G33K Out: Hansi Oppenheimer and the Squee Project

Episode 37: Hansi Oppenheimer and the Squee Project

I’ve written before about the term ‘fangirl’ and its current place in fandom. Of course, I’m not the only fan who’s taken to reclaiming the word and redefining myself as a fangirl. Hansi Oppenheimer is a filmmaker who has considered herself a fangrrl since at least the age of 6, but wanted to explore what it meant to be a woman in fandom. What was originally going to be a feature film turned into the ongoing YouTube documentary project, Squee! The Fangrrl Project. A couple of months ago, she announced that she was going to do a mini-convention, SqueeCon, in December.

I sat down with Hansi and talked about what it means to be a fangirl, her approach to creating the documentary, and where she wants to go from here.

Basic show notes:

• Running time is 40 minutes.
• The interview was recorded on November 5, 2018.
• General notes about the discussion/further reading:
  • I mention my “Why I Hesitate to call Myself a Fangirl” essay I wrote for my thesis.
  • The home page for Squee! Pop Culture & The Fangrrl Gaze, and the YouTube Channel for it.
  • If you’re interested in participating in SqueeCon, you can contact Hansi at squeefilm@gmail.com. If you are a filmmaker, you can submit a film at the SqueeCon page on Film Freeway, which is also where you can buy tickets. Use the code HH2018 for a price of $20 at the door & $10 after 6 for the meetup & karaoke.
    • Here’s the Facebook page for Squee The Fangirl Project, and the page for SqueeCon. Here’s the Twitter for SqueeCon.
  • Here’s Hansi’s page on FilmFreeway and her Twitter.
  • Here’s an article that Fangasm wrote on SqueeCon, and here’s an interview that Fansided did with Hansi.
• The mid-show plug is from author (and newest Patreon to the G33K Out podcast) Angelique Jurd.
• In this episode, “Angie Geeks Out” about Stan Lee. I mention his partnership with LiveJournal that was announced at the 2014 Comikaze, as well as my attending the red carpet of the Extraordinary: Stan Lee event in 2017.
• Theme music is “Schoolyard Haze”, by JariPitkanen, which used to be available via the Free Music Archive, but with that site closing down, I will link to his SoundCloud.
• This podcast is released under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike License.
• Interested in hearing other episodes of G33K Out? Check them out here.

And now, it’s time to geek out.