Olympia Dukakis is unhappy with the
lack of distribution for Cloudburst, a lesbian road film in
which she stars opposite Brenda Fricker.
In the film, Dot (played by Fricker)
and Stella (Dukakis) are an older lesbian couple together 31 years
and living in Maine. When Dot's granddaughter (Kristin Booth) puts
her grandmother in a nursing home, Stella breaks her out and the pair
head to the border to marry in Canada. Along the way, they pick up a
young hitchhiker (Ryan Doucette), and the familial plot thickens.
The film premiered at the Atlantic Film
Festival in Canada in the fall of 2011 and arrives on DVD later this
month.
(Watch
the trailer for Cloudburst in our video library.)
In an interview with Michigan
gay weekly PrideSource, Dukakis lamented the lack of distribution
in the United States.
Dukakis said she felt “good” about
recent marriage equality gains, then added, “But I'll tell you what I
don't feel good about: This film cannot get distribution in this
country. Yeah, sit with that for a little bit. Sit with that!
Don't get too rosy in your view of things. You can't get this
distributed in this country.”
“I wish I did understand. Sidney
Kimmel Entertainment has the distribution rights. They sold it to
Lifetime, and, of curse, you know what Lifetime did with it. They
played it initially at 11 at night and at 3 in the morning, and they
bleeped everything,” she added.