Women In Love

Movie directed by Karen Everett (Outcast Films, 2005)

This 1-hour documentary, showing in indie venues, has become available on DVD. It explores love and polyamory in the director's San Francisco lesbian world. She writes (on the movie's website):

In the spring of 2000, a few months before my fortieth birthday, I found myself falling in love for the sixth time in my life. My lover Erin and I took a vacation to Chile at the height of our honeymoon phase. Sipping tea in a Santiago cafe and try to swallow how ridiculously happy I felt, I decide I wanted to make a documentary about love.

Seeking a broader canvas than simply my relationship with Erin, I asked my circle of friends to be part of a film about us navigating our love lives....

A few months into our relationship, Erin began dating another woman. For us, monogamy seemed tied up in possessive, fear-based behavior, and ultimately, it was a setup for failure. Erin and I realized we were both capable of loving more than one person at a time.... I filmed us going to an "ethical slut" class, a polyamory conference, and Bay Area poly support groups. I filmed intense conversations with my skeptical friends about how to sustain long-term relationships. I also filmed the dynamics between me and Erin as we processed both the jealousy and passion inspired by other lovers....

On the Polyamorous NYC site, a member wrote:

Fraught with all of the trials and tribulations of trying to make a multi-person relationship work while you all suffer through your communication-skill learning curves (sound familiar, anyone?), Women In Love shows the journey of director Karen Everett and her several lesbian lovers trying to make poly work.

Here's a review by Chias, webmaster of Polyamorous Percolations.

The DVD is now available to buy. Watch the trailer.

(If seeking to rent to video, don't confuse it with the 1969 movie adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's classic novel Women in Love.)

P.S.: The first season of "Big Love," the HBO polygamy drama, has also just become available on DVD.