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Admission is free. No advance reservations. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis. The box office opens one hour before the event.
Queens at Heart
U.S., 1967
This short pseudo-documentary offers a rare look at trans life and drag ball culture in mid-1960s New York. LGBTQ historian and archivist Jenni Olson found the long-lost film in the mid-1990s and the UCLA Film & Television Archive restored the archival treasure in 2009. Alongside the stomach-turning, inappropriate line of questions asked to four elegant and discrete trans women Misty, Vicky, Sonja and Simone, are joyful images of mid-century drag balls with gay men, including men of color, dancing and presenting themselves with pride, elegance and delight. As several trans artists and thinkers discuss in the documentary Disclosure, some of the first nationally televised interviews with trans people about their lived experiences came in the form of the spectacle that trafficked in intrusive questioning and salacious reveals on talk shows hosted by Maury Povitch, Jerry Springer and others. In this way, Queens at Heart is a significant historical precursor to this trend.
35mm, color, 22 min. Director: Unknown.
Preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive as part of the Outfest Legacy Project for LGBTQ Film Preservation. Funding provided by Joanne Herman with additional support from the Andrew J. Kuehn, Jr. Foundation and Outfest. Digital laboratory service by IVC Digital Film Center and Audio Mechanics. Additional laboratory services by Ascent Media, Cinetech, and DJ Audio. Special thanks to Andrea James, Tom Letness, Dick Millais, Jenni Olson, Kristin Pepe.
The Queen
U.S., 1968
An American documentary classic, The Queen is an immersive vérité gem that offers a precious window into the world of queer and trans life in New York City in the 1960s. Narrator Flawless Sabrina (Jack Doroshow) nurtures and directs a diverse group of young drag queens from all over America, as they converge on New York City to participate in the 1967 Miss All America Camp Beauty Queen contest she founded. The camerawork is as daring as its subjects with its severe low-angle shots, extreme closeups and precise overhead snapshots, giving us a full-bodied and delightfully chaotic behind-the-scenes view into their intricate world. In 2019, Kino Lorber released a 4K restoration building on work done by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, Outfest UCLA Legacy Project and the Harry Ransom Center.—Beandrea July
DCP, color, 68 min. Director: Frank Simon. With: Jack Doroshow, Crystal LaBeija, Rachel Harlow, Andy Warhol.
At Least You Know You Exist
U.S., 2012
“I was 18 when I met you on the other side of my camera,” filmmaker Zackary Drucker declares in this visual love letter to her friend and mentor, the iconic drag performer Flawless Sabrina. Drucker shoots on 16 millimeter in Flawless Sabrina’s cavernous 73rd Street apartment in Manhattan packed with books, wigs, spiral-bound notebooks and all the artifacts you’d expect from a life dedicated to art and performance. The film introduces us to the interior life of her larger-than-life friend in the last decade of her life: the same Flawless Sabrina who starred in the documentary The Queen. As if aware of the legacy she’s leaving to Drucker and future generations, Sabrina shares her thoughts on the meaning of life and the characters she likes to play, as well as delights in her mastery of what’s known as “giving face.” A spiritual affirmation of the body and the expansiveness of gender expression, this film is a time capsule for the heart.—Beandrea July
16mm, color, 16 min. Director: Zackary Drucker. Screenwriter: Zackary Drucker, Flawless Sabrina.
