Old Girl In A Tutu

Feminist scholar, Susan Rennie, seizes her iPhone and sneaks her queer, octogenarian body into master works of art, disrupting the narrative of the male gaze.

This 8-minute film focuses on a gallery showcase of Susan Rennie's delightful art with unfiltered commentary from the artist, as well as words from exhibition curator Kirsten Grimstad.*

When Rennie retired from academia, she returned to her first love – photography. With humor and wit, Rennie’s photographic interventions offer a feminist critique of the conventional canon of art history, and an unabashed embrace of her elder, queer identity. The results are juicy, eye-opening, and often hilarious.

DOCUMENTARY | 8:02

Director Biography - Cheri Gaulke

Director, Producer, Writer and Editor: Cheri Gaulke is a pioneer in the feminist art movement in Los Angeles and an award-winning filmmaker whose films have screened in national and international film festivals. Gaulke’s work has been presented at the Museum of Modern Art (NY), the Museum of Contemporary Art (LA), in a Smithsonian-touring exhibition, and in settings all over the world including buses, churches, and prehistoric temples. Gaulke has received artist fellowships from National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, City of Los Angeles, California Community Foundation, and California Humanities. Recent films: Gloria's Call about women and surrealism (40 film festivals; Best Documentary, Ann Arbor Film Festival; 20222 Venice Biennale); Miss Alma Thomas: A Life in Color about this under-recognized African-American artist (for a museum retrospective); and Inside the Beauty Bubble about a gay hair salon owner (50 festivals; Audience Awards at San Luis Obispo Film Festival and Dances with Films). She is currently in post-production on her first feature documentary, Acting Like Women, about feminist performance art and the Woman's Building in 1970s-80s Los Angeles.