Cuban-American lesbian filmmaker discusses latest project

Forty is not the new thirty.

No matter what the self-help books say, despite the Botox or just plain denial-when you turn forty, you are actually forty years old.

Enter stage left, midlife crisis, all of its attendant clich�s-a sports car, an affair, a trip to Greece.

If you're Cuban-American lesbian filmmaker Anna Margarita Albelo (Hooters!, A Lez in Wonderland), then your discontent becomes a semi-autobiographical screenplay with a vivid title: "Who's Afraid of Vagina Wolf?"

As stated on Albelo's web site (VaginaWolf.com), the story is about a forty-year-old lesbian who "sacrificed her love life for her film career, realizes she has neither and so decides to embark on filming an all-female parody of 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf [sic].' "

Elizabeth Taylor would approve.

Albelo offers her perspective on the film: "'Who's Afraid of Vagina Wolf?'...shar[es] one person's process in creating a better life... I used to say the film was about a woman who realizes she has nothing. Now, I realize it's about a woman who still wants it all!"

An award-winning filmmaker with honors from Tribeca Film Festival and Miami International Film Festival, Albelo's influences include Italian film director Federico Fellini and Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar. Politics are integral to her art.

"I try to be a fun entertaining feminist... everything I create is linked to my experience of being a woman, a lesbian, a Latina but also incorporates who I am as a funny, curious, emotional person," she said. Growing up Cuban-American in Miami was also influential for Albelo. "I'm lucky to have lived in a community that knew how to preserve its identity and still be... proud Americans."

"Who's Afraid of Vagina Wolf?" includes the notable talents of screenwriter Michael Urban (Saved!), Guinevere Turner (The L Word, Go Fish), Tammy Lynn Michaels (Popular), Whitney Mixter (The Real L Word), and stand-up comic Bridget McManus (LOGO).

Albelo starts filming this winter in Los Angeles. Yet the issue is funding. If a film isn't about an English boy with a wand, then it's often not financially feasible.

"The 'financial powers that be' [can't seem] to equate an audience for... [Latina] films...," she said.

Wands aside, Albelo has the power of the vagina.

Her focus is on resolution: "Filmmakers need to create... [Hispanic] films. Latinos/Hispanics need to...support the films. We all have to be involved if we want things to change."

Albelo recently took action for her film with an IndieGoGo fundraising campaign (IndieGoGo.com/WhosAfraidofVaginaWolf), reaching out to all who support women filmmakers.

Whether contributors gave $10 or $1000, they received a thank you gift-everything from stickers, film posters, a date with Guinevere Turner or tickets to private film screenings.

Albelo came close to her goal of $25,000 with $22,905.

The fundraising continues at the Vagina Wolf website.

Visit VaginaWolf.com or IndieGoGo.com/WhosAfraidofVaginaWolf for more information.