Private Project

Old Lesbians

For the last quarter century, retired schoolteacher Arden Eversmeyer journeyed from Houston across the country to record hundreds of oral "herstories" with a mostly invisible population that is rapidly disappearing. Old Lesbians honors Arden's legacy by animating the resilient, joyful voices she preserved in the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project, from first crush to first love, from the closet to coming out, and finally from loss to connection.

  • Meghan McDonough
    Director
  • Meghan McDonough
    Editor
  • Rengim Mutevellioglu
    Cinematography
  • Cassie Coker
    Cinematography
  • Marcie LaCerte
    Art Director
  • Rengim Mutevellioglu
    Creative Director
  • Stevie Borrello
    Producer
  • Marcie LaCerte
    Animation
  • Dani Nunes
    Animation
  • Rengim Mutevellioglu
    Additional Animation Design
  • Meghan McDonough
    Additional Animation
  • Tori Abreu dos Santos
    Composer & Re-recording Mixer
  • Tori Abreu dos Santos
    Sound Design & Foley
  • Matthew Rogers
    Production Counsel
  • Cassidy Duncan
    Research Assistants
  • Helena Ravix
    Research Assistants
  • Sheridan Cole
    Research Assistants
  • Tam Le
    Colorist
  • John Daniels-Riveros
    DI Coordinator
  • Gaye Adegbalola
    Music
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Documentary, Short
  • Genres:
    LGBTQ+, lesbian, queer
  • Runtime:
    29 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    October 18, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Aesthetica Film Festival
    York
    United Kingdom
    World Premiere
    Listening Pitch Award
  • BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival
    London
    United Kingdom
    March 14, 2024
  • California State Capitol
    Sacramento, CA
    United States
    April 23, 2024
  • London Lesbian Film Festival
    London, Ontario
    Canada
    Audience Award
  • Palm Springs ShortFest
    Palm Springs, CA
  • Melbourne Documentary Film Festival
    Melbourne
    Australia
  • The American LGBTQ+ Museum
    New York, NY
  • Indy Shorts International Film Festival
    Indianapolis, IN
  • GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival
    Dublin
    Ireland
  • OUTSOUTH Queer Film Festival
    Durham, NC
  • Long Beach QFilm Festival
    Long Beach, CA
    Audience Award
  • IDA Documentary Awards Best Short Documentary Shortlist
  • Cleveland International Film Festival
    Cleveland, Ohio
    United States
    March 31, 2025
    Best LGBTQ+ Short
Distribution Information
  • Guardian Documentaries - Summer/Fall 2024
    Distributor
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: Internet, Theatrical
Director Biography - Meghan McDonough

Meghan McDonough is a filmmaker and journalist who directs and edits documentary shorts and series to better understand our world. She won Aesthetica/Audible’s Listening Pitch in 2023 to fund her documentary short Old Lesbians, which was featured on the 2024 IDA Documentary Awards Best Short Documentary Shortlist, commissioned by The Guardian, and has screened at institutions, community centers, and film festivals around the world, including the California State Capitol, the British Film Institute, and the American LGBTQ+ Museum. Meghan has worked as a staff video journalist at Quartz and a producer/editor at NBCUniversal Local. Her freelance work has also appeared in Scientific American, Thomson Reuters Foundation, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and more, and has been supported by the Pulitzer Center. She received her BA in Film and Media Studies from Amherst College.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

As a queer woman, I connect deeply with Arden Eversmeyer’s drive to preserve our community’s life stories through the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project (OLOHP). I’m especially motivated by OLOHP’s stated mission, to “remind us all of the relative freedom we now enjoy because of the women who were strong enough to live their lives and love whom they wanted in a hostile society.” At the same time, I aim to center the joy, liberation, and sense of humor embedded in each recording.

My background as a video journalist has trained me to tell others’ stories with diligence and care. I view this documentary as a joint creation– one that Arden started when she began collecting stories, that her participants and interviewers expanded, and that I am showcasing through film. Ultimately, I hope that this film will lead to more intergenerational queer spaces that connect older and younger members of the community and our allies.