Buy Hannah Free on DVD

Hannah Free

Wolfe Releasing / Year: 2009

DVD

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5-10 days

$12.99 (13% off)
List Price: $14.99

When new special editions or price reductions are announced.

Synopsis

Adapted from Claudia Allen’s award-winning play, Hannah Free is the story of a passionate but thwarted lifelong love affair between two women who have shared a lifetime of friendship and love.

Review

Hannah, a fiercely independent septuagenarian butch lesbian and Rachel, a married homemaker who has never left Michigan, are both bed-bound in the same nursing home after decades “together”. So near, yet so, so far. Rachel’s daughter Marge doesn’t want Hannah upsetting her mother and has banned Hannah from the same room as her precious “moon-flower.” Greta, a young pretty student who mysteriously shows up at the nursing home, has a plan to circumvent Marge. Utilizing gorgeously constructed flashbacks to visually build the story of the past and the present, Director Wendy Jo Carlton lovingly details Hannah and Rachel’s passionate beginnings and the subsequent decisions both women made in an era when marriage was oftentimes the only choice and presents storylines about old age, loneliness, and same-sex visitation rights that are so rare. Iconic award-winning actor Sharon Gless (Cagney & Lacey, Queer As Folk), in real life an outspoken advocate of LGBT equality, plays Hannah with fervor and strength.

-- Carol Coombes

Product Format Information

DVD : $12.99

Availability: Usually ships in
5-10 days
Close Caption: Yes
Region Code: 1
UPC: 754703763402
Catalog #: DV3050902

Studio : Wolfe Releasing

Languages: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (Primary)
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen
Features:
Photo gallery: Slideshow
Behind-the-scenes footage
Bloopers
Interview(s): Interviews with Sharon Gless, Claudia Allen and the cast and crew

Customer Reviews

Two Women in Love

Amos Lassen wrote on 03/22/2010:

“Hannah Free”

Two Women in Love

Amos Lassen

Sharon Gless is Hannah Free who is at an old age home and just a few feet away from her girlfriend for life, Rachel (Maureen Gallagher) who is comatose and under the guard of a homophobic daughter who will not let Hannah visit. Hannah seems to have the ability to speak to Rachel in her fantasy world but is only able to see her physically when her former college student, Greta (Jacqui Jackson), comes to visit. Greta is interested in Hannah’s life story and she interviews her for a project she is working on and also sneaks her into see Rachel.
The film jumps between hospital scenes and flashbacks of the life of Hannah and Rachel. This is quite the tear-jerker of a film. We learn that Rachel was a widow and her relationship with Hannah included a lot of berating her for wanting to travel and see the world. The film looks at the treatment of the elderly, Christian proselytizing, the difference in generations, and the relations of family members to other gay family members and the issue of life support.
Basically what makes the film important is the way it looks at gay love stories especially at the time before death. Here is lesbian love in a universe of homophobes and we know that what we see on film is what is really happening in the world today. It is a soap opera of a film that indeed documents gay love and shows us the hardships it has to deal with.