The year was 1984. A handful of entrepreneurial women innkeepers in Provincetown, Mass. gathered together with a mission: to figure out how they could entice summer guests back during the seaside town’s offseason. Without the luxury of social media, or even email, the women hand-wrote letters to all their past guests, inviting them to come enjoy the beautiful autumn scenery—with a clambake and some local entertainment thrown in. They called it “Women’s Weekend,” and over the next three decades, it spawned numerous other lesbian gatherings in Provincetown, expanding from modest grassroots beginning to eventually become one of the most popular lesbian events in the world.
CLAMBAKE, an exciting documentary from award-winning filmmaker Andrea Meyerson, charts the growth of Women’s Week in Provincetown, from its inception to becoming the thriving lesbian mecca it is today. The film takes viewers on a fascinating 30-year journey, through archival footage and archives, interviews with celebrities and founders, and current events and performances, offering a historical—and hysterical—look at what a handful of innovative women can accomplish.