Belle of the ball - Making the documentary about Vivien

Abstract

About Vivien is a fourteen-minute documentary film, which explores the experiences of Walter Lee also known as Vivien, who lived his/her life in Sydney in the 1940s, crossing the boundary of sexuality by dressing as a woman. In writing about the making of the film from the point of view of the filmmaker, I first examine the problem of the absence of documentary evidence of queer history and how stories are constructed through the use of archival footage and re-enactments. Second, I reflect on the lessons I learned telling stories about the past from the present, in particular the use of gender and sexuality categories.