEWFEST@BAM on August 30 at 4:30pm. For more information about Tiona’s film, visit her blog.

See Tiona’s film and stay for Kimberly Reed’s documentary, PRODIGAL SONS, screening at 6:50pm at NEWFEST@BAM on Aug 30.

Filmmakers Tiona McClodden and Kimberly Reed, NewFest 2009