Star Wars isn't just for the fan boys – it's for the fan girls too.
Setting out to highlight the different generations of women who're in love with the Star Wars franchise, filmmaker and Star Wars fan Annalise Ophelian is gearing up to work on an documentary unaffiliated with Lucasfilm titled Looking for Leia. The project which is currently on Kickstarter with close to $17500 of its $25,000 goal completed, looks to feature different interviews with all sorts of female fans and their passion for the franchise from a galaxy far, far away.
Speaking in an interview with CBR, Ophelian explains how she herself became a fan of Star Wars after seeing the film for the first time when she was four years old and then the reasons behind the documentary.
" The idea for the documentary came about in 2015 when I attended my first Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, which was the Celebration right before The Force Awakens came out. It was a great Celebration to be at, because it was not sort of incredibly busy. The panels were all pretty accessible. I went expecting to be one of very few women, and to be on guard around inappropriate behavior from men because this was my experience at conventions up until then, and was really struck by how wonderful Star Wars fans were. How well behaved, thoughtful, considerate, and also by how well represented women were there and how many great conversations I would have with women in line; and then I'd be talking with guys in line and they were never weird. At other conventions, I would often have this sense of people not so used to seeing women there, so they don't know how to react. I felt like there was just this incredible gender parity happening, even though it was still majority guys in attendance. That sparked a curiosity in me about who the other women in Star Wars fandom were because I always felt I must just be an anomaly. You get told messages about what's for boys and what's for girls. I always felt like I'm basically one of those weird women who's into Star Wars like that's very rare and going to Celebration 2015 made me realize no it's not.
Then I went to Celebration in 2016 in London, and there were even more women there because The Force Awakens had come out and we were in the run up to Rogue One and again [it] just made me think, "OK, these stories are so compelling, and I don't see them being told anywhere." I was kind of shocked, actually, that somebody hadn't made this project, and that was the thing that led me to want to do it.
Originally, I conceived of it as a sort of road trip in which I would go around and talk to female Star Wars fans, and I was convinced I would culminate with finding some way of getting Carrie Fisher to sit down and talk with me on camera. I was already starting to think, "How do I get Fisher's people to let her be a part of this? How much of the film will I have to show her to get her to come on board?" Then when she passed last December, I was just gutted. I don't know that I've ever grieved so much for a person that I didn't know, like so many people. I already had my tickets to Celebration Orlando and I said, "That's it. I can't make the film now," and my partner's like, "Absolutely you have to make the film." So it shifted with my imagination of what the narrative was going to be, but also been kind of wonderful, because I do feel like Carrie Fisher's been looming like a Force ghost over the whole project in this really beautiful way."
With strong, powerful and independent female figures in the Star Wars franchise like Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia, Natalie Portman's Queen and then later Senator Amidala, Rebellion informant Ahsoka Tahno, Force-sensitive orphan Rey and so many more, it comes as no surprise that the franchise has quite a number of female fans.
With Carrie's passing in December last year, Looking For Leia would be a great way to highlight the female followers of the franchise and a great tribute to one of Star Wars greatest legends.
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