O R E G O N S LE S B IA N /G AY /B l/TRA N S /Q U E E R N E W S M A G A Z IN E
MAY 21. 2010
places. Looking back gives the participants a
A ID S in 1988 at age 41.
chance to wax poetic on the peculiar pleasures
Next up is Edie and Thea: A Very Long En
o f “male impersonation.” Com mentators with
gagement, a funny, moving love story about two
whimsical names like Flare, Carlos Las Vegas,
women who met during the closet days o f the
Dainty Box and others are seen burlesquing
early 1960s and stayed together for more than 40
such male stereotypes as a “Big Papa” good ol’
years, until Thea’s death in 2009. These women’s
boy and a nerdy teenaged boy. The film shows
histories individually and as a pair, parallels that
the D K world as an ever-changing locus for
o f the gay liberation movement. We see them
the m ost expansive gender play as these inven
in all its phases: dancing furtively in secret gay
tive “genderfuckers” include even “femme” male
bars in the 1950s, flirting with therapy to “go
riffs in their repertoires.
straight,” marching for gay rights in the 1970s,
Accompanying this show is Storme: Lady of
attempting to resolve the rift between feminism
QDoo: The Fourth Annual
Portland Queer Documentor/
Film Festival
Thursda/. June 3
Forever's Gonna Start Tonight
7:30 pm
(U S A , 54 m in.), screening with
Get Happy (U S A , 25 min.).
Forever's director M ichelle
Law ler and Vicki M arlane will
be in attendance.
O pening N ight Party at Savoy
Tavern & Bistro and Broder,
2500 S E Clinton. Tickets,
including film admission, are S20.
9 :0 0 pm
and lesbianism. Best o f all, though, are the dy
DeLarverie was the only male impersonator at
namic personalities that emerge. Edie and Thea’s
the legendary New York drag club that inspired
intelligence and crackling humor, well displayed
La Cage aux Folles. Archival footage and photos
here, must have helped them survive the difficult
depict this striking performer at work— unlike
times. They’re also refreshingly upfront in talk
Frida/. June 4
many gender performers, she did her own sing
ing about sex, particularly the adaptations and
7:00 pm
ing— and as she is today, working as a bouncer.
compromises they’ve had to make as they age. In
Expert commentators such as Lam bda Award
a characteristic moment, Thea reminisces wist
ven Greenstreet and narrated by Lance Dustin
winner Joan Nestle offer context. The theme o f
fully about the sight o f young Edie in a tight
Black, screenwriter o f Milk. The film opens with
authentic selfhood runs throughout this entic
sweater: “She had a lot o f action inside!” They
an endearing gay couple getting married during
ing 2 1 -minute portrait. A s DeLarverie says,
leave the viewer with a simple, irrefutable mes
San Franciscos historic registration, and revisits
“All I had to do was be me.”
sage: “Don’t postpone joy.”
DAV.D DANIELS
the Jewel Box Revue. African-Am erican Storme
them on the emotional roller-coaster ride that
Saturday’s lineup begins with another un
Equally powerful is Yony Leyser’s William
follows. Cowan and Greenstreet meticulously
compromising black diva. Unsung: Sylvester
S. Burroughs: A Man Within. It’s hard to believe
document the schemes o f the M orm on Church
is a brisk biography o f the disco queen whose
Leyser is only 25, so finely crafted is this docu
in helping to pass Prop. 8, while showing the
“M ighty Real” burned up the dance charts back
mentary (which took 5 years to make). Bur
human cost o f M orm on bigotry on families,
in the day. Sylvester, bom in 1947, is shown
roughs is an especially tricky subject. W idely
individuals and society.
here in multiple guises— budding gospel singer,
considered the “godfather o f punk,” as well as
The litany o f deceptions at work is quite
disco goddess, Cockette, “Paris chanteuse,” even
a pioneer o f queer, Beat and junkie culture, he
extraordinary, from the church’s setting up a
“Snake Woman” (to fevered Brazilian fans)— but
seems too soft-spoken, too inward-looking
phony organization through which to funnel
is always recognizable for his glamorous getups
to be a trailblazer. Despite the wild creativity
money, to a massive ad campaign filled with
and soaring falsetto. The portrait is fair-minded,
(he’s responsible for the phrases “soft machine,”
lies, to downright extortion as pastors visit
not sparing us Sylvester’s occasional shallowness
“heavy metal” and “blade runner”) and expan
parishioners at home and say, “Based on your
(“I wouldn’t get out o f the car until someone
siveness we see in his novels like Naked Lunch,
finances, this is what you can afford to give,”
opened it for me”), and friends and fellow art
Burroughs appears repressed, paranoid, rig
and wait for the check. The film clearly links
ists weigh in on the strange
idly unemotional, perhaps self-hating— more
M orm on activities to gay teen suicides, and in
magic that made up this
a heartwrenching moment, follows a group o f
character, who died o f
DOC continues on r o a e 55
(U S A , 80 m in.) D irector Reed
Cow an in attendance.
9:00 pm
Even when sleeping with the
only flaw in the film is that it fails to mention
the shortcomings o f the anti-Prop. 8 campaign,
rent bo/s who were
viewed by many observers as incompetent. U l
timately, though, 8: The Mormon Proposition is a
Saturda/. June 5
I:30 pm
6:00 pm
m in.). Director Kerthy Fix in
attendance.
Sunda/. June 6
I2:00 pm
3:00 pm
4:45 pm
Burroughs kept a loaded
gun under his blanket.
celebratory one, a 43-m inute profile o f the In
ternational D rag King Extravaganza (ID K E ),
which began in 1999 in Colum bus, Ohio, o f all
Special Sneak Preview (U S A ,
approx. 90 m in.). Film m akers
in attendance.
Other Nature (N e p al/U S A , 57
m in.)
Out in the Silence (U S A , 57
m in.)
Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls
(N ew Zealand, 84 min.). Jo o ls
and Lynda Topp and producer
Arani Cuthbert will be in
attendance.
why gay marriage was killed in California, and
The second entry on this bill is a more
William S. Burroughs: A Man
Within (U S A , 90 min.)
Le Tigre: On Tour (U S A , 73
8:30 pm
his common choice.
the true nature o f the forces we’re up against.
Unsung: Sylvester (U SA , 48
m in.), screening with Sylvester:
Mighty Real (U S A , 4 min.)
Edie £sf Thea: A Very Long
Engagement (U S A , 61 m in.).
Directors Susan M uska
and G reta O lafsdottir in
attendance.
4:00 pm
7:00 pm
must-see for anyone interested in understanding
A Drag King Extravaganza
(C anada, 43 m in.), screening
with Storme: Lady of the Jewel
Box (U SA , 21 min.)
homeless Utah teens as they go “hom e” to a
filthy building— abandoned, as they were. The
8: The Mormon Proposition
QDoc is held at the Clinton Street The
ater, 2522 SE Clinton St. General admis
sion tickets are $8; students and seniors are
$6, andfestival passes are $75.
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503,232,4458
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Music and Videos on flat screen plasma monitors
Late Night Menu: F ri . + S at . til M idnight
Bar Menu: every night til 2 am
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503.230.7980
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2913 SE Stark St.
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