Private Project

Bar Stories from Queer Maine

Bar Stories from Queer Maine” offers funny and often poignant accounts of gay bars as important venues for community, organizing, sex, and safety, and reveals the threat to queer culture of our disappearing social spaces.

  • Betsy Carson
    Director
  • Wendy Chapkis
    Director
  • Betsy Carson
    Producer
    A Charmed Life, The Barghest, The Crew
  • Wendy Chapkis
    Producer
  • Betsy Carson
    Camera
  • Betsy Carson
    Editor
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    15 minutes 41 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 8, 2022
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Shooting Format:
    HD
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Made Here Film Festival
    Burlington, VT
    United States
    April 23, 2022
    New England Premiere
  • Merced Queer Film Festival
    Merced, CA
    United States
  • Feel The Real International Film Festival
    Glasgow
    United Kingdom
    February 28, 2022
    Nominated
Director Biography - Betsy Carson, Wendy Chapkis

Betsy Carson has been making self-funded movies since 1995 . She has co-produced short and long format films and a 53-episode comedy web series. Betsy's TV works include Delicious TV’s Vegan Mashup and Totally Vegetarian public television series. And Delicious TV, a Top 10 iTunes food podcast for 4 years running. In 2107 she teamed up with Co-director Wendy Chapkis to start capturing stories from Maine LGBTQ+ community around Portland Maine.

Wendy Chapkis teaches sociology and gender studies at the University of Southern Maine and is the Faculty Scholar for the Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine’s LGBTQ+ Collection. In that capacity, she has created the “Querying the Past: Maine LGBTQ Oral History Project” which now includes life history interviews with dozens of queer Mainers. She is also the author of numerous articles and three books: Beauty Secrets: Women and the Politics of Appearance; Live Sex Acts: Women Performing Erotic Labor; and Dying to Get High: Marijuana as Medicine.

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