Lesbian Film Spotlight: It's in the Water (1997)

It's almost a camp classic

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The year is 1997. Independent cinema is booming, and under that umbrella is New Queer Cinema, the LGBT-focused movement first coined by scholar B. Ruby Rich. We’re two years shy of 1999, often considered one of the greatest years in Hollywood history. Not every movie is a revelation, though – some are whacky relics, lost in the cobwebs of the streaming era’s ‘forward-thinking’ compulsion.

Take Kelli Herd’s first and only feature film, It’s in the Water. A low-budget queer comedy distributed by the LGBTQ-run company Wolfe Video, the movie hasn’t been remembered much at all, although it is available to rent on Amazon Prime for the affordable price of $2.99. (If you want to support queer filmmaking, you can also rent it on Wolfe On Demand for the same price tag.)

It’s in the Water is a nutty puzzle of a film. It’s campy but also middle-of-the-road, low-budget but not artsy. It doesn’t quite fit in with the lesbian films of the time, which included the indie stylings of Go Fish and All Over Me and the gritty realism of High Art. If anything, It’s in the Water feels like a Lifetime movie given the freedom to skewer the trappings of a white, small-town perspective. (Warning: spoilers ahead.)

Keri Jo Chapman, whose performance all but carries the film, plays Alex, a woman living in the fictional town of Azalea Springs, Texas. A member of her local Junior League chapter alongside her ever-critical mother, Alex coasts through life without much passion. She’s married to a forgettable man and her best friend is Spencer (John Hallum), a flaming homosexual tolerated by the town’s more conservative elements. 

The controversy starts when the League announces their newest charity project: the AIDS hospice in town. Some of the members of the League are not happy to be visiting such a place, though Alex does not hold such prejudices. Spencer’s partner, an older man named Bruce (Larry Randolph), is a patient at the hospice, and Alex’s old friend from high school, Grace (Teresa Garrett), is a nurse there. 

Spencer stirs the already homophobic pot by joking that the town’s water is what made him gay. The ‘rumor’ spreads like wildfire and the local paper prints the conspiracy. Alex’s mother buys bottled water for the house, just to be safe. 

While the title of the movie suggests that this water controversy is the film’s main drama, that’s not the case. The debate about the local AIDS hospice – which might seem like an odd setting for a comedy – isn’t the driving tension either. Instead, It’s in the Water tells several stories over its 100-minute runtime. Some are about prejudice and bigotry, others are about finding love and self-acceptance.

Grace (left) and Alex (right). Note Alex’s newly minted lesbian outfit.

Shortly after reuniting with her, Alex learns that Grace is a lesbian and that she recently had an affair with another woman. This shocks Alex, but not in the homophobic manner of her neighbors. She starts working at the hospice despite her narrow-minded husband’s objections and goes down something of a lesbian rabbit hole. She rents a bunch of lesbian movies – Desert Hearts, Lianna, The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls In Love – and has a gay revelation. 

Alex and Grace share their first kiss in the supply room but they are rudely interrupted by Sloan (Nancy Chartier), the snootiest of all the League women. News of their relationship spreads around town even though Alex and Grace have only shared a single kiss and haven’t had a chance to discuss things yet.

Meanwhile, Mark (Derrick Sanders), the son of the local newspaper publisher, is trying to pray away the gay by attending ex-gay meetings at a church. He abandons this goal when he meets Tomas (Timothy Vahle), a hunky painter. Alex also reunites with Ray Ray (Dion Culberson), her childhood friend and the son of her family’s housekeeper – whose character feels like she just walked out of a movie from the 1940s, by the way. Ray Ray, Alex learns, is also gay and performs as a drag queen, a vocation his mother is presumably supportive of. 

Alex, Grace, Mark, and Tomas attend the local gay bar in the city and find Ray Ray performing there. After this wild night out on the town, Alex and Grace have sex for the first time, illustrating the fact that this is not actually a Lifetime movie we’re watching. The film ends at Spencer’s partner Bruce’s funeral, which is an oddly joyful affair. An all-black choir sings at the ceremony, a confusing choice considering the film overlooks the racial dynamics of the town in favor of pointing out its homophobia. Ray Ray is there, out of drag, and so is his mother, who is thankfully not part of the choir. They defeat prejudice by coming together to celebrate the life of a gay man, or something. 

It’s In The Water doesn’t have the philosophical bent of Claire of the Moon or the aesthetic beauty of Desert Hearts. It’s not as colorful as But I’m a Cheerleader or as academic as The Watermelon Woman. What it does offer us is a reminder that the world of lesbian cinema isn’t as narrow as contemporary viewers might assume. Those complaining about the ‘mainstreaming’ of lesbian films today clearly haven’t dove deep into the archives, willing to wade through some clunkers to discover a few hidden gems. 

To be clear, It’s in the Water isn’t exactly a gem – it’s more of a shiny rock whose luster gleams under the right conditions – though it is hidden. Nonetheless, it does employ a lesbian camp sensibility that has made a comeback as of late. Come, drink the gay water.