0.2. T'Aint Nobody's Bizness: An Interview with Robert Philipson
History is Gay
Leigh Pfeffer
4.6 • 536 Ratings
🗓️ 11 June 2018
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Leigh & Gretchen are bringing you a special bonus episode this week! Wow, three whole episodes in a month, Happy Pride! In this bonus, Leigh sits down with Robert Philipson, producer and director of the documentary T'Aint Nobody's Bizness: Queer Blues Divas of the 1920s, which we discussed in our episode Bulldaggers and Lady Lovers, about his process, the importance of telling queer stories and excavating lost history, his upcoming documentary project Mood Lavender which sheds light on more queers in the Harlem Renaissance, and maybe even a little sneaky surprise for you all.
Want to find more info on Robert and his work? Go to www.shogafilms.com or follow on twitter @ShogaFilms or like the Shoga Films facebook page!
Want to see Robert's short film Congo Cabaret at the San Francisco Black Film Festival this Sunday, June 17? Purchase tickets at www.sfbff.org.
Find our full list of sources and bonus content at www.historyisgaypodcast.com. Get at us on twitter @historyisgaypod, tumblr at historyisgaypodcast, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts! Don't forget to rate and review so more folks can see the show!
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, and welcome to History is Gay, a podcast that examines the underappreciated and overlooked |
| 0:06.6 | queer ladies, gents, and gentle enbies that have always been there in the unexplored |
| 0:11.2 | corners of history, because history has never been as straight as you think. |
| 0:42.7 | Music Hello, folks, it's Lee here, and I don't have Gretchen with me today because we're bringing you a special little bonus episode. |
| 0:56.0 | We are going to do an interview today with Robert Philipson, who you may recognize the name from our episode on Queer Blues Divas, Mal Rainy, Bessie Smith. |
| 1:01.5 | We're going to talk to the creator of the film, |
| 1:02.8 | Ain't Nobody's Business. |
| 1:09.1 | And as we're going to get into things, he's got some wonderful other works that he focuses on delving more into the queer Harlem Renaissance. |
| 1:14.6 | So, um, hello, Robert. |
| 1:16.8 | Nice to meet you. |
| 1:19.1 | Um, we've been, we've been having a delightful dinner and talking. |
| 1:23.5 | And then I stopped us before we got into all the juicy good stuff. |
| 1:27.1 | But, uh, Robert has invited me into his home to talk about these things. |
| 1:31.5 | Do you want to just introduce yourself, say a little bit about yourself, to this imaginary audience? |
| 1:40.6 | My name is Robert Philipson. I live in Oakland, California. |
| 2:01.6 | I have been an independent documentary filmmaker for the last 12 years, but that followed various other career paths, one of which was a professor of comparative literature, which actually introduced me to black subject matter, which is very much part of my ongoing work. |
| 2:04.9 | And being queer myself, when I started making films, I gravitated pretty naturally towards |
| 2:12.1 | LGBT subjects and particularly the intersection of, well, I guess I call it intersectionality now, of minority and queer identities. |
| 2:23.0 | Yeah. So how did you get into the process of filmmaking? You talked about how comparative literature kind of is what you were doing beforehand. You were teaching and studying comparative literature, but what actually |
| 2:35.5 | got you started in making films? |
| 2:38.0 | It was an accident. |
| 2:39.7 | I backed into filmmaking. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Leigh Pfeffer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Leigh Pfeffer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.