Jewelle: A Just Vision
Madeleine Lim From Black Power in late-60s Boston, to AIDS activism in mid-80s New York, to Marriage Equality in early-10s San Francisco, JEWELLE: A Just Vision (64 mins, 2022) from award-winning filmmaker Madeleine Lim, shines a joyful and hope-filled spotlight on novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and journalist Jewelle Gomez.
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Synopsis
From Black Power in late-60s Boston, to AIDS activism in mid-80s New York, to Marriage Equality in early-10s San Francisco, JEWELLE: A Just Vision (64 mins, 2022) from award-winning filmmaker Madeleine Lim, shines a joyful and hope-filled spotlight on novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and journalist Jewelle Gomez.
An Ioway and Wampanoag, African American and Cape Verdean, femme lesbian, Jewelle co-founded decades-old social justice organizations that are more relevant than ever. Expansive in her creative imagination, inclusive in her philanthropic leadership, and passionate in her lesbian of color feminist ethics, she is an unrelenting torchbearer for the transformative power of the artist as activist.
Author of the prescient 1991 novel The Gilda Stories, this double Lambda Literary Award winner shaped the emergence of Afro- and Indigenous futurisms through the journey of the titular lesbian vampire, from 1850s slavery era through 2050s climate catastrophe. Jewelle’s plays reclaim queer Black ancestors, writer James Baldwin in Waiting for Giovanni (2011) and singer Alberta Hunter in Leaving the Blues (2017), to reimagine history. Her poems in Still Water (2022) shape our understanding of Native American heritage, identity, and relationships.
JEWELLE: A Just Vision weaves hauntingly spare gothic visuals that illuminate passages from the novel with stirring play performances, riveting book readings, celebratory news events, sultry interludes and cherished moments at home, a treasure trove of personal papers and photos, and incisive interviews with artists, activists, and scholars.
The all-star cast features Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina; Ajuan Mance, professor of African American literature; Brian Freeman, playwright and co-founder of Afro Pomo Homos; Cheryl Clarke, poet and former Rutgers University professor; Crystal Jang, co-founder of Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women and Transgender Community; Jennifer DeVere Brody, Stanford University professor of Theater & Performance Studies; Katherine Acey, Executive Director Emerita of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice; Kim Shuck, San Francisco Poet Laureate and Cherokee artist; Nancy Bereano, founder of Firebrand Books; and Troy Rockett, artist and actor.
The soundtrack draws on African American and Native American spiritual and musical traditions that resonate with grief and healing, and ring with love and laughter. Melanie DeMore, 3-time Grammy nominee, and Allegra Bandy, singer and composer, birth a soulful a cappella score. Additionally, the soundtrack features Toshi Reagon, musician and composer of the Parable of the Sower Octavia Butler opera; Ferron, singer-songwriter and Juno Award nominee; and Ulali, an Indigenous women’s vocal group and Juno Award nominee.
JEWELLE: A Just Vision is an intimate portrayal that drinks deeply from a life of art and activism, and anchors Jewelle’s personal struggles at the confluence of social movements, to gift humanity with fierce hope.
Screenings
JEWELLE at Austin MN Pride
From award-winning filmmaker Madeleine Lim, JEWELLE: A Just Vision is a 64-minute documentary celebrating the extraordinary life and work of Jewelle Gomez — novelist, playwright, poet, journalist, artist,…
Content Warnings
Screening Highlights & Awards
| Type | Festival / Event | Location | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Award | Golden Tanna Audience Award for Best Documentary - Lesbian Film Festival | Freiburg, Germany | 2024 |
| Award | Special Mention - Some Prefer Cake | Bologna, Italy | 2023 |
| Community | San Francisco Public Library | San Francisco, CA | 2025 |
| Educational | Portland Community College, Queer Resource Center | Portland, OR | 2025 |
| Community | Radiance Gallery | Provincetown, MA | 2025 |
| Educational | University of Colorado Boulder, Black History Month | Boulder, CO | 2025 |
| Film Festival | 36th Paris International Lesbian & Feminist Film Festival | Paris, France | 2024 |
| Film Festival | 25th Hamburg International Queer Film Festival | Hamburg, Germany | 2024 |
| Film Festival | 48th annual National Women's Music Festival | Middleton, WI | 2024 |
| Film Festival | Paducah Cinema Systers Lesbian Film Festival | Paducah, KY | 2024 |
| Film Festival | Visual Communications Film Fest / Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival | Los Angeles, CA | 2024 |
| Film Festival | Freiburg Lesbian Film Festival | Freiburg, Germany | 2024 |
| Film Festival | 21st annual Seattle Black Film Festival | Seattle, WA | 2024 |
| Educational | University of San Francisco Global Feminist Forum | San Francisco, CA | 2024 |
| Film Festival | Vienna QUEERTACTICS Queer Feminist Film Festival | Vienna, Austria | 2023 |
| Film Festival | Boston Wicked Queer WQ:Docs Film Festival | Boston, MA | 2023 |
| Film Festival | Portland QDoc Queer Documentary Film Festival | Portland, OR | 2023 |
| Film Festival | Tampa Bay Gay and Lesbian Film Festival's Queer In Color | Tampa, FL | 2023 |
| Film Festival | Seattle Queer Film Festival | Seattle, WA | 2023 |
| Film Festival | Atlanta Out On Film LGBTQ Film Festival | Atlanta, GA | 2023 |
| Film Festival | Some Prefer Cake Bologna Lesbian Film Festival | Bologna, Italy | 2023 |
| Film Festival | Long Beach QFilm Festival | Long Beach, CA | 2023 |
| Film Festival | San Francisco Frameline LGBTQ+ Film Festival | San Francisco, CA | 2023 |
| Film Festival | NewFest Pride Film Festival, New York | New York, NY | 2023 |
| Film Festival | Newark LGBTQ Film Festival | Newark, NJ | 2023 |
| Film Festival | 37th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival | London, United Kingdom | 2023 |
| Film Festival | Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival | Sebastopol, CA | 2023 |
| Film Festival | Queer Women of Color Film Festival | San Francisco, CA | 2022 |
Credits
- Cast
- Ajuan Mance, professor of African American literature; Brian Freeman, playwright and co-founder of Afro Pomo Homos; Cheryl Clarke, poet and former Rutgers University professor; Crystal Jang, co-founder of Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women and Transgender Community; Denise DeJean, friend; Diane Sabin, beloved spouse; Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina; Jennifer DeVere Brody, Stanford University professor of Theater & Performance Studies; Katherine Acey, Executive Director Emerita of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice; Kim Shuck, San Francisco Poet Laureate and Cherokee artist; Nancy Bereano, founder of Firebrand Books; Phillip LeClaire, brother; Troy Rockett, artist and actor
- Cinematographer
- Madeleine Lim & Ruth Gumnit
- Co Producer
- T. Kebo Drew & Ruth Gumnit
- Composer
- Allegra Bandy & Melanie DeMore
- Director
- Madeleine Lim
- Editor
- Corey Ohama & Elizabeth Finlayson
- Executive Producer
- Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP)
- Producer
- Madeleine Lim
About Filmmaker(s)
Madeleine Lim is an award-winning filmmaker with over 30 years of experience as a producer, director, cinematographer and editor. Her films have screened at sold-out theaters at international film festivals around the world, including the Vancouver International Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, and Amsterdam Amnesty International Film Festival. Her work has been featured at universities and museums like the de Young, and Asian Art in San Francisco, and Crocker Art in Sacramento, and broadcast to millions on PBS.
Lim’s films have received awards from the prestigious and highly competitive Paul Robeson Independent Media Fund, as well as the Frameline Film Completion Fund. She received the 1997 Award of Excellence from the San Jose Film & Video Commission’s Joey Awards and won the 1998 National Educational Media Network Bronze Apple Award. From 2000 to 2003, she was a California Arts Council Artist-in-Residence. The Featured Filmmaker at the 2006 APAture Asian American Arts Festival, Lim has four times been awarded the San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Commission for her films. She received grants from the Community Story Fund from Cal Humanities and the San Francisco Foundation Bay Area Documentary Fund for her film, The Worlds of Bernice Bing (2013), which won the Audience Award at the 2013 Queer Women of Color Film Festival. Lim's documentary, Jewelle: A Just Vision (2022) won the Golden Tanna Best Documentary Audience Award at the 2024 Freiburg Lesbian Film Festival in Germany and the Documentary Jury Special Mention at the 2023 Bologna Lesbian Film Festival in Italy. She holds a BA in Cinema from San Francisco State University, where she was awarded Outstanding Cinema Student of the Year. For 17 years, she was an Adjunct Professor in the Film/Media Studies Department at the University of San Francisco.
Jewelle's Pride: Austin, MN Pride announces documentary ahead of this yearu2019s Pride Festival - Austin Daily Herald
Liberty, Equality, Sorority - San Francisco Bay Times
Essere Lesbica E Migrante - Madeleine Lim, Regista E Attivista Da Singapore Agli Stati Uniti - Dotz Media
Ciao, Bella! - San Francisco Bay Times
Jewelle Gomez, una vampira nera contro la violenza maschile - Alias-Ilmanifesto
'Jewelle: A Just Vision' Explores Belonging Through the Work of Jewelle Gomez - RoughDraft Atlanta, Georgia Voice
Local legends featured at Frameline's LGBTQ+ film festival - KALW Public Media
Frameline Lesbian/Queer Film - KPFA Women's Magazine
Pass the Remote: LGBTQ+ films of local and international appeal in Frameline 47 - Local News Matters
Highlights From Frameline47 - San Francisco Bay Times
Asian American Films And More For Pride Month - Center for Asian American Media
NewFest Pride Reveals Lineup for its 3rd Annual Summer Film Series - Advocate
NewFest Pride Summer Film Series returns to New York with sizzling five-day lineup - The Queer Review
NewFest Unveils Full Lineup For 3rd Annual 'NewFest Pride' Summer Film Event - Deadline
Newfest Pride offers lineup of anticipated queer films - Gay City News
Queer people are stronger together at BFI Flare 2023 - Little White Lies
The Stroll opens 37th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival running till March 26th - The Queer Review
37th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival 2023 Full Programme Announced 15 - Fab UK
All The Sapphic Content Showing At BFI Flare 2023 - Sapphic Nation
OutBeat Radio Interview On SDFF 2023 LGBTQIA+ Films - Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival
BFI Flare London LGBTQ+ Film Festival announces full programme for 2023 - Visit Gay London
Full programme announced for 37th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival 2023 - BFI Flare
BFI FLARE: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival 2023 - Full Programme Announced - Close-Up Film
Jewelle On The Big Screen: You Have to Imagine A Better World to Get to A Better World - GLAAD
SDFF News Bits: Alumni Updates, Fests, Honors, New Docs, Industry Happenings - Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival
Envisioning Black and Indigenous Futures with 'Jewelle' - Black Girl Nerds
