Tonight’s screening includes:
In the Best Interests of the Children
Directed by Frances Reid, Elizabeth Stevens and Cathy Zheutlin
Run time: 53 minutes
In the Best Interests of Children is a 1977 feature-length documentary “about who lesbian mothers and their children really are.” Made by the feminist filmmakers’ collective Iris Films to help lesbian mothers facing custody battles, this interview-based documentary was made in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. The film explores the legal, moral, and human factors involved in these child custody battles with wisdom and humor.
Lesbian Custody
Directed by Samuael Topiary, Molly Skonieczny
Run time: 18 minutes
Lesbian Custody explores the personal and political legacy of In the Best Interests of the Children (1977), a groundbreaking lesbian feminist documentary distributed by Women Make Movies that gave voice to mothers fighting for custody of their children in the face of rampant homophobia. Nearly fifty years later, filmmaker Frances Reid, one of the film’s original creators, reconnects with Julie Stevens, the daughter of Reid’s late partner and co-director Liz Stevens.
Together, Frances and Julie revisit the film’s archives, revealing an era when coming out as a lesbian could mean losing your family, your livelihood, and your children. As they reflect on their pasts and the struggles of lesbian mothers and the children caught in the middle, Lesbian Custody intertwines personal memory with the collective history of a movement determined to redefine family and justice.
Part archival excavation, part intimate reunion, Lesbian Custody captures a conversation across generations, between a filmmaker and a child of the movement, about what was lost, what endures, and why this forgotten history of lesbian motherhood still matters today.