Writer/director Dee Rees has spent six years with Pariah, a film she wrote as a full-length script in 2005, then recalibrated as a short subject in ’07, and finally re-adapted as a feature film that premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Pariah concerns a teenager named Alike (Independent Spirit Award nominee Adepero Oduye), an expressive girl who only encounters more identity issues as she tries establishing herself as an out lesbian. Though Rees came out as a lesbian in her 20s, she feels a deep connection to Alike — especially in her resistance to “butch” and “femme” labels. Movieline caught up with Rees to discuss Pariah‘s wonderful story, the visibility of the LGBT coming out experience in 2011, and Rees’s unexpected connection to Dallas.
Since Pariah?s genesis as a short film years ago, there?s been a lot more visibility about the coming-out experience. Did you find it necessary to tailor the movie to the burgeoning sense of awareness about the topic?
When I first wrote the script in ?05, I had a sense of who Alike was and where she was going, so there was no pressure to change it because I wanted to stay true to her and what her experience was. I didn?t want to make Alike?s experience vary from anyone else?s experience or make it topical. I just let it be what it was and just trustd that if we?re honest about the character and honest about the world, that it would be relevant no matter when it came out. It?s funny because some people along the way have said, ?Is this an issue anymore? Is being gay cool now?? And it?s like, no. It?s not OK now, and it?s not ?cool.? Although people?s experiences of coming out are changing and it?s becoming much more…
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