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Sundance Channel celebrates Gay Pride Month
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undance Channel has been one
of queer media’s best friends for
several years now, diligently
sponsoring gay film fests and
showcasing features like L.l.E.
and The Brandon Teena Story, along with
breakthrough series like TransGeneration,
which put a nice tranny twist on the drea­
ry reality TV genre.
The network has been proactive, too,
in highlighting queer-themed docu­
mentaries. Sundance is celebrating Gay
.Pride Month with the premiere of sever­
Orthodox Jewish lesbians let viewers into their super­
al hot docs and an encore presentation of
secret world in Keep Not Silent.
TransGeneration, which the Gay and
f the “boyz” of Venus Boyz have positioned them­
Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation honored
selves to challenge gender boundaries with gusto,
with a 2006 Media Award for Outstanding
the women of Keep Not Silent are in a grim struggle
Documentary.
for their basic identities as lesbians and human
beings. Ilil Alexanders 50-minute Israeli documen­
rag kings emerged during the heady 1990s as
tary (premiering 9 p.m. June 12) features Orthodox
the female mirror image of the much higher-
profile drag queen. Not that there weren’t always Jewish wives and mothers who belong tt> a super­
examples of the “female masculinity” that drives secret lesbian group called Ortho-Dykes. They’re
speaking out here for the first time, letting viewers
the drag king; think of cross-dressing Billy Tipton,
into a rare world even their families and friends
the legendary jazz musician born female who
might not know about.
donned suits and ties and married five different
The director takes an unusual but necessary
women, none of whom knew “he” was a “she” until
visual
strategy in filming her subjects. She shoots
death ended the ruse. But the drag king scene real­
ly came together in New York, and San Francisco in
them at meetings, on video monitors, at their
homes—all in silhouette, through obscuring
the ’90s when, serendipitously, a number of DKs
latticework, in darkened rooms or with their faces
got together, forming clubs, making films and art,
fuzzed out. These are strikingly literal images of the
teaching gender theory and, best of aU, acting out
closeted, "invisible lesbian.” Their world is harsh­
via performance art what it means to be a “man” in
ly limited by the homophobia that courses through
contemporary culture.
fundamentalist Judaism. Such women have every­
Gabriel Baur’s Venus Boyz made the film festi­
thing to lose, personally and socially. .
val rounds in 2001 and then faded from sight.
Miriam-Esther believes her children will be
That’s unfortunate, because this is surely the most
reviled, perhaps taken from her, and her family will
intimate, incisive peek ever into DK culture. The
ostracize her. “I was in deep fear,” she says, and
film (premiering 9 p.m. June 5) is foremost a gallery
“fear takes a lot of energy.” In one wrenching
of memorable characters, seen in their daily lives
scene, a young woman named Yehudit tries hope­
and performing onstage at New York’s Club
lessly to argue with a bigoted rabbi who insists she
Casanova. There’s gorgeous, Haitian-born Mildred
must either change or “live alone.” •
Gerestant, who adopts the persona of “Dred,”
Yet there are glimmers of connection and com­
a hilariously over-the-top ghetto pimp ladies man.
promise here that give the women—and the view­
Diane Torr teaches masculinity workshops and
becomes Danny King, “a composite of a number of er—hope. Ruth’s husband, Boaz, doesn’t object
when she insists on spending two nights a week with
ghastly men I’ve known!” Del LaGrace Volcano is
the woman she loves more than him. But Ruth’s
a biological female who dizzies the viewer when she
daughter,
shamed and disgusted, runs away from
becomes a drag king and then dons female drag.
Bridge Markland mines decadent Berlin in the
home when she learns who her mother really is.
1930s for her sendups of maleness.
The film makes heartbreakingly'clear what is at
These women are attracted to gender
play for a variety of reasons. Some are
activists critiquing male privilege; others
fetishize and get off on the accouterments
of masculinity. If this sounds a little
double-domed, it’s in fact anything but.
Above all, these are charismatic, bold
women taking on the patriarchy with wit
and style. Highlights include Torr's litany
of “how to be a man” (“Rule No. 2: Stop
smiling!”); Markland’s creation of a “sex
bomb named Angela,” whom she “de­
constructs”; and Gerestant’s giddy assault
Venus Boyz is surely the most intimate, incisive peek
on stereotypes of black male masculinity.
ever into drag king culture.
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