Creating her first feature-length documentary

Our own Julie Casper Roth is profiled in Wisconsin's The Daily Telegram about her new documentary project. Julie also won Best Experimental Film and Best of Smith College at the 2007 Five College Film Festival for her film Object Lesson.

Documentary captures story of first gay club in Superior and its owner The Daily Telegram - 08/31/2007

The Main Club is the subject of a documentary by a Superior native.

Julie Casper Roth is planning to shoot her first feature-length documentary on the history of Superior’s first openly gay club and its owner, Bob Jannsen. ... Roth wants Northlanders, and the rest of the nation, to know more about the club.

“There’s an amazing history with the Main Club, and it’s almost a hidden history,” she said. “People in town will benefit from learning about the Main and the benefit it has in the community.” ...

When she moved away from Superior for college in Massachusetts, Roth attended Smith College in Northampton, a community with a vibrant gay community, she said. Seeing that vibrancy, Roth began to wonder about the gay community back in the Twin Ports. During college, Roth started working with experimental and documentary video. Since then, her work has been screened at film festivals and she’s won awards for her work.

Many of the films Roth makes deal with identity. She’s visited the topics of motherhood, mental illness, gender and sexuality in the past. This film follows that interest because it allows her to explore how people mediate GLBT identity within the Superior area, she said.

Read the entire article.