rosetroche
Rose Troche is an award winning writer, director, producer of both film and television.
Born in Chicago and raised in a large Puerto Rican family, her first feature, Go Fish (1994) was released to wide acclaim and has become a seminal film in the history of queer cinema. Bedrooms and Hallways (1998) followed, receiving the audience award at the prestigious London Film Festival. 2003 saw the release of Troche’s third feature, The Safety of Objects, which received stellar reviews and went on to open the San Sebastian International Film Festival, and win best feature and best actress (Patricia Clarkson) at the Deuville Film Festival.
All three films exhibit Troche's stylish touch and her
penchant for depicting the quixotic vicissitudes of looking for love in the modern world, whether the setting is the lesbian community of Chicago's Wicker Park, or a gathering of straight (and not-so-straight) male Londoners trying to get in touch with the "wild man" within, or the confused suburban heterosexuals in the fiction of A.M. Homes.
While the trajectory of Troche's career has taken her steadily forward, it's also taken her full circle, back to the lesbian subject matter that marked her breakthrough. In 2004 Troche completed the pilot for Showtime’s The L Wordand went on to direct, write and produce for the show’s six seasons.
Troche also directed the pilot for the popular teen series, South of Nowhere and has gone on to direct several episodes.
Troche has also been making waves at HBO with her directing work for "Six Feet Under" and "Women on Women: Tales of Seduction." Most recently Troche completed an episode of the award winning series, Ugly Betty. Troche is working on her fourth feature, Potential, based on Ariel Schrag’s graphic novel, and has completed an original script for production in 2010 entitled, Maddy Tadeau Is In Love.
" Who could blame the women of "Go Fish" for complaining about those "touchy-feely, soft-focus, sisters-of-the-woodlands" movies that account for so many lesbian images on screen? Rose Troche, the director, wrote the film with Guinevere Turner, and obviously intended it to be a funnier and more realistic alternative.
Working in black and white on a near-nonexistent budget, they still display a solid comic sensibility that shines through. "Go Fish" has its arty, annoying excesses, but it also looks at love between women with a wit that's long overdue.
" But the creators of The L Word will never allow it to implode in the way that Ellen did in 1998, when Ellen Degeneres's funny sitcom became humourless after its star used the show as a vehicle for her coming out. In that case, out lesbian equalled unfunny and politically correct, and even its lesbian fans left in droves.
The shadow of Ellen hangs over The L Word. 'Ellen put us back by 10 years in network TV,' says Troche. 'What Ellen Degeneres gained was grabbed back by executives just looking for an excuse to be less inclusive and adventurous in their programming. It was Queer as Folk and not Ellen that paved the way for us.
You don't have to believe that the upscale London bohemians who frolic through Rose Troche's comedy ''Bedrooms and Hallways'' actually exist to marvel at their easygoing sexual fluidity.
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The film, which aspires toward the playful sophistication of a Noel Coward romp (but without the sharp class distinctions and with a lot more sex), imagines a brave new world in which the distinctions between gay and straight have begun to dissolve. In this semi-utopian urban environment, whose characters live in improbably spacious, well-decorated apartments, those who are so inclined can experiment sexually without feeling the need to declare a final, fixed orientation.
