Release dates for “Catching Sight of Thelma & Louise” are set for April 5th in New York City and April 19th in Los Angeles. This powerful, timely documentary by Far Beyond Film retraces the journey of “Thelma & Louise” through the lens of viewers who saw the 1991 classic when it debuted and shared intimate, personal, stories at the time. The same people were tracked down decades later to revisit their reactions.
The April opening was selected to recognize and support Sexual Assault Awareness Month. In “Thelma & Louise,” the Geena Davis character, Thelma, is the victim of sexual assault and wants to go to the police. Louise, played by Susan Sarandon, says “Who’s going to believe you? We don’t live in that kind of a world, Thelma!” What kind of a world do we live in? Would Thelma be believed in today’s #MeToo era? What, if anything, has changed in the way women are treated by the world?
“When I saw ‘Thelma & Louise’ in 1991, I was so moved by the film, I sent out a survey to get viewers’ reactions to it. This was pre-internet – snail-mail days – and it took a long time,” said Director/Producer, Jennifer Townsend. “I received responses from around the country which I saved to do a research project. They haunted me for years – voices clamoring to be set free.”
The editor of “Thelma & Louise” appears in the documentary, along with Christopher McDonald, who played Thelma’s husband, and Marco St. John, who played the infamous Trucker who faced Thelma & Louise’s wrath in one of the most notorious movie scenes of all times. “I loved his free lesson in Feminism 101,” said Sharlene Gilman, a professor and writer who completed Townsend’s questionnaire in 1991.
“Catching Sight of Thelma & Louise” screened at film festivals across the country, as well as the Film Festival for Women’s Rights in Seoul, South Korea, where it was honored as the Closing Night Film. It won the Audience Award at CATE in Santa Monica and was the Centerpiece film at the Port Townsend Female Focus Festival. Townsend was awarded Best Female Filmmaker at the Santa Cruz Film Festival and invited to the Napa Valley Film Festival as an ‘Artist in Residence.’
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