Siobhan Fahey
Creative producer Siobhan Fahey is what you’d call an accidental archivist. As a self-described “radical punk dyke” who lived in London during the 1980s, “I realized that our rich culture wasn’t being recorded or collected,” she tells GO. “If nobody collected it, this history would be lost.” So Fahey gathered together the bits and pieces of ephemera and images from the rebel dyke scene, an archive that would eventually grow into the Rebel Dykes History Project, now housed at London’s Bishopsgate Institute. From that project, she co-created Rebel Dykes with film directors Harri Shanahan and Siân A. Williams, a critically-acclaimed documentary that showcases the 1980s dyke culture of London’s underground scene. It has screened at over 100 film festivals world-wide, won the Iris Prize for Best Film, and enjoyed a sold-out run in cinemas across the U.K. Fahey not only wants to preserve the rebel dyke culture and inspire others to do the same; she also hopes to bridge the gap between generations within the LGBTQ+ community. “It’s so important for young dykes and older dykes and queers to know each other, to understand each other, to help each other survive,” she says. A former healthcare worker who began her career in film production later in life—she opened her own studio, Riot Productions, after turning 50—Fahey wants to continue telling “hidden stories, dirty tales of the underside of life, of subcultures.” Through her archival work, she has the perfect vehicle. “I am really interested in the potential of archives,” she says, “making it accessible, and using it to reach across generations.” –AB
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