“Some people say our films have a tendency toward dirty laundry. The films say it like it is, rather than how people want it to be.” —Camille Billops.
In Older Women and Love, Billops appears in the role of informal videographer, asking her interviewees frank questions about age-gap relationships. They talk (and sometimes sing) about what happens to desire when a straight woman gets to be mommy without having to also be a caregiver. Some of what she uncovers—racial fetishization, abuse of power—is uncomfortable, but she doesn’t shy away and we witness interviewees and double down or tell Billops to back off.
The whole time, Older Women and Love is warm, generous, and really funny as it traverses this edge.
Camille Billops (1933–2019) made work that shocked audiences. The sculptor, printmaker, archivist and filmmaker probed the taboo aspects of family; intimate relationships; desire across difference; abuse and addiction. Her work blends cultural analysis, theatrical set-pieces, and first-person recollection, and is captivating because she refuses to make a bow of raggedy edges.