the GAFFER

by Celeste Gainey

Light is the preoccupation, vocation, and language of the GAFFER , the debut collection of poems by Celeste Gainey, the first woman gaffer to be admitted to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), the preeminent craft union in the motion picture industry. These poems vividly depict the gaffer’s terrain from the set of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver , to Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon and The Wiz , to a lighting session with Lucille Ball. In these poems is the quest for identity and synchronicity within the imagined and experimental realm of light and cinema, and the immutable physical world where notions of gender, sex, desire, and ambition are prescribed a priori. the GAFFER deconstructs the idea of outsider as pioneer—then runs with it.

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Paperback

First published March 10, 2015

Reviews

[Bogi Takács]

I had a shared reading with the author, who was passing through town (quite a while ago), and I enjoyed being in the audience when it wasn't my turn to read :), so I bought the book on the spot.

These are poems about being a gaffer - a person in charge of the lighting for a movie production -, living and working in Los Angeles, while being queer and gender-nonconforming.

I thought this was a really cool book; there was so much life in it, in multiple senses of the term. I also liked that it didn't shy away from using technical terminology. (There is a glossary of lighting terms in the back.)

"Some kind of myth. With pliers."

There is history in this, and classic movies, furious queer sex, polyester shirts and trying not to get electrocuted. It's not perfect (I could've done without the occasional line exoticizing other peoples), but it's really solid, intriguing both in theme and language. It entered my personal queer poetry canon.

(The Sealey Challenge 2021 #5)
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Source of the book: Bought with my own money

[Rita Reese · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank O'Hara as a lesbian working in Hollywood. How can you resist?

[Siel Ju · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The house fills with my ringing. / You rise to answer.”
*
Celeste's poems are about light and filmmaking and love and self-discovery — and Los Angeles, where Celeste lived for a while —

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the hell out of these poems, which hit just the right balance of mystery and clarity. Plus I now know so much more about lighting and what exactly a gaffer is!

[Timons Esaias]

One of the legitimate complaints about modern poetry is that much of it seems stuck in the early 20th or late 19th century. It's as if the world in which we actually live (computers, TVs, talking cars, airplanes) has been outlawed as a setting for poems.

That complaint cannot be made for Gainey's THE GAFFER, which mostly utilizes her career as a gay woman working in the film industry, handling the lights. Light and the world of make-believe? What could be more metaphor-rich than that? And being an outsider in that industry, in that job?? Yeah, I can see we need to impose a ten-point penalty on her, because this is just too easy. But, refreshingly, this is rich with tools, equipment, and popular culture.

I particularly admired "once upon a time on all hallow's eve in gotham city" with its unexpected spud; the list poem "i always wanted a bird:"; the paean to artistic integrity that is "in the lobby of the five star hotel"; and the well-chosen end poem, "between takes."

[Gerry LaFemina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a terrific debut collection by Celeste Gainey, who writes with a combination of nostalgia, knowledge, grit, smarts, and prosody. She avoids so many first book cliches, and uses her early work as a gaffer as metaphor throughout the book: we're wired into these poems. They light up.

[willowdog · Rating 5 out of 5]

With images from movies, California is seen through the eyes of the lesbian gaffer.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really fantastic and original collection. Funny, vivid, sexy, emotional: it has a very authentic feel; the poet is living life and just happens to also be putting it down on paper well.