Just 45 minutes from downtown Philadelphia is a beautiful, bucolic LGBT haven that, I must say, I often forget to take advantage of. But when I do remember to visit New Hope, I always vow to go more often.
If you haven’t been for a while, now is the perfect time as New Hope Celebrates gears up for its annual festival and parade. Nationally recognized, the Pride festival boasts the only Pride parade to be held in two states: New Hope, Pa., and Lambertville, N.J. There are going to be a week’s worth of activities, including parties, drag shows, educational events and, of course, the festival and parade.
Set along the banks of the scenic Delaware River, New Hope has long been a place of acceptance and diversity. In order to preserve the memories of this oasis in the countryside, filmmaker and ally Sara Scully is working on an amazing project called Retro-Scope. Scully comes with the chops to undertake this large project. Prior to starting Scullyone Productions, she worked on independent documentary projects such as the Oscar-nominated film “The Weather Underground” as well as “Trembling Before G-d,” “Cancer: Evolution to Revolution” and “The Paper.” She also produced her own documentary in development with HBO, “You Again: A Human Cloning Love Story.” She has been a producer for nearly a decade and comes from a long history of progressive social change. In addition, Scully also runs the Acme Screening Room and Artist Visions Festival and writes a regular column for Bucks Life magazine. She’s also working on a new doc called “Nowhere But Here.” Phew!
PGN: Are you from New Hope?
SS: Yes, I grew up here.
PGN: What was a favorite family memory?
SS: Oh, so many. Growing up in New Hope was not like growing up in any plain old suburban town, but I don’t think I realized it until I went to college. As a child, you’re not registering everything with the labels you might as an adult. In college, I learned the word “diversity,” but even as a child, I understood, in my own kid way, that this place was different and interesting and had more life than most other places. The older I got, the more I realized how special it was. The magic of the place is something that I’d like to capture in the film and Retro-Scope project. It’s pastoral and quiet and beautiful here but at the same time it’s cosmopolitan and artsy and fun. We have conservative people and liberal people, gay and straight and trans people, just a special mix of a lot of different folks all living together in harmony. But one of my favorite memories growing up was driving with my mom in our station wagon. You know, as a kid someone has to drive you everywhere and we would always see Mother Cavelluci walking down Route 202. Do you know who she is?
PGN: No, I don’t.
SS: Oh man! As a sidebar, when we did the Retro-Scope exhibit, my partner in this, Dan Brooks [the founder of New Hope Celebrates], placed a few articles about the exhibit and, no joke, every single comment was about Mother Cavelluci. And the comments were from people all over the country; it was amazing. Even Andy Warhol wrote about her. She was actually Joe Cavelluci; he walked around in men’s clothes, trousers and a shirt but with a beehive hairdo and lots of makeup. But she didn’t have a car so she walked everywhere and I swear we saw her every single time we went out. There’s an amazing documentary called “I Remember Mama” that’s all about her and it’s so beautiful. She was a real mother to a lot of people in the LGBT community and she worked in the service industry as a waitress. So she was also very funny with a cutting and witty sense of humor. As a kid, she was fascinating to me. [Laughs] It’s not often you saw someone walking up 202 with a beehive, clutching a patent-leather purse. Another favorite memory … I was a latchkey kid with a single mom so I’d go to the pool by myself and, at that time, the pool was wall-to-wall people: single people, swingers, gay guys; it was a big party. As a kid in New Hope, you interacted with a lot of adults, which I think was unusual. Nowadays, you have helicopter parents running around behind their kids with juice boxes, but back then I could just hang out myself. And the pool was connected to a club called The Prelude, which was in a big purple building and the owner drove a big purple Cadillac. I just remember that it looked like the most glamorous place in the world. [Laughs] I mean, I got to see all the people hanging around the pool nursing hangovers so I knew something fun was going on there!
PGN: Tell me a little about yourself. You tackle so many different subjects: the elderly, LGBT issues, compost bins … Where did your compassion come from?
SS: I don’t know! It’s just how I’ve always been. Even as a kid, I was always thinking things like, Why do we just throw so much stuff away? Can’t they use it again? That was back in the ’80s before we had recycling. I used to take the bus to New York by myself when I was a teenager and I remember being upset with the way things were, so I wrote a letter to the mayor of New York about the state of the city! Crazy I know, but I’ve always been concerned about the people and things in this world. [Laughs] If I were a dog breed, I’d be an Australian Shepard! I instinctively want to herd everyone together and have always been interested in community, sustainability and understanding each other.
PGN: You started out with a degree in history. How did that lead you to filmmaking?
SS: Yeah, I got a degree in history and in my 20s got into politics. I ran an international conflict-resolution program and then worked on campaign-finance reform, then decided to hybrid my interest in history and social-change politics with my interest in the arts. So at 28, I did a 180 and moved to New York. I got into documentary films and worked full-time in film and television. A few years ago, I decided to transition back here. A lot of stuff can now be done through the computer so I work on a lot of multimedia projects here and was teaching gender studies at the College of New Jersey. I also run the Acme Screening Room and, of course, we’re working on Retro-Scope.
PGN: Explain Retro-Scope.
SS: It’s an online archive of LGBT history of the greater New Hope area. People can see, search and share their memories. Type in “Mother” and Mother Cavelluci will pop up and you can see all the pictures, video and stories about Mother we can find, or you can upload your own memories, whether it’s a story or picture. It has an interaction map so you can click on a place like The Raven and learn the history. It’s an interactive, multimedia history experience. It’s pretty cool.
PGN: Did the film “Nowhere But Here” come out of that?
SS: Yes, I had such cherished memories about what an extraordinary place this was to grow up in and, working on Retro-Scope, I saw there was such a goldmine of material — photos and video and stories — that it was impossible not to make it into a documentary. And the archive project could be a community-outreach tool for the film. Most documentaries are one and done if they’re not tied to something bigger but, in this case, the film is able to inspire people to get involved with the history project. Hopefully, when the film is completed and available for purchase or download, that money will go back to the Retro-Scope project.
PGN: What are a few of your favorite pictures?
SS: If you go on the website and look under the film synopsis, scroll down and there’s a picture of three guys with their shirts off sitting together in a sunny field. There’s something about the photo that captures a sense of the friendship and comfort, safety and serenity found here at a time when gay bashing was the norm in the rest of the country. There’s a quote from one of them, Philip Powell: “Being here was a windy sigh …” You felt everyone was here to protect you and that nature itself was taking care of you. I love the picture because it captures something that people don’t expect when they think of gay men in the ’70s. The other is a photo of two guys in a swimming pool; one is wearing a blue Speedo and the other has a feather boa. It’s just a fun photo. And the last is a set of photos from Mother C’s weddings. She got married annually and would pick a different guy each year! Hundreds of people would come and the press would cover it. People would give her gifts and money; it was kind of a fundraiser and kind of performance art. Just think, a big gay wedding in this little bucolic country town in the ’70s. It was brilliant! That’s what is/was great about New Hope: There’s so much humor and artistry here.
PGN: What’s the most homophobic thing you’ve witnessed as a straight person? An example … I was once walking with my girlfriend at the time and we were holding hands. We’re both pretty femme-presenting and a few guys started whistling and cat calling. Two friends of ours were walking behind us and they looked at one half of that couple and started making comments about her being an ugly butch dyke. What they didn’t realize was that the woman they were harassing was actually a straight guy! He was a guitar player with long rocker hair but they assumed he was a really masculine woman because he was with us! He didn’t even realize what was happening until I told him he’d just been gay-bashed.
SS: Oh my gosh! That just shows the limits of human perception. Human beings always want to draw circles around groups of people and put them in categories, but those circles never hold up. People are not static; we’re always moving around. Plus, like in your case, things are not always what you presume them to be!
PGN: Back to you, you’ve worked on some great films like “Trembling Before G-d” and “Public Weapon,” which was screened at a Black Panther festival. Say what?
SS: Yeah, “Trembling” was when I was a little baby intern, but “Public Weapon” came about because I started and ran a group in New York called Eye Witness video. Pre-9/11, I was involved with a lot of the protests against the WTO and globalization, etc., as well as Bush’s first convention in Philly. I started it because the police could be really rough and I wanted it documented and I wanted us to know our rights. We trained and dispatched people to do cop-watching at demonstrations and put out a manual for safety. A lot of times, people were getting written up on fake charges so we’d send the footage to the National Lawyers Guild to defend protestors. We had so much footage showing police brutality, we decided to do a doc and had it narrated by Kathleen Cleaver, activist and wife of Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver.
PGN: And you taught school as well?
SS: Yes, I taught gender studies at the College of New Jersey. Everyone has to take a GS class, even if you’re a math major, so it was interesting. One of the classes combined gender and technology so we studied things like how technology affected patriarchy, surveillance and security and who controls the technology. That was my passion course.
PGN: I was just watching the woman at Target who chased after a guy she’d seen taping women in dressing rooms. She chased him across the parking lot and videotaped him and his car for the police.
SS: Aside from them being time suckers, cell phones have been very liberating for women in many ways. The safety you feel being able to call 911 or a friend when walking at night is game-changing. That goes for everyone.
PGN: Let’s do some random questions. What’s your sign and what was your best birthday?
SS: I’m a Libra. And my best birthday was my 25th birthday. You’re going to want this birthday. My friend took me into the city to see this artist, Peter Witkin, who was having a retrospective at the Guggenheim. Then we went to see an incredible film, “Lessons in Darkness,” and we were seated behind Susan Sontag and Annie Leibowitz! I mean, they were the ultimate power couple. [Laughs] Between the brilliance on screen and right in front of me, I was like, Oh yeah, I’m 25!
PGN: Any pets and what interview question would you ask them?
SS: I have a cat named Cleo and I think she tells me everything already. Her cuteness says it all.
PGN: What person would you want to interview?
SS: Not interview, but I’d love to have a conversation with Gloria Steinem — if I could find the courage to get any words out.
PGN: What advice would you give to one of your students coming out?
SS: Oh they’re light years ahead of any advice I could give. My older sister came out in the ’80s and my younger sister came out more recently and their experiences are radically different. My students come out and find communities and resources on the Internet, people to meet and support, so I don’t know what advice I’d give other than my personal support.
PGN: Are they your only siblings?
SS: [Laughs] No, I’m one of eight.
PGN: What’s your stripper name (your first pet’s name and street where you were born)?
SS: Dopey Aspen! Not very pornalicious!
PGN: Spell it Ass-pen, that might help. So are you still looking for contributions for the projects?
SS: Yes! People should check out the website (retro-scope.com). It’s very easy to search around or upload your own stories, pictures or video. I’d also encourage people to check out www.nowherebutherefilm.com. You’ll see the pictures we spoke about as well as some great videos!
PGN: Fab. So will I see you out for New Hope Celebrates?
SS: Of course! There’s something going on every day between May 15-22. They kickoff with the unfurling of the 15-by-25-foot rainbow equality flag and have everything from cocktail contests to barbeques to drag shows to Big Wig BINGO to open-mic night — all during the first part of the week. Then we wrap up with a program on justice with Angela Giampolo, who also writes for the PGN, as well as a comedy show, the Pride fair and parade on Saturday, CeCe Peniston at The Raven and a Ladies 2000 party on Sunday. Everybody come out!
For more information, visit www.newhopecelebrates.com.
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