Love, Loss and Living

Life's Unpredictability Chapter 19

Shane's, Tina's and Angie's tour of the USC Campus took a lot longer than they had thought.  Rudy Torres, their tour guide was informative and funny.  However, he liked hearing himself talk resulting in the three having to excuse themselves early to make it across to WPH B30 where the Gender and Sexuality class on Lez Girls was being held.  Lisa texted them directions to the Hall, which only resulted in them getting lost.  Like all college campuses, if you don't attend the school, it is nothing but a maze.  The three walked into the classroom breathless which drew all eyes to the door, and a big smile from Professor Lisa Wright. 

Professor Wright set up the introduction of Tina and Shane with an overview of their resumes.  Tina and Shane had requested the presentation to be more a panel type so they could support each other during the talk.  Shane for her part, discussed more the behind the scenes issues and concerns from the actors and crews point of view, while Tina spoke more of the story's intent to reach young women struggling with coming out.

"I want to thank Tina and Shane for their presentations and perspectives, but now I would like to open it up to a few questions from the students."

"Ms. Kennard, can you talk a little more about the impact that the market research had on the name change and the ending change?"

"Sure.  All films, especially those that are different or are testing new cultural areas are market tested. This film got a major distributor and in hindsight that may not have been such a good idea. Money became a driving force and ultimately ended up causing the change in the ending and the title. If the film had remained more of an art film, falling within the independent sector, the money would not have had such an influence."

"Ms. Kennard, do you think that Jenny Schecter's voice was lost with all the drama and changes that occurred?"

"Well, for sure with the change in the ending. Having Jessie go back to a heterosexual life really took away from what the film was all about. It was a coming out story, it was not Let's experiment and then go back to what is accepted by society."

"Do you think that the Studio's decision to change the ending and removing her as the director was the reason Jenny Schecter killed herself?"

"Jenny was very controversial and complex. I don't think anyone but Jenny could answer that question.  When Jenny took the original reels, she did delay the release of the film.  Ultimately the film was ruined by all the bad press that had gotten associated with it after her death.  I met Jenny when she first arrived to Los Angeles.  I watched her grow and change. It is hard to say what her motivation was for anything she did."

Tina sat with this for a moment, while Shane answered some questions. Tina thought back at how Jenny had gotten her to open up about herself, her relationship to Bette and even some of her past before Bette.  As Tina reflected, she felt Jenny's motivation now seemed more to exploit Tina's life journey for the book and movie.  The thought of Jenny using her, stirred up some negative emotions, but in reality Jenny used and abused everyone around her for her own ends.  It occurred to Tina that Jenny's actions and subsequent death started an internal string of negative thoughts, emotions and attitudes about her own past and pushed them into her conscious awareness.  The negativity eventually clouded her thinking and began to affect her perceptions of others and their motivations.  The more Tina thought about it, these thoughts started to ruminate in her just prior to her family moved to New York.  They took hold and grew eventually resulting in her feeling overwhelmed and inadequate.  Tina shook her head, Bette never had a chance she thought. Tina was brought out of thought by another question.

"The film pretty much is known as a cult film now and the footage that Jenny Schecter directed has been released unground.  Do you think a re-release of the movie now with the original ending would work?"