Our story begins down under, in 1992, when words like ‘lesbian’ and ‘Jew’ were still whispered, and it wasn’t always safe to be open about who we are. Three Jewish Lesbian friends organised a workshop for Jewish Lesbians, as part of the Lesbian Festival being held in Melbourne, Australia that year. The workshop attracted a phenomenal turnout, filling the room with warmth, laughter, and tears of recognition and relief. We realised one workshop wasn’t enough. We had to keep meeting! And so our group began.

Since then, and for almost twenty years, the Jewish Lesbian Group of Victoria has provided a social and support network to Jewish lesbians, as well as being a powerful lobby group initiating significant change in Jewish, feminist and LGBTI communities around Australia.

Together, we have been ground-breakers, confronting both anti-Semitism and xenophobia in lesbian and gay communities, and heterosexism and lesbophobia in Jewish communities. In the process of changing our communities, our lives have also been changed.

Our actions and achievements are many. To name a few:

· We were the first group established in Victoria linking Jewish and sexual identities

· We were the first Jewish group to march at Pride March Victoria and Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras

· We organised the first forums and discussions on same-sex relationships in Melbourne’s mainstream Jewish community

· We initiated and organised trailblazing multi-cultural lesbian and queer events and

· We helped close down a nazi bookshop in Melbourne.

Last year, as we approached 2012 – our twentieth anniversary – we began considering ways to mark this significant occasion. We recognised the importance of documenting our story and sharing it as widely as possible. In a changing world, our bold beginnings and remarkable achievements need to be recorded.

A short film is an ideal way to present and preserve our story. We have used seed funding to produce our fabulous trailer which you can see on this page. It gives you a taste of our delicious tale.

Now we’re ready to take the next (big) step – to complete our short film and share our story far and wide.

We need your support! Can you help us capture our journey of courage and connection?

We guarantee that all the money we raise will go exclusively towards the film, including filming and production, and distribution to LGBTI, Jewish and other film festivals in Australia and internationally.

For twenty years, the Jewish Lesbian Group of Victoria has been making a difference. Our film, ‘It’s Who We Are – Celebrating twenty years of the JLGV’ continues that tradition. As an unfunded, grass-roots organisation, we need your support.

Please make a pledge to help bring our film to reality!

You can also help by:

Sharing our story with your friends and families to raise awareness of our project, and

‘like’ us at www.facebook.com/ItsWhoWeAre.

To find out more, please see http://jlgvic.org/, or contact us at: [email protected]

Thank you so much for your support!

FILM PRODUCERS

Making of Movies (http://www.makingofmovies.com.au) is led by the father-daughter team of international multi-award winning David Muir ACS BSC, Director, Cinematographer and Producer/Writer, Rilke Muir.

Making of Movies was set up hoping to make a difference in the world. In the process we chose to give students and recent graduates a chance to gain practical experience by working with experienced, professional filmmakers.

Since we started production six years ago, we’ve made films about community and public arts, including theatre, literature, dance and visual arts. When the opportunity came along to make a documentary tribute to a marginalised group of activists, we leapt at the chance.

Filming is in progress, together with assembly and collation of JLGV’s historical material. Some of it you can see in the fund-raising ‘teaser’ on this page.

The interviews we have recorded reveal how much this group of women has contributed. Hearing their stories of the challenges they have taken on and the changes they have initiated has opened our eyes to their achievements. Looking back on the world as it was then, and at what it is now, it is clear they have made their communities stronger and richer for their diversity. They have shifted prejudice to awareness and inclusion.

The JLGV stories are to be celebrated in the half-hour documentary, “It’s Who We Are”. This documentary will give insights into a challenging aspect of the history of the Jewish community in Melbourne, the evolution of the women’s movement in regard to same-sex attracted women, and issues of discrimination and acceptance.

Funding is needed to film further interviews, edit the footage and complete this innovative project. We hope there will also be enough financial support to send the final film to film festivals around the world, so that JLGV has the best chance to inform and inspire others.

Rilke Muir, Producer and David Muir ACS BSC, Making of Movies Director