EXCLUSIVE: Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner have signed on to executive produce Acting Like Women, Cheri Gaulke’s documentary about the emergence of female performance art in the late 1970s.
The film, which held its world premiere last week at the Bentonville Film Festival in Arkansas and just screened at Frameline in San Francisco, will hold a special free screening Sunday, July 26 at The Getty Center at The Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The screening will be preceded by a special viewing of archival objects from the Woman’s Building, which became a hub of the female-created performance art scene in Los Angeles in the 1970s and ‘80s. (Director Cheri Gaulke will participate in a conversation with Getty Research Institute chief curator Glenn Phillips as part of that event).
Artist Cheri Gaulke as a teenager in the St. Louis Art Museum, circa 1970.
Courtesy of IAMBE LLC/Animation by C. Lily Ericsson
“Acting Like Women is a personal story documentary about how women changed lives through performance art in the 1970s,” Tomlin and Wagner said in a statement. “It shows the struggle and the camaraderie of a large group of feminist artists who came together at a time when America was moving forward for women, LGBT and African Americans’ rights. We are excited that this film will finally be released to the public after almost 50 years. It’s a must see!”
We have your first look at the film in the trailer above.
Courtesy of IAMBE LLC
“What a gift to have Jane and Lily’s support,” said Gaulke, who not only directs the film but was a key figure in the female performance art movement. “Lily is one of the most brilliant and beloved comedians of our time, and Jane is the brilliant and celebrated writer of much of her work. Lily has been supportive of the Woman’s Building since its founding in 1973. She made time to appear at fundraisers even as she was developing her remarkable career on stage and in film and television. She is a role model for so many artists trying to break the mold by demonstrating how social critique can also be very funny.
“In real life,” Gaulke continued, “Lily and Jane are iconic as a couple, showing the world what true love and longevity looks like. I am thrilled to welcome them as part of this film about women artists in the 1970s and ’80s who, in changing their lives, changed the culture we live in.”
Demonstrators in support of the “Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment” exhibit at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, April 1990.
Courtesy of John Stamstad
The documentary explores the rise of the movement and the backlash against it and other art deemed transgressive (like Robert Mapplethorpe’s work) led by Sen. Jesse Helms, the conservative Republican from North Carolina. In the trailer, Gaulke notes, “It feels a little like exactly what’s happening right now.”
(L-R) Writer-director-producer Cheri Gaulke and writer-producer Anne Gauldin of ‘Acting Like Women’ attend the 12th Annual Bentonville Film Festival on June 17, 2026 in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Jason Davis/Getty Images for Bentonville Film Festival
Gaulke’s work has been presented at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA, in a Smithsonian-touring exhibition, and “in settings all over the world including buses, churches, and prehistoric temples. Known for her solo performance art, she also co-founded the collaborative performance groups Feminist Art Workers and Sisters Of Survival who were featured in a Getty-sponsored exhibition in 2011.”
Acting Like Women is presented by IAMBE FILMS and executive producers Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner. The film is directed by Cheri Gaulke and written by Cheri Gaulke and Anne Gauldin. The director of photography is Kristy Tully; Susan Metzger edited the film. It features an original score by Miriam Cutler. Producers are Cheri Gaulke, Cheryl Bookout, Anne Gauldin, Meg Linton, and Liz Yale Marsh. Zackary Drucker served as consulting producer.
Watch the trailer for Acting Like Women above.
