The Ladies Almanack is based on Djuna Barnes' 1928 novel about "Lesbian Don Juan" Natalie Clifford Barney. Shot entirely on super 8 film, this woman-powered independent epic honors heroines of art and literature, past and present. Celebrate their legacy and help us complete this important film!
The Ladies Almanack is based on Djuna Barnes' 1928 novel about "Lesbian Don Juan" Natalie Clifford Barney. Shot entirely on super 8 film, this woman-powered independent epic honors heroines of art and literature, past and present. Celebrate their legacy and help us complete this important film!
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Story
About The Project
Djuna Barnes privately published The Ladies Almanack in 1928. The characters in the film are the women Barnes wrote about in thinly coded language in her Almanack; Natalie Barney, Dolly Wilde, Romaine Brooks, Colette, Mina Loy, Radclyffe Hall, Una Troubridge Lily Gramont, Janet Flanner, Renee Vivien, Sylvia Beech, Solita Solano, Lucie Delarue-Madrus, Gertrude Stein, Arthur Cravan, Thelma Wood, Liane de Pougy and Djuna Barnes herself. The narrators in the film are voiced by Hélène Cixous playing herself, Eileen Myles as Monique Wittig, and my college dance teacher, Elesa Rosasco, as Luce Irigiray.
In 1927, Natalie Clifford Barney established L'Académie des Femmes in response to the lack of support and recognition for female authors in France. These authors gathered each week for Natalie Barney’s salon at her home, 20 Rue Jacob on Paris's left bank.
The film takes place in an imaginary city comprised of Paris and Chicago, using architectural similarities to suggest that both cities are one. The communities from which we speak are made possible because of the particular spaces we inhabit. This remains true for the creation of this film. It is not just a movie, it is a movement. In Paris, the center of our creative community is a living room in Aubervilliers. (An inner-ring suburb just Northwest of the city proper.) In Chicago, the spaces that have served and fed our artistic community for many years figure prominently in the film. Theses rooms on both continents from which the work emerges are spaces very much like Natalie's salon. The Ladies Almanack addresses the cultural importance of semi-private spaces as essential ground for social and professional self-determination.
Most of the cast is comprised of non-professional actors. They are instead artists asked to stand in for these historical figures while maintaining themselves. The intention is to highlight the living alongside the dead.
We shot the film entirely on super 8, recording sound separately and shooting only one take to create a performative-not-quite narrative cinema space, where the seams are showing. This aesthetic recalls many of my favorite films: Lizzie Borden’s Born in Flames, Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman, and G.B. Jones’s The Yo-yo Gang.
The list of collaborators who have volunteered their labor and talent to make this film is extensive. Leciel’s unclassifiable music provides the gorgeous original film score, and Sarah Patten’s beautiful collages inform the look of the whole project.
For three years, I have been working on the research, writing, fundraising, building and shooting of this movie. The community engaged in a radical remaking of this historic circle of 1920’s queer female writers has steadily grown.This film is already a REALITY! This movie is already a MOVEMENT! And it is beautiful. With generous in-kind donations of location, labor, costumes, and volunteers, as well as money from our community and cultural grants, we have already raised 90% of our total budget.
Now, we are asking for your support to raise the last 15,000 of a $150,000 film. These funds will allow us to finish editing, color correction, sound mix, scanning to exhibition format, and also to promote, exhibit and distribute the film.
In other words, this fundraising campaign will allow us to bring the film to YOU!
This is my first feature film and I am so excited to share it with the world. Please join us as we remake history.
Incentives
$10
Ladies Almanack Phone Wallpaper pack
Sarah Patten's gorgeous collages begin each month in the film. These images have been custom fitted for your phone. We appreciate your contribution! Take a piece of the movie with you. Comes in a downloadable pack of three.
$25
Ladies Almanack Sacred Bra Ash
In response to our BRA CALL we recieved dozens of bras from all over the country to use in a scene. These have been symbolically burned for liberation. As a token of gratitude, we offer a film canister of bra ash you can display on your altar as a reminder of our collective FEMININE POWER! To quote the film's composer, LeCiel, "Real titties were inside of these bras." It doesn't get more sacred than that.
Claimed: 12 of 100
$35
Lim-ited Edition
AS FEATURED IN THE FILM! Vicky Lim's gorgeous saddle stitched Ladies Almanack coloring books make an appearance as Djuna Barnes' novel. Each one has a handcut lino printed cover and 24 pages to color! Reimagine our world or just experience in it watercolor again and again.
Claimed: 11 of 50
$50
Celluloid Secrets
Hand-drawn storyboards and pages straight from the director's notebook complete with AD notes and footage timings! Since we shoot with only one take, these pages were our shooting bible. Get inside the process with these one-of-a-kind originals. Own your favorite scene in its nascent form.
Claimed: 4 of 25
$75
Signed Copy of The Professor by Terry Castle
Terry Castle had been called a “Jedi knight of literary exploration and lesbian scholarship.” Her books, essays, criticism and artwork are playful, cutting and wise. She plays Gertrude Stein in The Ladies Almanack, and would love to send you a signed personalized copy of The Professor: A Sentimental Education.
Claimed: 0 of 3
$95
Signed Guinevere Turner Film Stills!
Color glossy 8x10 stills from the film, personally signed for you by the living legend. Because glamour of old Hollywood meets feminist revolutionary heart means only one person: Guinevere Turner!
Claimed: 2 of 10
$100
Skype Q & A with Fannie Sosa!
Fannie Sosa is a practicioner of Twerking as a decolonial, femme-inist, radically inclusive healing practice. A bridge of khunt knowledge and healing for our internet age, she is also one of the beating hearts of this film! Ask her anything and your mind, spirit, soul and body will thank you.
Claimed: 1 of 2
$100
Hand-Drawn Zodiac Card/ mail art!
Director Daviel Shy will personally make each hand-drawn zodiac card to thank you for joining the team! CHOOSE YOUR SIGN! She will then stuff each envelope with odds and ends from the film, each package totally unique. These designs are the very same she used to embroider the Zodiac Robe that Brie Roland wears as Natalie Clifford Barney in the film! Own a piece of the movie and our undying thanks!
Claimed: 1 of 17
$125
The Ladies Almamack Soundtrack by LeCiel: Double Record Set on Vinyl
Signed, Limited Run Vinyl Pressing of The Ladies Almamack Soundtrack by LeCiel. The two 10" records include ten original songs from the film in a box set with a gorgeous lyric book designed by Stephanie Acosta.
Claimed: 1 of 8
$140
Virtual Seance and Ladies Almanack Votive Candle
Voices of the dead are central to our film and Producer Heather Kapplow will help you conjure these muses by hosting a participatory, virtual performance art 'happening' related to The Ladies Almanack that may or may not include brushes with fame, visits by ghosts, and phone sex. All participants receive a unique package by mail from the artist meant to heighten and enhance the experience. This donation also gets your name in the Hall of Flame on our website and a Ladies Almanack Votive Candle!!!
Claimed: 1 of 15
$175
An hour meeting or Skype conversation with Anna Margarita Albelo, director and star of Who's Afraid of Vagina Wolf
Actor, Director, Producer and Screenwriter Anna Margarita Albelo knows the ins and outs of filmmaking and is a beacon of LGBTQ culture. We are proud to have her as a producer! One hour with her wisdom and you will be poised to take on the world! BONUS: after the talk, you'll recieve a signed Who's Afraid of Vagina Wolf DVD in the mail!
Claimed: 0 of 2
$200
The Ladies Almanack Library- Poetic Pack
Hello poets! This library includes six books used in the writing of The Ladies Almanack Film. Each volume is hand-annotated by the director and personalized for you.
Sample Poetic Pack book list :
The Ladies Almanack by Djuna Barnes
The Lost Lunar Baedeker: Poems of Mina Loy
Inferno: A poet's Novel by Eileen Myles
The Lesbian Body by Monique Wittig
If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho by Anne Carson
At the Sweet Hour of the Hand in Hand by Renée Vivien*
*subject to availablility, if you read French may be substituted for other books by Renée Vivien.
Claimed: 0 of 10
$200
The Ladies Almanack Library- Theory Pack
Hello philosophers! This library includes six books used in the writing of The Ladies Almanack Film. Each volume is hand-annotated by the director and personalized for you.
Sample Theory Pack book list :
The Ladies Almanack by Djuna Barnes
This Sex Which Is Not One by Luce Irigaray
Djuna Barnes and Affective Modernism by Julie Taylor
The Straight Mind and other Essays by Monique Wittig
Coming to Writing and Other Essays by Hélène Cixous
Asclepias The Milkweeds by Nathanaël
Claimed: 1 of 10
$200
The Ladies Almanack Library- Herstory Pack
Hello Scholars! This library includes six books used in the writing of The Ladies Almanack Film. Each volume is hand-annotated by the director and personalized for you.
Sample Herstory Pack book list :
The Ladies Almanack by Djuna Barnes, 1928.
The Book of the City of Ladies, Chirstine de Pizan, 1400.
Paris was Yesterday, 1925-1939, Janet Flanner, 1972.
Truly Wilde, Joan Schenkar, 2000.
The Pure and the Impure, Colette, 1932.
A Perilous Advantage, Natalie Clifford Barney, 1992.
Claimed: 1 of 10
$500
Investor Package
Congratulations, you commited champion of feminist past and futures! This package is a deluxe compilation of all of our Almanack gratitude: The Ladies Almanack Bra Ash, Coloring Book, Director's Annotated copy of Barnes' 1928 Original Novel, a Hall of Flame Votive Candle and ceremony, dinner with a cast or crew member (available in Paris, New York, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston) and a shout out to you in the credits of the finished film!
Claimed: 0 of 100
$1,000
An Hour with Eileen Myles!
Acclaimed author & poet, rollicking conversationalist, cultural icon and your write-in candidate for president, Eileen Myles is offering an hour-long conversation as gratitude for your contribution to The Ladies Almanack! In The film, Myles plays the voice of Monique Wittig.
Claimed: 0 of 1
$1,200
Hand Embroidered Zodiac Robe
AS FEATURED IN THE FILM- One of a kind! Lounge in your own salon draped in the cosmos! Each of the 12 zodiac sign panels of this velvet and satin robe are designed and embroidered by director Daviel Shy's hand with gold thread. The garment construction was executed by the talented Costumer Dennis Prewitt. Natalie Cifford Barney wears this stunning robe in most of the film's scenes and you can wear this one-of-a-kind masterpiece to the movie's premiere!
Claimed: 0 of 1
$2,500
Executive Producer
It is fated. Meant to be. You have found us, we have found you! Become an executive producer and recieve an investor package, along with a signed script, director's notebook originals, a prop from the film, a private preview screening for yourself and 5 of your friends and an Executive Producer credit in the film. You are shaping herstory and we thank you.
Claimed: 0 of 3
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Wishlist
Use the WishList to pledge cash and loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an incentive directly.
$10
Ladies Almanack Phone Wallpaper pack
Sarah Patten's gorgeous collages begin each month in the film. These images have been custom fitted for your phone. We appreciate your contribution! Take a piece of the movie with you. Comes in a downloadable pack of three.
$25
Ladies Almanack Sacred Bra Ash
In response to our BRA CALL we recieved dozens of bras from all over the country to use in a scene. These have been symbolically burned for liberation. As a token of gratitude, we offer a film canister of bra ash you can display on your altar as a reminder of our collective FEMININE POWER! To quote the film's composer, LeCiel, "Real titties were inside of these bras." It doesn't get more sacred than that.
Claimed: 12 of 100
$35
Lim-ited Edition
AS FEATURED IN THE FILM! Vicky Lim's gorgeous saddle stitched Ladies Almanack coloring books make an appearance as Djuna Barnes' novel. Each one has a handcut lino printed cover and 24 pages to color! Reimagine our world or just experience in it watercolor again and again.
Claimed: 11 of 50
$50
Celluloid Secrets
Hand-drawn storyboards and pages straight from the director's notebook complete with AD notes and footage timings! Since we shoot with only one take, these pages were our shooting bible. Get inside the process with these one-of-a-kind originals. Own your favorite scene in its nascent form.
Claimed: 4 of 25
$75
Signed Copy of The Professor by Terry Castle
Terry Castle had been called a “Jedi knight of literary exploration and lesbian scholarship.” Her books, essays, criticism and artwork are playful, cutting and wise. She plays Gertrude Stein in The Ladies Almanack, and would love to send you a signed personalized copy of The Professor: A Sentimental Education.
Claimed: 0 of 3
$95
Signed Guinevere Turner Film Stills!
Color glossy 8x10 stills from the film, personally signed for you by the living legend. Because glamour of old Hollywood meets feminist revolutionary heart means only one person: Guinevere Turner!
Claimed: 2 of 10
$100
Skype Q & A with Fannie Sosa!
Fannie Sosa is a practicioner of Twerking as a decolonial, femme-inist, radically inclusive healing practice. A bridge of khunt knowledge and healing for our internet age, she is also one of the beating hearts of this film! Ask her anything and your mind, spirit, soul and body will thank you.
Claimed: 1 of 2
$100
Hand-Drawn Zodiac Card/ mail art!
Director Daviel Shy will personally make each hand-drawn zodiac card to thank you for joining the team! CHOOSE YOUR SIGN! She will then stuff each envelope with odds and ends from the film, each package totally unique. These designs are the very same she used to embroider the Zodiac Robe that Brie Roland wears as Natalie Clifford Barney in the film! Own a piece of the movie and our undying thanks!
Claimed: 1 of 17
$125
The Ladies Almamack Soundtrack by LeCiel: Double Record Set on Vinyl
Signed, Limited Run Vinyl Pressing of The Ladies Almamack Soundtrack by LeCiel. The two 10" records include ten original songs from the film in a box set with a gorgeous lyric book designed by Stephanie Acosta.
Claimed: 1 of 8
$140
Virtual Seance and Ladies Almanack Votive Candle
Voices of the dead are central to our film and Producer Heather Kapplow will help you conjure these muses by hosting a participatory, virtual performance art 'happening' related to The Ladies Almanack that may or may not include brushes with fame, visits by ghosts, and phone sex. All participants receive a unique package by mail from the artist meant to heighten and enhance the experience. This donation also gets your name in the Hall of Flame on our website and a Ladies Almanack Votive Candle!!!
Claimed: 1 of 15
$175
An hour meeting or Skype conversation with Anna Margarita Albelo, director and star of Who's Afraid of Vagina Wolf
Actor, Director, Producer and Screenwriter Anna Margarita Albelo knows the ins and outs of filmmaking and is a beacon of LGBTQ culture. We are proud to have her as a producer! One hour with her wisdom and you will be poised to take on the world! BONUS: after the talk, you'll recieve a signed Who's Afraid of Vagina Wolf DVD in the mail!
Claimed: 0 of 2
$200
The Ladies Almanack Library- Poetic Pack
Hello poets! This library includes six books used in the writing of The Ladies Almanack Film. Each volume is hand-annotated by the director and personalized for you.
Sample Poetic Pack book list :
The Ladies Almanack by Djuna Barnes
The Lost Lunar Baedeker: Poems of Mina Loy
Inferno: A poet's Novel by Eileen Myles
The Lesbian Body by Monique Wittig
If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho by Anne Carson
At the Sweet Hour of the Hand in Hand by Renée Vivien*
*subject to availablility, if you read French may be substituted for other books by Renée Vivien.
Claimed: 0 of 10
$200
The Ladies Almanack Library- Theory Pack
Hello philosophers! This library includes six books used in the writing of The Ladies Almanack Film. Each volume is hand-annotated by the director and personalized for you.
Sample Theory Pack book list :
The Ladies Almanack by Djuna Barnes
This Sex Which Is Not One by Luce Irigaray
Djuna Barnes and Affective Modernism by Julie Taylor
The Straight Mind and other Essays by Monique Wittig
Coming to Writing and Other Essays by Hélène Cixous
Asclepias The Milkweeds by Nathanaël
Claimed: 1 of 10
$200
The Ladies Almanack Library- Herstory Pack
Hello Scholars! This library includes six books used in the writing of The Ladies Almanack Film. Each volume is hand-annotated by the director and personalized for you.
Sample Herstory Pack book list :
The Ladies Almanack by Djuna Barnes, 1928.
The Book of the City of Ladies, Chirstine de Pizan, 1400.
Paris was Yesterday, 1925-1939, Janet Flanner, 1972.
Truly Wilde, Joan Schenkar, 2000.
The Pure and the Impure, Colette, 1932.
A Perilous Advantage, Natalie Clifford Barney, 1992.
Claimed: 1 of 10
$500
Investor Package
Congratulations, you commited champion of feminist past and futures! This package is a deluxe compilation of all of our Almanack gratitude: The Ladies Almanack Bra Ash, Coloring Book, Director's Annotated copy of Barnes' 1928 Original Novel, a Hall of Flame Votive Candle and ceremony, dinner with a cast or crew member (available in Paris, New York, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston) and a shout out to you in the credits of the finished film!
Claimed: 0 of 100
$1,000
An Hour with Eileen Myles!
Acclaimed author & poet, rollicking conversationalist, cultural icon and your write-in candidate for president, Eileen Myles is offering an hour-long conversation as gratitude for your contribution to The Ladies Almanack! In The film, Myles plays the voice of Monique Wittig.
Claimed: 0 of 1
$1,200
Hand Embroidered Zodiac Robe
AS FEATURED IN THE FILM- One of a kind! Lounge in your own salon draped in the cosmos! Each of the 12 zodiac sign panels of this velvet and satin robe are designed and embroidered by director Daviel Shy's hand with gold thread. The garment construction was executed by the talented Costumer Dennis Prewitt. Natalie Cifford Barney wears this stunning robe in most of the film's scenes and you can wear this one-of-a-kind masterpiece to the movie's premiere!
Claimed: 0 of 1
$2,500
Executive Producer
It is fated. Meant to be. You have found us, we have found you! Become an executive producer and recieve an investor package, along with a signed script, director's notebook originals, a prop from the film, a private preview screening for yourself and 5 of your friends and an Executive Producer credit in the film. You are shaping herstory and we thank you.
Claimed: 0 of 3
- Updates
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Current Team
About This Team
Daviel Shy (writer/director/DP) wrote and directed nine short films including Exercises in Buoyancy, produced with an all-female cast and crew, Das Buffet ist Eröffnet, filmed in Vienna, Austria, and The Tyrant, based on Stanley Kubrick’s notes on Napoleon. She was the recipient of the 2015 Critical Fierceness grant, A Pro8mm Film Grant and the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation grant for The Ladies Almanack. Recent press includes interviews on Bookslut and Weird Sister. Shy’s work has been shown nationally and internationally at venues such as MIX NYC Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film/Video Festival, Queer City Cinema International Film Festival, Reeling: The Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival, Terrain Biennial, Blaze: Czech Republic, and more. She co-founded the monthly screening series L.M.N.O.P: Lesbian Movie Night Ongoing Project, running continuously since 2011. The Ladies Almanack is her first feature film.
Stephanie Acosta (Producer) is a multidisciplinary artist currently residing in Chicago and NYC where she works extensively with unseen histories, performance, experimental radio, and film. Acosta creates with NO ONE IS ANYWHERE, DAViELSHYFiLMs, and Intrinsic Grey. Her collaborators include Atom-r, Manuel Vason, and Robin Deacon. Her documentary series Fleeting Components, based on the independent radio project Radius, premiered in June 2015.
LeCiel (Original Score) is a Chicago artist born in Saint Louis in 1984. Her music blends gospel, world, hip-hop and electronic influences to create hypnotic messages that are more about harnessing the healing power of sound itself than adhering to any genre. As the vocalist, MC, performer, producer, songwriter and engineer on her tracks- She just about does it all.
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