A. For me, Buddhism has had a deep effect. Filmmaking is a practice, not a goal. It’s something I get up and do every day. It’s not something I feel I’ll ever achieve. I take it like a meditation practice.
Q. A lot of stories seem to be private, but ultimately you find that women’s stories are universal across race, class, and culture. Did that surprise you?
A. For me the sole premise of the film was the question, “Is there a universal thread? Does my life have a connection to other women?” and that was the thesis to be answered. But the thesis came from my observing … I remember I had a conversation with Alosha and Theresa [from Episode 1 in South Africa, whom she worked with] …We’d only known each other twenty-four hours, but during a break, the three of us started talking about sexuality … it was a really profound conversation. They came from different classes, different cultures, and ethnic backgrounds, yet we were all saying the same things: about men, sexuality, the struggle for pleasure, and I was like “Wow, it cross cuts everything!” Here I am this white middle class woman and here’s this black woman from a township and we were saying the same things.
Not only did I want to do a film about how women speak, but I think there’s a universal thread … in a sense my life depended on that journey because I had cut off from relating from a female identity. So for me the journey to see if I related to being a woman in a larger way was really important to who I am ...
I come from the belief anyway that the personal is political. Within every personal story is a political story. So for me turning the personal into a universal is not surprising … Within a family, you can see a country. Within a female conversation, you can see a female dynamic …
Q. You’ve said the film is not autobiographical. Explain.
A. The film is a combination of memoir and survey … For me, the film is not just about me; it’s about us and using myself as a catalyst for a conversation … I also felt politically, as a filmmaker, that I couldn’t ask other women to reveal what I wasn’t willing to reveal. If I’m not willing to put myself on the line, then who is?
