Earlier this semester, I was presented with the opportunity to work on Abby Sommers’ senior thesis film project, “The Locked Groove.” After seeing her outstanding film, “The King of Clarke County Middle School,” at the 2024 Film and Media Studies Program film screening, I knew I did not want to miss out on this. Now, nearly three months since the shoot, I decided to sit down and talk to them about the process.
“The Locked Groove” tells the somber tale of Putter (Courtney St. Gelais) and Joanne (Gwynnethe Stacia Glickman), who fight desperately to keep both their record store and their relationship from sinking. Music plays a prominent role in this queer love story and allows it to meld fantasy and reality.
Big picture first: What idea came first in the vision for this film?
“When I submitted my proposal last year, it was about a bookstore, and it wasn’t a romance. I knew I wanted to write something gay, and I wanted to write something that was kind of like an homage to queer activism in the ’70s,” Sommers said.“ So I was looking into spaces that existed, and there was this bookstore in New York City in the ’70s. It was sort of this lesbian bookstore that was a hub of activism. … So the idea of the books opening up and there being this world inside of them was there from the beginning.”
But after consulting with their advisor, Sommers remembered that she doesn’t actually read that much. So they opted for music instead.
My biggest curiosity, however, stemmed from her film’s title. A locked groove is a feature on some vinyls that is placed at the end to stop the needle from going into the label area and instead loops infinitely.
“The first real breakthrough I had in the plot was this sound — the locked groove sound — and that was because … I have a record player in my room, and usually, when it gets to the locked groove, it just automatically lifts up and turns off. But my girlfriend got me this custom record that was a little weird … and the record player couldn’t read it … so it stayed. One night I woke up at three in the morning to this clicking sound … and then I realized it was coming from my record player. I remembered that [sound] when I was trying to write this script, and … that’s a pretty cool concept that’s specific to this medium of a vinyl record. … I feel there’s some symbolism there … so that … ended up being this sort of like fantasy versus reality thing,” Sommers said.
It was inspiring to learn that this concept of the locked groove came naturally and was mostly an accident. What’s cooler is learning how it shaped the plot of the film.
In the story, Putter has fantasies about how she and Joanne can live happily ever after without worrying about the reality of their financial situation. Music transports Putter to this alternate world, and when records reach their last rotation, it’s always a rude awakening.
“[For some locked grooves], artists will put music in it, or they will do something cool, so the end of the record will just continue forever. It’s something that artists have used artistically and creatively. Then I kind of got this idea for, like, ‘What exists in the locked groove after the music is over? After the fantasy is over, what could stay?’”
The motif of the locked groove and its analogy to Putter’s dreams are conveyed in the film through creative framing and music choices.
“I’m hoping that it’s a little more obvious in the screening because the idea is that every time this clicking comes in, they … get snapped out of the fantasy and out of their relationship with each other. At the very end, they stay in an embrace while the clicking goes and then eventually this ghostly music fades in underneath the clicking. So … if you wait long enough and you sit in it … there is something there.”
Putter’s attachment to music comes directly from Sommers’ love of the art form. Not only is it a driving force in their filmmaking, but they also see it as a medium for bringing people together, often using songs written by their family and friends in their films.
“The Locked Groove” can be seen at the FMS Student Film Festival: Senior Honors Thesis on May 1 in Room LL08 in Barnum Hall.
