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`A Family Affair'
A former rabbinical student, filmmaker Helen Lesnick
writes, directs, stars in Jewish lesbian romantic comedy.
ERIN PODOLSKY
Special to the Jewish News
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"I wanted to create a film where there
would be a Or marriage but no one
would ever try to apologize for it or say,
`You really can't do this,'" Lesnick says.
"I wanted everyone to treat it as a per-
fectly normal event. And also I wanted
to create a film — because there are so
many gay and lesbian films about
teenagers and about coming out —
where absolutely no one comes out and
no one has any angst about being gay
and that's not really the subject of it.
"I also wanted to create a positive por-
trayal of a Jewish family. I'm always see-
ing these people, in the religious right
especially in this country, who grab the
headlines and use religion to funnel their
I is not every day that a movie fea-
turing a Jewish lesbian protago-
nist comes along, but if creative
triple-threat Helen Lesnick had
her way, it's what we'd be able to see
every time we went to the multiplex.
The writer, director and star of A
Family Affzir, a romantic comedy about
a transplanted New Yorker who finds
love with a blonde California girl, swears
that her first Hollywood effort isn't even
close to autobiographical — even if she
happens to be a transplanted New
Yorker (well, New Jersey-ite) living in
Los Angeles with her longtime partner.
"Not a single thing that hap-
pens in the screenplay is actually
really true. It's funny because I
guess for a lot of first-time film-
makers, people think [their
work is] autobiographical.
"Certainly the ideas of the
screenplay are very close to me,
but the actual facts aren't really
true — especially the stories
about an ex-girlfriend returning,
which has never happened to me.
"They pretty much get over
Michelle Green, Helen Lesnick and Erica Sha
me rather quickly," Lesnick
in '21 Family Affair"
quips.
The homegrown production
own hatred for their own purposes. I
— Lesnick says the project was almost
wanted to show that religion doesn't
entirely funded by friends and family
have to be associated with intolerance."
("The only people that trust you are your
The focus of Lesnick's own life has
family") — will be released on VHS and
changed over the course of time. After
DVD on August 19.
The movie tells the story of Rachel, an studying theater and literature at the
University of Pennsylvania, she went
observant Jew who moves to San Diego
to graduate school for acting and tried
after a breakup to spend more time with
to find work on the stage ("It was very
her parents, who are avid PFLAG
frustrating being an actress in New
(Parents, Families and Friends of
York," she says).
Lesbians and Gays) advocates.
At the same time, Lesnick was getting
She has a terrible time finding a new
more in touch with her Jewish heritage,
romantic interest until her mother sets
after what she terms a "not particularly
her up on a blind date with Christine
religious" upbringing. "After Penn I
(Erica Shaffer), with whom she immedi-
started studying more [about] Judaism,
ately hits it off.
and I became more observant. I was liv-
The two eventually begin to make
ing in New York City and I got involved
wedding plans, which are thrown into
in an egalitarian Conservative syna-
disarray when Rachel's domineering ex-
gogue. Jewish law and the role of
girlfriend shows up in California, ready
women really interested me."
to reclaim her lost love.
Lesnick enrolled in the Jewish
While the dialogue can be a little stilted
Theological Seminary and was on
and heavy-handed, what makes A Family
track to be a rabbi when she went to
Affair notable is that it's a regular tale
`A FAMILY AFFAIR' on page 61
whose gay content isn't the primary focus
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