Interview with Cheryl Dunye
by Christine Champagne
When you think of women in prison movies, images of bare breasts and catfights come to mind. Well, that is if you've seen low-budget exploitation flicks like 1971's "Big Doll House" or 1982's "Amazon Jail."
"Stranger Inside," which premieres on HBO Saturday, June 23 at 9 p.m. EST,
offers a more authentic look at what life is like inside a women's prison.
Directed by Cheryl Dunye, the lesbian filmmaker best known for
1996's "The Watermelon Woman," the film centers on Treasure (Yolonda
Ross), a young woman who has spent her life drifting in and out of the juvenile detention system. Eager to meet the mother (Davenia McFadden) she has never known, Treasure purposely gets into trouble again. And on the occasion of her 21st birthday, she is transferred to the same women's
correctional facility where her mother is serving a life sentence.
In order to ensure that "Stranger Inside" presented an accurate representation of prison life, Dunye, who came up with the story and co-wrote the screenplay with Catherine Crouch, visited Minnesota's Shakopee Women's Correctional Facility, where she interviewed inmates and
saw firsthand how they lived.
Dunye also cast real-life prison inmates in the film. Many of them appear in the film's group therapy scenes.
The most difficult role to cast was that of Treasure. "There's not a wealth of edgy African-American actresses out there, and at one point I knew I was going to have to find somebody new," Dunye says.
When actress Yolonda Ross, a newcomer whose credits include "Third Watch," walked into a New York casting call, Dunye knew she didn't have to look any further. "I just knew it when she walked in. It was like, boom. It was the way she carried her body. She physically was Treasure," Dunye
explains. "She was full of innocence and anger and pain and pride, and I just felt it."
To prepare her cast, which included Rain Phoenix (sister of Joaquin), Dunye shared her research material with the actresses, took them on tours of Los Angeles-area prisons and played prison songs from the 1930s for them.
"We would just turn out the lights and listen to them during rehearsals," Dunye says. "I was trying to make sure they had the feeling for prison life on a variety of levels."
Looking back on the experience, Dunye admits it was tough to get this movie made. She shopped the idea around Hollywood, and everyone passed on it. Then a friend, producer Jim McKay ("Our Song"), sent the script to some of his contacts, including Maud Nadler, vice president of HBO Films.
Nadler was looking to do independent films with budgets of less than $2 million. She loved "Stranger Inside" and agreed to make it. While Nadler served as executive in charge of production, McKay produced the film along with Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and Effie T. Brown ("Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her").
There was one catch to the HBO deal, though: The film would not be released in movie theaters. At first, Dunye balked, but then realized "Stranger Inside" would likely find a wider audience on HBO than it would in theaters.
"Look at films like 'Girlfight.' Look at all of these independent films. Look at 'The Watermelon Woman.' It was a great film, but because of
marketing and whatnot, a lot of people didn't see it in theaters," Dunye says. "Most people aren't running out to spend $10 on some independent film, but they will watch it on TV."
If you miss the premiere of "Stranger Inside," HBO is also airing the film on Tuesday, June 26 at 9 p.m. EST; Sunday, July 1 at 11 p.m. EST; Thursday, July 5 at 9:30 p.m. EST; Monday, July 9 at 11:30 p.m. EST; and Wednesday, July 11 at 2:30 a.m. EST.
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