Everything Relative | |
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Directed by | Sharon Pollack |
Produced by | Sharon Pollack |
Written by | Sharon Pollack |
Starring |
Ellen McLaughlin Dreya Weber Stacey Nelkin Malindi Fickle Carol Schneider Olivia Negron Monica Bell Gabriella Messina |
Music by | Frank London |
Cinematography | Zakaela Rachel Othmer |
Edited by | Meredith Paige |
Distributed by | Tara Releasing |
Release date
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Running time
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110 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Everything Relative is a 1995 American comedy-drama independent film written and directed by Sharon Pollack. It centers around a weekend reunion of seven women who were friends and political activists in college. The film has been compared to The Big Chill and Return of the Secaucus Seven in terms of theme and structure. It was presented at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival as part of the American Spectrum lineup.
A lesbian couple, Katie (Stacy Nelkin) and Victoria (Monica Bell), have a new-born son. His bris (featuring a cameo appearance by Harvey Fierstein as the mohel) occasions a gathering of family and friends, including five college classmates of Katie and Victoria. The seven former classmates (all but one of whom are lesbians) were members of a leftist street theater company and political action group when they were in college.
After the bris, the former classmates take a weekend vacation together at Katie and Victoria’s country home near their old college town of Northampton, Massachusetts. Their time together provides a chance for them to address long-standing conflicts and unresolved issues.
Victoria, a corporate lawyer, believes her job requires her to stay closeted, which leads her to publicly hide her relationship with Katie. Katie is aware of Victoria’s reasons for doing this, but is not happy about it, and Victoria’s reflexive efforts to conceal their relationship while in public causes the tension between them to escalate over the course of the weekend.
Former lovers Josie (Ellen McLaughlin) and Maria (Olivia Negron) meet for the first time after their painful break-up. Maria left Josie years earlier to marry a man because she believed it was the only way she could have a family. After years of marriage and two children, Maria eventually came out as a lesbian and left her husband, but lost custody of her children and now seeks to get them back. Josie is a recovering alcoholic who has never gotten over Maria. The abruptness of Maria’s departure has left many issues between them unsettled.