Ballet Diesel Films is a production company that specializes in producing lesbian and queer films. The company was started by Michelle Ehlen in 2002 with the short film Ballet Diesel - a comedy about a butch lesbian who, according to her girlfriend, "looks like a diesel dyke but walks like a ballerina." Since then, we have continued to produce films, from comedy to drama to documentary.
Ballet Diesel is now available for download from TLA Video along with our short film Girl for Life. Another one of our shorts, Half-Laughing, is currently being sold on The Ultimate Lesbian Short Film Festival through Wolfe Video.
Our first feature, Butch Jamie, premiered at the 2007 Outfest Film Festival in Los Angeles. Writer/director Michelle Ehlen stars in the film as Jamie, and she won the Outfest Grand Jury Award for "Outstanding Actress." It also won "Best Female Feature" at the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and "Best Narrative Feature" at The Reeling Film Festival in Chicago. The story follows an out-of-work lesbian actor who gets cast as a man in a film. Femme, Butch, and Male Jamie all make appearances throughout this quirky, gender-bending comedy about struggling for success in Hollywood. The film is now screening at film festivals and a DVD release is expected for 2008. You can now purchase songs from our original soundtrack through our myspace store. Butch Jamie's sequel, Heterosexual Jill, is currently in development.
