Intervention as Activism: Advocating Queer Female Representation through Independent Film Production Oct 16, 2019 | Volume 33 Natalie Krikowa University of Technology Sydney natalie.krikowa@uts.edu.au Abstract While LGBTQIA (queer) characters are appearing in arguably more mainstream Hollywood films, “they’re kept far away from the blockbusters that are relied upon for most of the industry’s income” (Lee 3). However, a small group of writers, producers and directors advocate vocally for more respectful representation of queer people and relationships and who wish to challenge the status quo of Hollywood screen media. From the perspective of production, however, it is much more difficult to get these stories told in Hollywood studio cinema and subsequently many storytellers and filmmakers utilise the independent film production space to produce and distribute their films. While there have been quite a few queer female relationship-themed films released in the independent film arena over the past few years, very few of these queer female feature films were written by, directed by or acted by queer women. This article analyses three films – My Days of Mercy (Tali Shalom- Ezer 2018), Below Her Mouth (April Mullen 2017) and The Carmilla Movie (Spencer Maybee 2017) – as examples of films that provide the representation of queer female relationships currently absent in mainstream cinema but that also reveal, in differing ways, how the lack of queer female involvement in the lead creative roles impacts the authenticity of the films’ representation of queer female love and sex. Keywords: queer, women, film, independent, representation, narrative Introduction This article argues that the films My Days of Mercy (Tali Shalom-Ezer 2018), Below Her Mouth (April Mullen 2017) and The Carmilla Movie (Spencer Maybee 2017) are limited in their ability to provide authentic narratives for the queer community and act as examples of how aspects of existing heteronormative narratives perpetuated in mainstream film, including damaging tropes and the heterosexual male gaze, are reinforced. Queer female audiences deserve more than the heteronormative and androcentric perspective of the queer female experience and, ideally, queer female audiences should be able to see films written and directed by queer women, and portrayed authentically by queer female actors. The article further contends that independent cinema should be the space where filmmakers can present alternative narratives/perspectives to those seen in the mainstream Hollywood studio market. Moreover, the article posits that when queer female independent filmmakers present representations of queer female relationships contrary to that seen in mainstream media, they are (consciously or unconsciously) engaging in emancipatory