Dir. Harry Dodge & Silas Howard
2001 | USA | Video | 98:00 | Color | English

Principal Cast: Silas Howard, Harry Dodge, Stanya Kahn, Carina Gia, Harriet Dodge & Joan Jett

A lesbian buddy film, By Hook or By Crook chronicles three weeks in the life of a handsome, gender-bending, small-town butch with a nagging messiah-complex. Emotionally defeated since the death of her father, Shy heads to the big city to sink herself into a “life of crime”. She is quickly distracted by Valentine, a deliriously expressive, wise-acre adoptee on a misguided search for her birthmother. The two freaky grifters join forces and learn the true meaning of “poise under pressure” in this visually stunning and wonderfully acted, anti-authoritarian tale of friendship, trust and redemption. Exploiting the full potential of digital video, the film’s vibrating colors and luminous presence sustain a photographic vision, relaying imagery from an American gothic landscape without dipping toward sentimentality or the voyeur’s wink. Directed with lush detail by first-time directors—the artist/rockstar duo Dodge and Howard—By Hook or By Crook opens a carnival peephole into a world almost never before captured in a narrative film: the lives of real, working class butches (and the ladies who love them).

In Competition: New Directors Showcase