what (not) to doc

Coming to theatres today, Friday, March 3:
KINGS, QUEENS, & IN-BETWEENS

Director:
Gabrielle Burton

Premiere:
Cleveland 2016

Select Festivals:
Southern Circuit, Buffalo, Newark, LGBT fests in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Bern

About:
Drag performers in Columbus OH explain gender, sex, sexuality, and drag.

Burton’s earnest project aims to assemble as varied a range of performers as possible to explore the spectrum of gender performance. While her subjects are overwhelmingly white, they do notably reflect a diversity of gender identity and performative perspective, and include drag queens, drag kings, trans men, trans women, genderqueers, bio men, and bio women. While all well and good, the problem is that the film otherwise retreads themes that have been explored countless times before in other docs, presented in a barebones survey. Subjects introduce themselves and their performance personae, and then proceed to explain familiar concepts to an apparently completely unschooled imagined audience who may as well be attending an LGBT/drag 101 course for the first time. In between a parade of talking heads footage in which the performers explicate the differences between gender, sex, sexuality, and drag, the film offers snippets from their unsurprising routines. While making the subject matter accessible is laudable, the project’s main audience is likely to be from within the LGBT community rather than from without, and would generally have somewhat of a clear sense of these concepts already. The most intriguing element here, the regional specificity of their Columbus location and the way that drag can create a sense of community, is unfortunately left under-explored.

Coming to PBS’s American Masters this Saturday, March 4:
PATSY CLINE

Director:
Barbara J Hall

Premiere:
American Masters (March 2017)

About:
An appreciation of the influential country music singer.

Timed to coincide with Women’s History Month, this hourlong portrait pays tribute to the enduring legacy of Patsy Cline, despite her surprisingly brief career, cut short in an airplane accident in 1963 at the age of 30. Like other profiles in the venerable PBS series, the doc follows a conventional biographical structure, telling the story of how Virginia Patterson Hensley, raised by a single mother in Winchester VA, broke into the music industry as the indelible singer of such standards as “Walkin’ After Midnight,” “I Fall to Pieces,” and “Crazy.” What distinguishes the project – aside from its infectiously appealing subject – is its use of archival material, both fantastic performance footage dating back to some of Cline’s earliest appearances, as well as later interviews with family members and collaborators reflecting on their history together and her lasting impact. These are supplemented with present-day commentary from modern day country performers like Reba McEntire and LeAnn Rimes and others influenced by Cline’s pioneering work as a woman in the traditionally male-dominated country music scene, including screenwriter Callie Khouri and actress Beverly D’Angelo, who portrayed the singer in COAL MINER’S DAUGHTER, a film that helped reinvigorate interest in Cline’s music.

New to DVD this week:
FIGURES OF SPEECH

Director:
Ari Levinson

Premiere:
Newport Beach 2015

Select Festivals:
Bentonville, Imperial Valley

About:
A look at competitive high school forensics, focusing on the duo interpretation event.

While broader audiences might be familiar with the world of high school debate, other competitive speech events that take place under the same general rubric are lesser known, among them dramatic or humorous interpretation, performed by individuals, or, as is the focus in Levinson’s project, duo interpretation. Duo sees a pair of students perform a short piece of writing, often from a play, under certain constraints – notably an absence of props and a restriction on engaging in eye- or physical contact. Referred to in the doc as “competitive acting,” the event has been an early avenue of artistic expression for a number of now well-known actors or public figures. Levinson follows several duo teams – including quirky twin brothers and high school sweethearts – along the forensic competition circuit, with the goal of qualifying for, and ultimately winning, Nationals. While offering some nostalgic coming-of-age appeal, the film errs in including at least a pair of subjects too many, and in not showcasing quite enough of the teams’ actual interpretations, making for an overlong – and distracting overscored – survey that unfortunately neither fully fleshes out its characters nor the appeal of the forensic event.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, March 3:
BURLESQUE: HEART OF THE GLITTER TRIBE

Director:
Jon Manning

Premiere:
limited theatrical engagements (February 2017)

About:
A survey of the neo-burlesque scene in Portland OR.

After a long fallow period, burlesque, the once-popular if risqué entertainment known for its focus on the striptease, experienced a revival beginning in the mid-1990s that has continued into the present day, with its presence felt in most larger American cities as well as internationally. Manning focuses his profile on several performers in Portland – among them Zora von Pavonine, Babs Jamboree, Angelique DeVil, Isaiah Esquire, and the Stagedoor Johnnies – none household names like Dita von Teese, but that’s largely the point in this scrappy if conventional doc. These showgirls and showboys appreciate the local spotlight, but they perform for the love of burlesque – as more than one points out, they typically lose money practicing their craft, but they enjoy themselves while doing it. While breaking no new ground, addressing topics familiar from past burlesque-focused docs, and suffering from attempting to cover too many subjects, Manning’s film nevertheless offers a welcome, empowering message of self-acceptance, sex- and body-positivity, and the impact of being part of an intentional community.