A Lesbian Filmmaker Needs Your Vote

If you want to support a talented lesbian filmmaker, here is your chance: Netflix and Film Independent are sponsoring the Netflix Find Your Voice contest, which aims to find the next great independent filmmaker, and Dee Rees is one of ten semi-finalists in the competition based on the strength of an excerpt from her film Pariah. That's a pretty amazing accomplishment in and of itself given that thousands of filmmakers entered the competition, the winner of which nabs a $150,000 production grant as well as access to filmmaking resources, including film stock and post production services, bringing the total prize package up to $350,000.

That money would go a long way in helping Rees to finish Pariah, a film centering on an African-American teenager from the Bronx named Alike who lives like a chameleon. When she is out and about with her openly gay friends, she is a fierce lesbian, but when she is home with her Christian family, she must play the role of the feminine, obedient girl. And she can't keep living a double life forever, so you know she's going to have to face the consequences sooner or later.

Visit the Netflix Find Your Voice contest page today to see and vote on the trailer for Rees' film, and here's wishing her good luck!