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Helen and the Bear

Directed by Alix Blair2024USA81 mins

The phrase “opposites attract” has rarely rung so true as in Helen and the Bear, a cinéma vérité portrait of a vibrant woman and her most unusual marriage. Helen grew up feeling like a boy and as a young woman realized she was queer but went on to wed a man. And a rather unexpected man at that… Pete was an antiwar, pro-environment Republican congressman in San Mateo, 26 years Helen’s senior. Despite starting a long-term relationship with another woman, Helen remained wed to the man she calls “Bear.”

This clear-eyed, affectionate documentary finds the couple at a critical junction in their 40-year union — captured with striking honesty and intimacy by the director (and Helen’s niece) Alix Blair (Farmer/Veteran). With Pete’s health growing more precarious at age 96, Helen starts to look back at her own life as she contemplates what her world will look like without him. Produced by Rebekah Fergusson (The Case Against 8, Frameline38) and Kirsten Johnson (Cameraperson), Helen and the Bear interweaves home movies, family photos, and snippets of Helen’s journals as it observes both a nontraditional couple’s devotion to one another and the woman who followed her own surprising path.

Short films showing in this film:

Threshold

17 mins

It's been thirty years since Joan & Susie stood before their closest friends to celebrate at a small wedding, decades before their union would become legally recognized. Now, in front of children and chosen family, they cross a different threshold.

Expected Guests

Alix Blair
Director
Helen McCloskey
Participant
Jenny Slattery
Producer
Katrina Taylor
Editor
Elizabeth Morton
Actor, Screenwriter (Threshold)
Katherine Brown
Producer (Threshold)
Quick links
Sponsor
Director
Alix Blair
Year
2024
Country
USA
Running Time
81 mins
Language
English
Premiere
US
Section
Documentary Features
Program Note Writer
Pam Grady
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