Category Archives: Documentary

Coming to NYC’s Rooftop Films tomorrow, Saturday, June 28: SKANKS

David McMahon’s chronicle of community drag theatre in the conservative South had its world premiere at Slamdance at the beginning of the year. It has also screened at Boston LGBT, Indie Grits, and the Out Twin Cities fests.

In Birmingham AL,Theatre Downtown, a small community theatre, provides a space to unite outsiders – like a grown up version of high-school hierarchies, these are the drama club misfits to the rest of the community’s jocks and Bible club members. In his oddly engaging film, McMahon profiles various players as they work on an original production, a nonsensical drag musical by Billy Ray Brewton entitled SKANKS IN A ONE HORSE TOWN that involves time travel, Studio 54, Anita Bryant, and the old West. Unfortunately, the supposed hilarity of the show wears thin very quickly, with too much screen time spent on rehearsals and other behind-the-scenes schtick, making the film often feel too much like a generic “let’s put on a show” making-of doc. As a consequence, the much more compelling theme at its core – the value of this common activity for its outsider participants – gets lost at times.

Coming to NYC’s IFC Center and to LA’s Arena Cinema tomorrow, Friday, June 27: BOUND BY FLESH

Leslie Zemeckis’ reintroduction of long-forgotten vaudeville superstars debuted at the 2012 Hollywood Film Festival. It went on to screen at Chicago, AFI Fest, and Santa Barbara, among others.

Born in Brighton, England in 1908, and not expected to survive, conjoined twins Violet and Daisy were given over to their unwed mother’s employer, Mary Hilton, who soon saw the opportunity to make money exhibiting them to paying customers, eventually touring them around Europe and beyond as they grew up. When her daughter married an equally exploitative manager named Myer Myers, the twins were primed for their American debut on the vaudeville circuit, soon commanding top salaries that lined the pockets of their handlers. Kept isolated and treated inhumanely, the Hilton twins eventually sued for emancipation, garnering a great deal of publicity in the process. Unfortunately, though gaining their independence, they quickly proved unprepared to handle their own business affairs, and, that, combined with the decline of the vaudeville circuit against the popularity of cinema, saw their careers sharply diminish, with no real-world skills to fall back on. Though they appeared in the classic FREAKS, as well as CHAINED FOR LIFE, a later exploitation flick based on their lives, they became largely forgotten until their deaths in 1969. Despite such a rich backstory, Zemeckis’ film is hampered by a headscratchingly anachronistic and distracting soundtrack, and a workmanlike use of too-limited archival materials. While some of the latter proves fascinating, like the opening footage of a publicity stunt which saw Daisy petitioning to be allowed to marry, other footage and photos are recycled more than once to diminishing returns.