22 Sides
22 Sides is a podcast that will let you get to know some fascinating people and keep up with many things that are happening in and around the Houston area.
22 Sides
Art as Advocacy: Sharon Ferranti's Journey Behind the Lens
Filmmaker Sharon Ferranti joins us to discuss her journey from videography to advocacy documentaries. We explore how artistic expression intersects with community building, recovery support, and intentional inclusion.
• The importance of being intentionally inclusive rather than simply not exclusive
• How recovery communities model effective community building by focusing on commonalities rather than differences
• Sharon's years of sobriety and the life-saving power of community support
• The shift in local politics from divisive social issues to practical community concerns
• The importance of taking action rather than just having opinions about social issues
Check out Sharon's work at thesharonshow.com to learn more about her upcoming projects and documentary work.
We hope you will listen often.
For more information, visit our website 22sides.com
Welcome to 22 Sides. I'm Alexis. I'm here today with Robin and a very special guest who is a college professor, a film producer, a longtime advocate and does a lot of other things. So, sharon, would you like to introduce yourself?
Sharon:I'm Sharon Ferranti and I live in Houston, texas. I'm a freelance filmmaker and still photographer and I am happy to be here and talk about community.
Alexis:Now it gets to be very quiet, right, Right exactly Freezing up. We were talking earlier and mentioning various things and I pointed out that one of the things that was so funny was that I didn't think I knew anything about making films or movies or anything, and then found the whole box of things from Cozumel.
Robin:VHSs and recording tapes and all that.
Alexis:Because what we did was we wanted video for our people.
Robin:Right.
Alexis:And we had a handy cam, and so, after we figured out how to use it, we found somebody in Cozumel that really wanted to do this and really liked it.
Alexis:So we taught them how to use it and gave them the camera and all the things, and the only deal was that they had to do it with us, and then we did that all over the caribbean wow, filming scuba tours and people's vacations and one of the hilarious things is that I was watching one of these relaxation videos that, uh, you know some someplace on the internet and I'm sort of going through and I'm narrating it because I'm like, oh, this is here and this is here and this is this reef, and this is this reef, and those are Scuba Pro flit fins. There are only about two people in the world that got to try those. And then it pans up a little bit. I'm like man, that would be me.
Alexis:Oh my God, You're watching TV and you see yourself float by literally, yeah, literally, and it was hilarious because I was like, um, okay, that is me, that's a trip and and you know, and the the biggest, like I said, biggest thing we would do is it's like we'll, you know, let the videographers know when we're going to be in town and we get first call on them because we provide all their equipment and all like that, right, and then they get to sell the videos to whoever they want and that whole bit. And you know, that was one of those things that was fun and it made it better for our whole industry and all those things.
Robin:Yeah, and then one day you turn on Roku and there you were, you were floating by in your best relaxation moment. And I did go look and I do believe I have a copyright on it.
Sharon:The footage must look good, or they wouldn't have put it on yeah perfect.
Alexis:Well, and the funniest thing is that the videographer that we had in Cozumel, Carlos, has a special way of filming turtles underwater.
Sharon:Oh yeah.
Alexis:And that was the first thing that caught me Turtelography. Yeah, pretty much. Carlos comes up behind them and slowly comes around to them. I mean you can look at it and you're like Carlos filmed that one Carlos shot that.
Sharon:Yeah, I love it, that's a.
Alexis:Carlos film.
Sharon:I love it shot that.
Alexis:yeah, that's a carlos film and you know, does he not want to startle him, or is that just what looks best? It's carlos's way of filming them. Part of it is catching up to them, I see, because there's current and the turtles are swimming scurrying about yes and that whole bit and but. But it was so funny because I was, you know, I'm sort of narrating it and I'm like wait a minute that's a trip that hasn't happened to me.
Robin:Yet it's a wonderful thing to want to relax and then turn on something and you're in the film relaxing. You know it's like hey, just remember this moment that you're in.
Alexis:Oh my god, it's not a borrowed moment.
Robin:But you know, I've imagined, with all the film work that you've done, sharon, you probably haven't had to chase your subjects. You know no they may not be turtles, but I think you do humans, yeah, no even doing a horror film.
Sharon:They were intentionally running and we knew where they were going. Okay, and we got to tell them to stop. I know, right, although there were snakes out on that, wow, that uh territory and you lived. We constantly had um pas out in the grasses behind the actors with sticks, beating the ground and yelling snake, snake, snake to make sure that they stayed away from the actors. It was bizarre.
Robin:If I heard any of those beatings I just wouldn't be able to go up like I'm so sorry, sharon, I can't make it.
Sharon:Actually, that's my horror film the entire thing taught me about, um the concept of um set karma, which I didn't know anything about, and learned that I have terrible set karma because through the entire film it was snakes, spiders, scorpions, angry women, I mean you name it.
Robin:Well, it was a lesbian film, so I feel like that might have happened anyway.
Sharon:But yeah, you're right.
Robin:What's set karma for people who don't know?
Sharon:Set. Karma is like luck. Simply put it's just do you have good luck on the set, Do things kind of go your way, or do gremlins follow you everywhere and manifest?
Alexis:It's improved over the years. I think the classic current example of bad set karma is rust.
Sharon:Rust, yeah, that'd be the ultimate bad set karma.
Alexis:You know everything went wrong with that film.
Sharon:Couldn't have gone worse literally. Literally oh gosh, I must be living right, though, because it's completely shifted now and I definitely have better set karma than I used to what do you attribute that to?
Robin:What are some takeaways from your background? I mean?
Sharon:Well, experience I've made a lot more films now is the number one thing, but also respect for something like karma Wow. Respect for the vibe, respect for the ineffable, the things that are floating in the air between people, that are unpredictable. And I just respect that and I allow for it, so I'm not constantly trying to control it anymore.
Robin:It's okay.
Sharon:It's just okay, it's beautiful.
Alexis:I was going to say to me that's part of the neatest part about some films.
Sharon:It is. And it's like I don't think that was scripted in. And compensating it was allowed for, and, at the end of the day, it has to be allowed for it's going to happen.
Robin:You cannot control everything that happens on the set I think that's something that a lot of artists, no matter what the modality that they use is they grapple with. It's like they have a vision correct and that's one form of the art, but what actually gets delivered in reality is going to be a whole different project.
Sharon:The art's going to tell you what it wants to be.
Robin:It's hard to embrace that Very, very difficult, but sometimes it could be better.
Sharon:I don't think there's a media that is more susceptible to that than film. Because you have a script, you have a vision. You should not compromise on your vision until you absolutely have to, and you should surround yourself with people who will encourage you to pursue your vision. But the movie is going to tell you what it wants to be and you'll find that out in the edit.
Alexis:Yeah.
Robin:Completely offset and do you always do your own edits or have like a hard hand on that?
Sharon:I love editing, which is not uh common in my business. I was about to say you love editing, I love editing and I and and I am I'm in the minority, vast minority, but I do love editing, but because I've really done a lot of it.
Alexis:So it doesn't intimidate me anymore. I hate editing video, and the reason is I'm a perfectionist.
Sharon:That will get in your way. Yes, it will that will get in your way. For sure, the technology is massive. It takes a long time to really get your arms around the software itself and what it can do. Um but the. So, in answer to your question, I have edited most of the things that I've made out of necessity, out of very small budgets and sure not able to that takes up a lot of hours you know, but I've handed things.
Sharon:I've been the editor on projects that I didn't shoot and I have handed projects off to other editors, um, and they've all worked out one way or the other. Just fine, uh, but I'm comfortable in the, I'm comfortable in in all of those roles. I I not to like break my arm patting myself on the back or whatever but, I genuinely am an auteur, I do write, I do direct, I am a performer and I can take it all the way to the end Right.
Robin:Well, I think it's one thing to boast and not have the experience or the accolades, but you're somebody who actually has those things behind you and I think that, knowing what little I do about you, you're undersold and I think that people need to step up and share as they can. It may be painful for some people, but people need to know the work that it actually takes to deliver on things. The the um acknowledgements can come in that, and I think sometimes we do need to hear that because we don't get the acknowledgements back to us when we put things out into the world Not that some of us really never do it to get the acknowledgement, so we're not even waiting around to listen, and I'm sure you're in that category.
Alexis:But it's nice when you do get it.
Sharon:It's nice when you do get it, it's so weird, the verisimilitude of what's happening right now. I made a feature film in 2019.
Robin:Yes.
Sharon:And I'm very proud of it. Do you want to say the title? Yeah, sure, the Tiny War of Vera May Nowak is the title the Tiny War of Vera May Nowak, and it stars Annalee Jeffries, who has been an institution in Houston theater and was on Queen Sugar in New Orleans and is the most beautiful person you could ever imagine. She really is, but first and foremost, she's brilliant, and I didn't think she was in my league.
Robin:Talk about underselling yourself right yeah, sounds like you took a risk underselling herself. Right yeah, sounds like you took a risk. You got some courage.
Sharon:Yeah, no, I did. Through circumstances I got some courage and I sent her the script and just benefited beyond description from her willingness to be in the film. Super low budget, that meant she had to carry weight she normally wouldn't.
Robin:If there's a bigger crew at any rate, and she did it.
Sharon:That gives me goosebumps yeah, watch the film again last night. This is what's so interesting how timely last night she it was her birthday yesterday and she had seen the film when I originally finished it and screened it for a small group and since then have done a lot more editing and, you know, made the rounds on the festival circuit and did well. And I don't have. I do have distribution, but I haven't accepted it yet. I'm still debating, sure, exactly what I want to do with that film. But she was talking about that very thing that you just mentioned about. She really wants it to be seen more, sure, and and I don't pursue accolades, I don't pursue recognition, and I don't think that's helpful to my career, uh, but but to have that, to have annalee come back a couple years later and go, this is amazing.
Robin:I'm really proud of such an acknowledgement?
Sharon:yeah, that yeah, trust me, that's like more than anything else, yes, is to have annalee be very proud of her work in the film and the film itself.
Alexis:So yes, so if people wanted to see it right now.
Sharon:uh, my debate is whether to go ahead and put it on youtube, because, frankly, youtube has the best monetization of any streaming platform. Uh, the big streamers don't pay filmmakers, which tells you why filmmaking is where it is, but on YouTube, you're in the driver's seat a lot more, and so I have distribution with a small company, and if I took it, then you'd be able to see it on their platform.
Alexis:I'm not going to say what it is yet, because I haven't signed the contract, no worries, but I haven't really.
Sharon:We could talk all day about the difficulty of being a small, independent filmmaker and trying to get your film out into the world, where YouTube has the opposite in terms of prestige recognition. If you put your film on YouTube, you immediately lose any kind of professional, legitimate validity.
Robin:Well, it's interesting because life is full of trade-offs, right, and we want to continue to parse out these conversations, so we can have a side conversation about that and we do call this podcast 22 Sides, so we can have a specific underlining thread for just that. And we would love for you and artists and business developers, or just community peer sharing, to contribute to people that are interested in that particular thing.
Sharon:Right, it's very much a side conversation, and thank you for saying that, because I'd love to do that in a contained way but yeah, so you can't see my movie right now unless I specifically send you a link. That's the answer to your question.
Robin:And do you have any movies that are accessible to be seen? Well, I made a horror film that we discussed earlier, called Make-A-Wish right out of film school, immediately out of film school. I've actually had the pleasure of seeing this film.
Sharon:Make-A-W wish. Yeah, you can see, make a wish. Uh, wolf video distributes it. It streamed on netflix for 11 years there was a time when you could rent it on netflix. So super proud of that, wow um. But right now you'd have to reach out to wolf video and order the dvd sure to see.
Robin:It sure, so if you are having a group party and uh or or a pity party or, or you're someone who loves horror. This uh scenario, from what I remember is, a lesbian invites all of her exes out to a campsite.
Sharon:Yes, if you're really angry at your ex, it's the perfect man for her birthday. And they start to disappear. I don't know where that came from.
Robin:Oh my, it was so unforeseen, but but I think one of the things I heard was it was hard for you to continue to make this movie because no animals were harmed no animals were harmed in true lesbian nature. No animals in this horror film were actually harmed, so she had to like wait for animals to be like super dead or naturally, oh my god, there's a squirrel.
Alexis:I was gonna say find roadkill yeah we literally did.
Sharon:Yeah, the producer ran into a vulture what are they called vulture, yeah, anyway and killed it and we put it in the movie. And there were long when we were in pre-production, nowhere near ready, ready to shoot. Someone's dog killed a squirrel and we took the squirrel and put it in the freezer.
Robin:You're like outsourcing deaths at this point just to not cause them, and I mean the lengths that some artists will go to to hold their values are just really tender, like I love that. But if you're on any sort of realistic timeline, yeah, that had to be crucial, oh my god.
Sharon:there was one guy who died in the film, via blowtorch, okay, and the makeup took 17 hours, oh my gosh. So he probably wanted to kill me. He wanted me to be roadkill by the time that was done. We shot on a ranch two hours west of Austin in May and it was very warm and all of the women were from outside of Houston, they came from LA, they came from Toronto. We had a couple who were local, but they didn't know anything about scorpions and snakes and what they were putting themselves into anything about scorpions and snakes?
Robin:right what they were putting themselves into oh, talk about not herding cats doesn't come. No, no to herding lesbians in the wild right, who probably don't want to be in the outdoors. Wild, no, not campers not all of us are uh, strapping carabiners and ready to take on a hike, believe it or not.
Sharon:We're gonna need some amenities, yeah, contrary to the stereotype yes, there are lesbians who don't know anything about tall grass port-a-potty will not cut it yeah, it's not gonna no, especially if it's next to the tall grass yeah, right exactly no.
Alexis:And where would you put it next to the tall?
Sharon:exactly. So you know making me. I made a horror film because, fresh out of film school, that's the advice that you get and it's not unwise because you can actually sell a horror film. They're the easiest genre to sell and that's why people are advised to make them and I learned a lot.
Alexis:Something showing up being tacky in a horror film is just fine, it's just fine and you don't have to have a star.
Sharon:It's totally fine, but I don't like I'm not a horror film person. I don't watch them. I don't like to be scared, and my movie's not very scary no, it wasn't, thankfully, you know so if you like horror but don't want it to be super scary, watch, make a wish it was it?
Robin:it wasn't campy, I wouldn't say that. But it was it was between like uh, but I'm a cheerleader camp and and uh like some, some start to be scary. It was like it had some suspense but, it wasn't like I mean, these horror films these days get, like you know, psychologically trippy. This was more like oh yeah, I could see this being someone's birthday wish. If you're a lesbian and you've been a part of the do-si-do dating games and you tend to get an invite from your ex to a campground. Maybe think it through.
Alexis:Maybe don't go, maybe think it through.
Robin:Did you make amends? Maybe don't go if you didn't.
Sharon:Get a flat tire, don't show up.
Robin:Yeah, yeah.
Sharon:But you know, that was the only film you know and speak we're, we're, we're ostensibly going to discuss community sure, sure, yeah, and let's dive into it I think that might be the only project I've ever made in my entire life, right up to today. Uh, that wasn't specifically for community. Interesting, it's a lesbian movie, so it is I was about to say wait a minute.
Alexis:You said lesbian horror film. You're saying it's not for community.
Sharon:Yeah, because there's not very many lesbian horror fans there, really aren't.
Alexis:Oh, I must know a weird number then.
Robin:I think you just know the weird niche when you get out into the world Well, and you know I do know Mel's friends.
Sharon:Yes, yes, it seems it was surprising. Let me put it this way it was surprising to me the pushback.
Robin:What was some of the pushback From lesbians?
Sharon:About making a horror film.
Robin:Lesbians pushing back on everything is predictable.
Sharon:Bottom line. What was I thinking? What? Was their pushback for this Boy you just gave me a hundred years of therapy with that comment right there.
Alexis:You just put it on the bed.
Sharon:I don't ever have to worry about it again. Of course there was going to be pushback from lesbians, from lesbians. So you know, at the time violence in film was a topic everyone was talking about Very, very.
Robin:That's absolutely true.
Sharon:That's absolutely true, and I sat on panels when I was on the festival circuit with this film, because I'd made, I mean, for the opposite. It was the opposite of an accolade. It was to torture me, it was to punish me.
Robin:Right right Accountability holds you in check, Maybe even suppress your artistic abilities, I would imagine.
Sharon:I think it did, to the extent that I was. I wasn't young, I was 42, but I certainly developed quite a few second guessing problems for a while after that. Sure, sure, definitely Sure.
Robin:We do talk about that a bit on. The podcast is like you know, what does accountability look like and how far is too far?
Sharon:You know Ooh good question.
Robin:And you know, it's one thing to get someone's pronouns right and to become an ally and to dance in the conversation of what it means to be there for somebody. But it's a whole nother thing if we just slam down policing and a rule book and you're never going to get it right. Like it's just too much. It's too much, it's so tough and yet fair.
Sharon:The toughness is fair because I'll skip to the present. Sure, go back 20 years, but right now I'm doing a lot of work. It is a privilege to do this work, and I don't mean white privilege, that's a whole different kind of privilege. It is a privilege to do this work with the Normal Anomaly.
Robin:Say a little bit about them in case people don't know.
Sharon:The Normal Anom anomaly is an organization in houston run by ian l haddock which uh exists solely for advocacy and community building in black and brown queer communities. Okay, very much oriented toward trans uh advocacy, but it is not limited to that by any means, because this is is not a video podcast.
Robin:People might guess that you are neither one of those things.
Sharon:That's possible.
Robin:But how would you identify?
Sharon:I'm a white lesbian, okay, and my pronouns are she and her. Okay, and I like labels. Sure For myself.
Robin:You're like let me put this label on. Totally cool, okay, yeah.
Sharon:With my label. Yeah, this label on totally cool okay. Yeah, with my life. Yeah, good, um, but one of the one profound lesson I've learned in the you're talking about accountability. Sure, the first documentary. I'm working on my second documentary with them, but the first documentary I made with them you're already on a second one.
Robin:Yeah, this is great.
Sharon:Uh, the con, the topic of hiv prevention, new, uh, new infection rate and all this came up and I was the interviewer and I asked the question of the subject why do you think new infection rate is so high among black and brown communities?
Sharon:I think that was basically my question, sure, sure and relevant question I could tell you all day long that I was ready for the answer, but I wasn't. It was painful, it was extremely painful to hear the answer, which is you know, I'm just going to sum it up sure, white communities didn't do advocacy and education in communities of color? Okay, and that is way too simplistic of a statement. Sure, that is not what he said. Sure, that's the gist. The gist, yeah, and I can't speak to the intentionality of AIDS organizations in the late 80s and 90s and late 90s I can't speak to that?
Sharon:I would. I did aids advocacy. I made art that toured. I had an aids awareness play that took five years with hspva you're no stranger to the no stranger to the topic?
Sharon:no, but this still blew you away it blew me away and I'll tell you why. Okay, if you are working in the field, or if you are a white person who did a lot of advocacy AIDS advocacy at the time, as you did, you would say and it would be valid, we didn't intentionally exclude. That would be valid. But the conversation stops at intentionality Because people of color get angry at that statement, as they should, because the real question is why? Okay, you weren't intentionally exclusive. I believe that. Sure, the real question is why weren't you intentionally inclusive?
Robin:that's the real question.
Sharon:It still is yeah, if you're intentionally inclusive and I want to know why you're shaking your head if you're intentionally inclusive, and I want to know why you're shaking your head if you're intentionally inclusive, then spaces feel safer. Uh-huh, because there's going to be people of color on the staff and people, and it's going to be in the vibe and it's going to be in the decor and it's it's going to feel safer.
Robin:Yeah, okay, so hopefully, maybe, hopefully, maybe yeah yeah, there are no simple answers we're still grappling with that.
Sharon:And having the conversation is critical, but I'll tell you this, no matter what, forget about. Sure, what I know is that community saves lives. Diversity saves lives because the statistics tell the story. Okay, all right, if people are still coming into full blown AIDSown AIDS in 2005 in the black community, but they're not coming into full-blown AIDS anymore in the white community since 1997, why Right?
Sharon:That's it Right, the numbers tell the story, sure, and so, uh, that's where I'm doing a lot of work and I'm very privileged to be, uh, uh, in these, in these, in these communities, with these people and, um, and I don't have any easy answers, I just know.
Robin:Oh. I don't think half of the answers are easy and none of them are perfect. Yet Right, but is that some of the tones that your documentary is touching on?
Sharon:Yes, the, the documentary that we're working on right now is sponsored by Emory University. Compass Gilead Initiative Did a lot of work in the South and we went to five states documenting the work that they did in these, in these various communities.
Robin:We went to Eagle.
Sharon:Pass. We went to Georgia, we went to Florida. We talked about harm reduction, hiv infection, but also safe, just safety. In Eagle Pass, the, the queer community down there is trying to build a safe place. It's just really dangerous to be queer down there, no matter what color you are. And so that all got put in place before the Trump administration. The second Trump administration came in, okay, and now the funding is being ripped away from all of these places, right. So I'm in the middle of this documentary talking about advocacy, saving lives, community diversity, and the American government is actively saying these communities need to disappear. Right is now like an overarching perspective. It's like, okay, these communities are important, important enough for Combus Gilead to fund them, and do all this capacity building.
Alexis:Am I wrong? Because in my mind, if you're talking to documentary and I'm not talking about a story that you're making or anything if you're talking to documentary and some of the situation changes when you're sort of halfway through filming or doing your thing, you have to include it.
Sharon:You have to include it, you have to include it.
Alexis:I mean, there's no way around, it is there?
Sharon:no way around it okay and and what it may not be pleasant, by the way, right no, and it may confuse you, whereas you had it all sort of worked out, you knew what you were going to do back to the movie.
Robin:I'll show you what needs to happen, right, yeah, yeah yeah, I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do do what I.
Alexis:What I'm going to say is that happens to be society today. Yes, we were doing very well, everything was going really well, and then, bam, trump came in.
Robin:Right, because, just for reference, we're recording this in May of 2025.
Sharon:Right, and he's been in office four months or five months Over 100 days days and, uh, the very first week of his, of his uh administration, the normal anomalies funding was cut in half the first week and that impacted the work that I was doing with sure, so I saw right away oh the the, what does it mean? That's my question that now has to lay over this documentary what does it mean?
Sharon:what are? What are you saying? Are you saying that black and brown people should not exist, that they really should be disappeared? Because they are disappearing them photographically?
Robin:You're the perfect person to hold this question in this time, because of your integrity, in which you do do storytelling, but also because of the walk that you have walked and you've grappled with really looking at look, you've lost a lot of your own community to aids yeah you've done tons of community speaking on the history of that before archives were accessible, right, so you were a living archive, going and meeting people where they want to hear about the AIDS history, if you will, your personal history, people's history around you in Houston and maybe a little bit at large, and you're humbling yourself enough to say wow, even though I left it all on the mat, even though I gave everything on top of living my own life, I still am willing to look at where my efforts could have been better, more.
Robin:You know all the things and you know you're tearing up because you're moved, but a lot of people can't go there up because you're moved Like but but, but a lot of people can't go there and and and and when you've had deep loss most people in my experience I'm 42 now if they've lived through losing people through AIDS, they just get quiet because of grief.
Sharon:They get quiet. You know they have to go on.
Robin:So to even fathom, oh, you could have done more, or oh, what can you do now in hindsight, like it, it takes some. It takes some humbling, you know, but it also takes a lot of tender conversations, because inside of someone humbling themselves in the efforts that they've done, there is an upset community that never got served.
Sharon:The problem is, I just respect people who are out there trying to raise money. Sure, they're out there holding events. Sure, they're out there holding events. Sure, they're out there testing.
Robin:Trying.
Sharon:They're out there making movies. I just respect action. Yes, you know, action is not always easy. Having an opinion is not easy, disagreeing is not easy, even agreeing is not easy, you know. But what is easy is sitting at home talking and complaining, if you're, if you're not sitting at home if you're out there if you're doing stuff.
Robin:you got my thumbs up, that's yeah, and that's a beautiful thing to say, because people who are coming into something that is already established or creating their own things in an existing community even though some of them come in shaking fists and I'll do what I want, you know, they still want to do well and they still need support and help, and one of the things that I appreciate about both of you is is you've always been willing to extend some wisdom, you know, some skillset, some hey, stay in there, take care of yourself along the way, type of vibe, and you know, and uh, one of the things that Alexis has always reminded me of is if, if something is going wrong in community, I'll call her and say how do I process this?
Robin:You know, like, and she's like okay, well, like, there's the moment now, there's the moment that led into it, and then there's the picture. Yeah, where are we holding the bigger picture for one another? You know, and sometimes that's really hard to hold by yourself it's very I agree, yeah you know it, I just sort of uh keyed something with me.
Alexis:It's sort of like with the trump situation, if you will, because I see it as that. Uh, my big thing was I was afraid the courts weren't going to get involved. Okay, they're getting involved, and guess what? It's getting better.
Sharon:Yeah, no, I agree. And you know the fact that— I'm really grateful for the courts and how they're responding, but at any rate that's a small part of my community art making yeah.
Alexis:So who do you consider your community?
Robin:yes, my community and your label accessorizing yeah, yeah, which labels do you enjoy putting on?
Sharon:okay, let's talk about the definition of communities. This movie I made the tiny war of vera may noah okay is about a woman who lives in a small town and she's always gone to church and all of her friends go to church. She's heterosexual but she's widowed, so you know that doesn't really come up. But these strangers, or a strange, mysterious beautiful woman, comes into town and also a young man who's always lived there. He's the gay psychic. Well, the church leader wants to get rid of both of them.
Sharon:This beautiful woman. They can't label, they don't know her deal?
Robin:Not really sure, she's just mysterious and a little strange yeah.
Sharon:And the gay psychic. They want to get rid of him. Yes, and nobody really knows why, but Vera Mae is like hold up.
Sharon:Are we a community or not? Yes, and it really got me thinking about church. People of me thinking about church, uh-huh, people of faith, because while I don't go to church, lots of people do. Good people, yes, people who I'm related to, sure, and they might may have at one time voted differently than I did sure, and this was filmed in houston, yeah, so you're very well aware of the culture that you're filming.
Sharon:I'm very and I'm thinking about why do people go to church? Yeah, they go to church for community more, in my opinion is my opinion sure underscore sharon's opinion sure? Sure they go to church for community more than for religion. It's a place to go. They have friends there, they have stuff that they do, social events, place to go if there's a hurricane and a blackout, all that stuff. Right, yeah, my community is largely the sober community because that's where I go, that's where my friends hang out, that's where I do stuff, that's my social stuff I have if I'm hurting, that's those where I go to find people who are going to hold me and not judge me. So, the sober community more than the gay community is my real community.
Sharon:Wow and and and so in a larger I mean, I'm, I'm 64 now. I'm not going to the bars anymore. You know I'm not. I may or may not go to the parade Depends on you know whether I'm a boy or not.
Robin:So.
Sharon:I wouldn't say the gay community at large is my community in a very tactile sense, but the sober community definitely is, and some people Sober gay community. The sober gay community. The sober gay community. I almost exclusively go to Lambda Center and I'm not allergic to other meetings with straight people.
Robin:It's not my. Thing. I'm really lucky I don't have to.
Sharon:If I lived in a different city, I would have to.
Robin:That's true, and a lot of people are kind of on the fence as to whether they share about their sobriety or not. How do you feel about that?
Sharon:Oh, I'm very. You can ask me anything. I'm super out about being sober. I've been sober since 1987. Uh, and yeah, I, I'm not anonymous.
Robin:And with your work within the gay sober community. How does that fuel your life? Cause a lot of people never get to see the benefits. They see a lot of wreckage from addicts, Right. What are some of the benefits of a sober person? I mean in your walk that you've experienced, that you can share with somebody who may be curious about that or hoping for something for that for themselves or just, you know, hoping for that for someone that they love. Like what have you experienced?
Sharon:You know again long subject. We could talk about sobriety alone. Um, we could always have you back Love to when I was newly sober to answer your question. What are the? Benefits You're surrounded by other people who are not drinking and drugging, because sobriety is a radical way of living it is you just don't find that many people who don't drink right, you don't.
Robin:You might find more people who don't drug, but you just don't find very many people who don't drink I saw a meme that says wait. So some of you just out here living life raw, like what's going on no numbness, no whoopee gush, none of that. On the edge all the time really not a glass of wine, of wine. How is that even possible?
Sharon:Not even a little bit of cough syrup nothing right. So that's the immediate benefit You're surrounded by people who are also not doing the thing you're trying to avoid, and it just really helps to have other people who are not doing the thing it really does, then very quickly you start hearing things that you don't hear outside of the rooms of recovery. You start hearing things about living in integrity, paying your debts, keeping your commitments, making amends, all of these things that people are just not running around talking about.
Robin:They're not talking about that most of the time, but in recovery, that's all we talk about. You may only hear about that from like. What they would say in the rooms is outside help like therapists or educational memes or WebMD, but these are actually real people who have done the work and they're actually talking about their successes.
Sharon:They're talking about it. See out in the real world. Your life doesn't depend on learning to keep your commitments, making amends, living in integrity Once you're trying to live in recovery. Your very life depends on developing some principles, being a better person. If you don't do that, you're probably going to go back.
Robin:You're probably going to go back to using Okay.
Sharon:So just sitting in those stupid meetings really there's a huge benefit because you're getting information in your head that you need to survive and that makes your life better. After that comes the fun, and it comes soon and it comes quick. It's fun to be sober. It's fun to hang out with people literally the craziest people you ever meet but when you sober them up, and they're not out there doing all kinds of things they shouldn't be doing they're a blast, and they're not wrecking their cars.
Robin:They're they're baking you cakes and they're having plays and drag shows and running music and everything that you could possibly.
Sharon:Imagine.
Robin:I really appreciate you sharing that. So how many years do you have? Sober 38.
Sharon:Just turned 38 in March.
Robin:And I also am sober, and you know I got sober in 03. And I have seen this to be true myself. I go to meetings in person at Lambda Center, the gay AA meetings in person at Lambda Center, the GAA, and I also go online because I love how, during the pandemic, the global access to meetings has been a whole new development in technology. You could literally zoom into a meeting in Ireland or a meeting in Scotland and San.
Robin:Francisco and and uh, just see a broader community, and so that's been very helpful for me and you know, I know that it's not the walk for everyone, but I do know that time and time again including myself, if you've been in some like incredibly low, uh moments and spaces that that's a community that understands it's practically free. It is practically free.
Sharon:You know they pass a basket.
Robin:You don't even have to put a dollar in.
Sharon:I mean, the world cannot comprehend this whole phenomenon of I call it recovery, but I'll out myself. Alcoholics Anonymous, sure, sure, yeah, the way it exists at all, because there's no dues or fees. You don't have to apply, you don't have to spend money, you don't, you, don't, you? You don't even have to be sober, you just have to want to be sober. You can be drunk and go to an AA meeting.
Robin:Yeah, not only that, but there's no leadership, right, right. How does it survive? How does it exist? It's been around for how long?
Sharon:I think we're into the 80th year or something like that.
Robin:Now they're really a group of people who are imperfect. I mean, they are a bunch of addicts, so calm down about your expectations. But they included people who wanted to get better, who wanted to not be intuitionalized I'm not going to say it right Institutionalized. Institutionalized and in the gutters with their alcoholism Cause there there were no effective treatments when they first started finding people in the gutters and and then it's grown into narcotics, anonymous and almost anything. Anonymous if you want. Now, but during the George Floyd marches she's a black Muslim and she said to me she's taken so many people to AA and sat with them and been a buddy. She doesn't have addiction, but she was just going as a pal and she says you know what, robin? I just can't stop thinking about how the walls of AA have somehow figured out this. We business, you know like how, did how?
Alexis:did.
Robin:They do it, they don't they don't exclude people, like you know, and and uh, they're not perfect Like addicts have a lot of wreckage. So I, I, you know. I just keep wanting to say that, for the people who have been wounded by them, but actual people who are being sober and doing the work, like if you go to meetings, most often they're inclusive and I think you know the you hit on something very important about community, because in a two things the overriding principle is surviving okay not dying. We're still.
Sharon:We're still animals trying to not die right and in a we figured out that the only way that's possible, going back to something you talked about is through protecting the group over the individual. If the group survives, all the individuals will survive. If the group doesn't survive, then the individuals won't survive. So our, our governance is very simple. It has to do with don't talk about a bunch of divisive stuff that makes the group split up so pretty good.
Robin:Yes, not talking about politics or religion, those two things they have. They have a common seeing in the, in the rooms of recovery that says look for the things that we have in common and not the things that are different. So look for, look for the same things, not the differences, similarities and not the things that are different.
Sharon:So look for the same things, not the differences, the similarities, not the differences.
Robin:Yeah, keep what you can and let the rest go. And I think if most public meetings or community meetings or nonprofit meetings did that, it would shift Exactly.
Sharon:It would shift the agenda towards solution, if you compare yourself in all these jargony terms, but it really works. If you don't talk about a bunch of stuff that's going to make people want to leave, then then you know and sometimes you have to, and it does come up, oh, not perfect, but but because life or death hangs over AA, it doesn't hang over Right, Like your neighbor, the common person.
Robin:You know, that's the difference, right we?
Sharon:adhere to these things, because if we don't, we won't survive.
Robin:Right, right. Well, thank you for coming in. Do you want to say anything, alexis? We kind of went off into a segue in that. Not really, no, okay.
Alexis:No, I mean, one of the big things I guess I look at is it's interesting. I tend to observe things and see patterns, and one of the things I find humorous is, with the whole Trump experience and that's the way I tend to put it because it's an experience a lot of people are coming to their senses. For instance, you know the school boards that ban books. Guess what? They no longer have the majority to ban the books and they're bringing them back in Interesting.
Sharon:And you know Katie ISD for instance, I was like where is this happening?
Alexis:It's Katie and I was like what?
Sharon:They did just have an election out there.
Alexis:Yeah, and the conservative person didn't win.
Sharon:Did not win, that's right.
Alexis:And it took it 4-3. So the vote now 4-3. The other direction. That's so great. And I'm sort of like you know. Maybe people are saying, wait a minute, this is a life or death thing for my kids, I wonder. And the intellect and all that I mean. Banning books is one of the most ridiculous things in the world.
Sharon:And not only that, but in Nebraska, yesterday, the mayoral race in Omaha, where they flipped this whole trans thing on its head, and I saw this meme where the old mayor had her head under a bathroom stall and the new mayor, the guy running for it is like she's looking at potties. I'm looking at potholes. Yes, it won the race. Wow, wow, wow won the race wow because there it, it just is the most effective message of all.
Robin:It's like let's stop shaming one another, stop torturing people yes, and and getting high on anger is such a cheap high, you know, and it's effective, but it's cheap. And I think I tell people all the time when they say, well, you know what, if what, if we didn't want to hear about all this gay stuff, trans stuff anymore, and I'm like great, I love that. Why don't you focus on the roads that we all drive? Why don't you focus on actually getting things done that support all of us, like? I think actually we would. We would love that, because we never wanted to be the attention you know.
Alexis:You know, we, we sort of watch via a back doorway the things that concern the trans community in Houston. Okay, and you know, normally it is a guy, it takes me forever to get hormones or I can't get my surgery done or this sort of stuff. I say normally this is historically and usually there are people that aren't ready to get a hormone. My personal opinion and this is Alexis, in case you wonder whose opinion- it is.
Alexis:And about two years ago, when things started to improve, what we were seeing, their main concerns in Houston were crime. Well, this is everybody's main concern in Houston, I think.
Robin:Every neighborhood, the roads.
Alexis:Yeah, it was just like everyone else and I'm like you know it's not perfect, trust me, but that's sort of what equality is. It's not a perfect thing.
Robin:No.
Alexis:And you know, if you're going for perfection, you'll never be happy. And you know, when we looked at that, there were a lot of things that we had done to try to make that better and a lot of things that you know. We took the approach a few years ago of saying we need everybody's help, we'd like everybody's help, but if you aren't going to help, we're going to go ahead and do this stuff for our community and that really pissed some people off and you know it's like happy to have you come along or happy to help you or whatever, but we can't just sit here and say, oh, while y'all are arguing with us and everybody else, you know we should just sit here and not do anything because we're the ones getting beat up.
Sharon:Precisely.
Robin:Yeah, While you keep leaving us behind to get hit by the bus of political expedience, while you open your centers and never actually include the whole community. I mean, the list is large, Right, and so we don't want to step over that, but I do want to say that you know, racism is not going to be handled in a one shot deal. You know, infrastructure we had a mayor that ran on potholes and somebody said I just don't know if I can vote for another type of mayor Like. You know why does my vote matter? I'm like because there's still potholes.
Robin:Like calm down, like you know, like there's some things that we still have to get done, and one of the easiest ways to share your voice is to vote, and you know, to click, play, to take care of yourself, to check in with the people around you, and art has inspired me to be able to look and rethink things and to heal, and I know that you've had a huge part in that, both of you, in facilitating different forms of art to meet people in different places in their life, and we'll continue to talk about activism, we'll continue to talk about art, we'll continue to take care of ourselves along the way wanted to start the conversation from from this viewpoint, in this moment, in May of 2025, because these dumpster fires have been burning.
Robin:You know they're going to keep going. So if we don't come to the table to actually check in, share and say where we're at, I think we're doing a disservice to everyone who wants to come around us and behind us, and we'll continue to do the work. So thank you for being here yeah, thank you for having me.
Alexis:Yeah, I really appreciate it is there anything you would like us to push in our podcast? We'll stick an ad in or stuff like that. I mean, we'd be happy to push the movie that we can't see, but that wouldn't be good. The show.
Robin:I mean, I'm a fully self-employed freelance videographer, filmmaker, still photographer and you can send people to the and I think people that are interested in some of the things you talked about could find out where, where it's at, how you're going to distribute it, how you end the documentary or start another documentary with normal anomaly and, uh, how they, how they can get into the conversation probably just through your website. Yeah, for sure. Can you say that one more time the sharon show?
Sharon:the sharon show. The sharon show, I love it. J-r-o-n the showcom I love it.
Robin:I love it. Well, thank you everyone, take care thank you thank you, hope you had a good time I did.
