Movies
‘Daughters of the Dust’ gets 25th anniversary release
Visually dazzling work was inspiration for Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’ video-album
Timing is everything. Just ask Tim Lanza, vice president and archivist of the Cohen Film Collection. Last spring, he and his team were working on the restoration of Julie Dashās ground-breaking 1991 film āDaughters of the Dustā for its 25th anniversary.
Then BeyoncĆ© suddenly dropped her visual album āLemonade,ā which included many visual references to Dashās groundbreaking film, and interest in the restoration project soared. The anticipated home video release grew into a limited theatrical release, the first since the film premiered in theaters in 1992.
āThere was a definite BeyoncĆ© bump,ā Lanza says. āItās exciting that the film is now finding both old and new audiences.ā
Lanza says āDaughtersā was a visionary film.
āThere was nothing like it when it came out and there hasnāt been a lot like it since. I think thatās also why there was such a strong reaction to āLemonade.āā
āDaughters of the Dustā was the first feature directed by an African-American woman to receive a general theatrical release. Inspired by the history of Dashās own family, the movie takes place at the turn of the 20th century on Dawtuh (Daughter) island, one of the small barrier islands along the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. The inhabitants of these islands, descendants of the African slaves who were forced to work the indigo and rice plantations, have remained isolated from the mainland and speak a distinct language called Gullah or Geechee.
The Peazants, a family with deep roots on the island, are at a crossroads. Led by Haagar (Kaycee Moore), the younger generation want to join the Great Migration and move north. The older generation, led by Nana (Cora Lee Day), is determined to stay on the island. Haagar and her siblings are excited by the cultural and economic opportunities that the North offers; Nana worries that they will lose their sense of identity and that the North will not be āthe land of milk and honeyā they dream of.
The extended family comes together for a final picnic before they begin the journey. The emotional gathering includes Nanaās granddaughter Yellow Mary (Barbara O) and her lover Trula (Trula Hoosier) who visit the family on their journey to Nova Scotia. Because of her sexuality and her past as a sex worker, Yellow Mary is initially rejected by some of her family members.
The unconventional film quickly became a cult classic and an inspiration to a generation of filmmakers. Unfortunately, the film was neglected by its original distributor.
When Lanza became aware that the filmmaker was looking for a new distributor, he leapt at the chance. He discovered that the staff at the UCLA Film and Television Archive had rescued the original film elements from a lab by paying a decades-old bill and had constructed a new 35mm print from the original internegative.
Lanza and his team acquired the distribution rights and began work on restoring the film. Under the supervision and approval of the filmās original cinematographer Arthur Jafa, the film was finally properly color-graded; this was especially important, Lanza notes, to capture the rich gradations in African-American skin tones and the distinct qualities of light on the islands where the film was shot.
In addition to the color grading, the film also underwent digital restoration to stabilize the color, remove dirt and scratches and clean up the soundtrack. The restored picture was premiered at Cannes last May and will open in D.C. for a limited engagement at the AFI Silver TheatreĀ on Friday, Feb. 17.
Fans of āLemonadeā can spot Dashās influence on BeyoncĆ© and company throughout the film. Visually, thereās the remarkable saturation and balance of color and the long shots of island scenery. Thereās the long lines of women in flowing white gowns and the beautiful tableaus on the beaches and in trees. In the storytelling, thereās the powerful and magical blurring of past, present and future. Most importantly, thereās the tribute to generations of fierce African-American women.
Julie Dash is currently working on a feature documentary based on Vertamae Smart-Grosvenorās bestselling book āVibration Cook: or the Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl.ā Smart-Grosvenor, who appeared in āDaughters,ā is a world-renowned author, performer and chef from South Carolina.
As for Lanza, heās busy preserving and restoring other screen classics from around the world. The Cohen Film CollectionĀ continues its work preserving silent films, especially the works of the legendary Buster Keaton. The company recently acquired the Merchant Ivory collection. A restored version of the Academy Award-winning āHowardās Endā premiered at Cannes last year, and a restored version of the gay classic āMauriceā will be released later this year.
Movies
āBeauty, beauty, look at you!ā: 50 years of āFemale Troubleā
Celebrating John Watersās lovably grotesque black comedy
Itās funny ā and by funny, we mean ironic ā how things that were once on the fringes of our culture, experienced by few and appreciated by even fewer, become respectable after theyāve been around for half a century or more. The Blade herself can probably attest to that.
Cheap, self-deprecating one-liners aside, thereās something to celebrate about the ability to survive and thrive for decades despite being mostly ignored by the mainstream ātastemakersā of our society ā which is why, in honor of the 50th anniversary of its release, we canāt help but take an appreciative look back at John Watersās arguable masterpiece, āFemale Trouble,ā which debuted in movie theaters on Oct. 11, 1974 and was promptly dismissed and forgotten by most of American society.
Waters had already made his breakthrough with 1972ās āPink Flamingos,ā which more or less helped the āMidnight Movieā become a counterculture touchstone of the seventies and eighties while making his star (and muse) Glenn Milstead ā aka Divine ā into an underground sensation. Naturally, expectations for this follow-up were high among his already growing cult following, who were hungry for more of his gleefully transgressive anarchy. But while it certainly delivered what they craved, it would have been hard for any movie to surpass the sensation caused by the latter, which had already broken perhaps the ultimate onscreen taboo by ending with a scene of Divineās character eating a freshly deposited dollop of dog feces. Though āFemale Troubleā offered plenty of its own hilariously shocking (and occasionally revolting) thrills, it had no standout āWTFā moment of its own to ātopā that one. Subsequently, the curious mainstream, who were never going to be Waters fans anyway, lost interest.
For his true audience, however, it was anything but a let-down. After all, it featured most of the same outrageous cast members and doubled down on the ferociously radical camp that had made āFlamingosā notorious even among the āstraightā (as in āsquareā) crowd; and while it maintained the bargain basement āguerillaā style the director had perfected throughout his early years of DIY filmmaking in Baltimore, it nevertheless displayed a savvy for cinematic craft that allowed Waters to both subvert and pay homage to the old-school Hollywood movies his (mostly) queer fans had grown up loving ā and making fun of ā just like him. It was quickly embraced, joining āFlamingosā on art house double bills across the U.S. and helping the Waters cult to grow until he finally won the favor of the masses with his more socially palatable āHairsprayā in 1988.
Fifty years later, there is little doubt that āFemale Troubleā has displaced āFlamingosā as Watersās quintessential work. Riding high on the heels of the latter, the director had both a bolstered self-confidence and an assured audience awaiting his next movie, and he outdid himself by creating an ambitious and breathtakingly grotesque black comedy that frequently feels like weāre watching an actual crime being committed on film. Ostensibly framed as a ācautionary taleā of ājuvenile delinquency,ā it follows the life story of Dawn Davenport (Divine), who abandons social conformity once and for all when her parents fail to give her the black cha-cha heeled shoes she wanted for Christmas. Running away from home, she quickly becomes an unwed mother, leading her to a life of crime as she tries to support her unruly and ungrateful daughter Taffy (Hilary Taylor, later Waters stalwart Mink Stole). Things seem to turn around when she is accepted as a client at the exclusive āLe Lipstiqueā beauty salon, where owners Donald and Donna Dasher (David Lochery and Mary Vivian Pearce) take a particular interest in her, and she marries star hairdresser Gater (Michael Potter) despite the objections of his doting Aunt Ida (Edith Massey), who wants him to āturn Nellyā and avoid the āsick and boring lifeā of a heterosexual.
From there, Watersās absurdly melodramatic saga enters the realm of pure lunacy. Dawnās marriage inevitably fails, and she falls under the influence of the Dashers, who use her as an experiment to prove their theory that āCrime equals Beautyā and get her hooked on shooting up liquid eyeliner; Gater leaves for Detroit to pursue a career in the āauto in-DUS-tryā, and his doting Aunt Ida (Edith Massey) disfigures Dawnās face by dousing it with acid; Taffy goes on a quest to find her deadbeat dad and ends up stabbing him to death before joining the Hare Krishna movement; and things culminate in a murderous nightclub performance by the now-thoroughly deranged Dawn, which earns her a date with the electric chair for the filmās literally āshockingā finale.
It would be easy to rhapsodize over the many now-iconic highlights of āFemale Troubleā ā some of our favorites are its hilarious early scenes of Dawnās life as a high school delinquent, the Christmas morning rampage in which she destroys her parentsā living room like Godzilla on a bender in Tokyo, āBad Seedā-ish Taffyās torment of her mother via jump rope rhymes and car crash re-enactments on the living room furniture, Aunt Idaās persistent attempts to set up Gater on a āboy date,ā and the master stroke of double-casting Divine as the low-life mechanic who fathers Taffy and thereby allows him to literally fuck himself onscreen ā but every Waters fan has a list of their own.
Likewise, we could take a scholarly approach, and point out the āmethodā in the madness by highlighting themes or cultural commentaries that might be observed, such as the filmās way of ridiculing the straight worldās view of queer existence by presenting it to them in an over-the-top caricature of their own narrative tropes, or its seeming prescience in spoofing pop cultureās obsession with glamour, beauty, and toxic-behavior-as-entertainment decades before the advent and domination of ārealityā TV ā but those things have been said many times already, and none of them really have anything to do with why we love it so much.
What we love is the freakishness of it. Waters revealed years after the fact that Divineās ālookā as Dawn Davenport was inspired by a photo from Diane Arbus, whose work served as a testament to the anonymous fringe figures of American culture, but it could be said that all of his characters, in this and in all his early films, might also be drawn from one of her images. Itās that, perhaps, that is the key to its appeal: itās a movie about āfreaks,ā made for freaks by someone who is a freak themself. It makes us laugh at all of its excesses simply because they are funny ā and the fact that the NON-freaks donāt āget itā just makes them all the funnier.
As Aunt Ida says, āQueers are just betterā ā and in this case, we mean āqueerā as in ādifferent than the boring norm.ā
In any case, queer or otherwise, celebrate your freakishness by watching āFemale Troubleā in honor of its anniversary this weekend. Whether itās your umpteenth time or your first, it will be 97 minutes you wonāt regret.
Movies
Aubrey Plaza, Hollywoodās most ironic star, delivers one-two punch
If youāre an Aubrey Plaza fan, this might just be the best time to be alive.
Plaza, whose role in the hit series āParks and Recreationā catapulted her to fame, graduated to highly regarded indie film roles and into a career trajectory that includes an award-winning turn on the second season of HBOās āWhite Lotus.ā Sheās currently placing her edgy stamp on two of the buzziest entertainment options of the season, and in each case her very specific gifts as an actor not only shine through, but add a dimension that both fits and enhances the material ā and weāre a hundred percent on board for both of them.
The most high-profile of these is unquestionably a blockbuster event. Itās the anxiously awaited āAgatha All Along,ā a spin-off that picks up the story of its witchy title character (Kathryn Hahn, in a virtuoso star turn) from the Marvel and Disney Plus limited series āWandaVisionā after having been trapped in a ātwisted spellā by Emmy-winner Elizabeth Olsenās Wanda Maximoff ā aka the Scarlet Witch ā during that showās finale.
In this case, itās hard to say much about Plazaās performance yet ā she only appears in one of the two episodes released to date, and her character, while provocative, is still very much an unknown quantity within the larger structure of the show ā but itās clear from her electrifying subtext with co-star Hahn that their relationship will likely be a key to the showās still-unfolding mysteries, and the presence of āHeartstopperā star Joe Locke (as a gay teen acolyte) only amps up the LGBTQ factor. Thatās pretty groundbreaking, considering that both Marvel and Disney have long been accused of pulling their punches when it comes to queer representation in their screen content; and such considerations aside, how can anyone resist a comedically spooky fall show about a coven of questing witches that includes Patti LuPone?
Plazaās participation in the second vehicle might end up being considerably smaller than what she eventually delivers in āAgatha,ā but her two-scene performance in āMy Old Assā leaves a significant enough impression to call her the āanchorā of the film. The sophomore Sundance-lauded feature from filmmaker Megan Park (āThe Falloutā), itās a youthful-but-wise seriocomic coming-of-age tale that blends tongue-in-cheek absurdism with magical realism and a touch of sci-fi fantasy to create a āwhat if?ā scenario with the power to make audiences both laugh out loud and āugly cryā, and sometimes both at once.
The film stars Canadian actress and singer Maisy Stella (TVās āNashvilleā), making her feature film debut as Elliott, a proudly queer Canadian teen who lives on her familyās cranberry farm near Ontarioās scenic Muskoga Lakes. The story opens on her 18th birthday, as she and her two besties (Maddie Ziegler, Kerrice Brooks) go off for a celebratory overnight camping trip ā with āmagicā mushrooms on the menu to start the party off right, and we donāt mean a microdose. Each of the girls winds up having their own individual trip, but Elliott, who is weeks away from leaving for college and a new life of adult freedom she canāt wait to start, experiences something particularly mind-blowing: a visit from none other than her own future self (Plaza), a 39-year old with a still-unsettled life and a few regrets she hopes to undo by offering up some advice to 18-year-old Elliott about choices that will soon be coming her way.
No, itās not inside info about āthe next Appleā, as the filmās effortlessly witty screenplay (also by Park) puts it; rather itās advice not to fall in love with a boy named Chad, something Young Elliott ā who self-identifies as āonly liking girlsā ā thinks will be a no-brainer. At least, she does until a day later, when a boy named Chad (Percy Hynes White) signs on as an extra summer worker at the family farm. Heās immediately taken with her, and she finds herself responding to his good-natured (and irresistibly charming) flirtation with more enthusiasm than she expects. Desperate to learn more, she attempts to re-forge the time-bending connection with her āOld Assā before she winds up making the same mistake sheās been warned against in spite of herself.
While it sounds, in many ways, like the fodder for a fanciful-yet-predictable teenage ārom-dramedyā, Parkās approach aims higher than merely turning its premise into a framework for a love story. Instead, she leans hard into a refreshingly positive depiction of a young woman learning to see life from a wider perspective, to let go of the identifying boundaries sheās set for herself and become more connected with the ebb and flow of time and circumstance that has little regard for such limitations. In many ways, itās the non-romance-related wisdom imparted by Older Elliott that arguably makes more of an impact on her life, such as learning to appreciate her family and the time she spends with them instead of simply being impatient to leave them behind. Ultimately, though, itās the dilemma of Chad that sounds at the deepest level, and while spoiling it would be a crime, itās enough to say that, when all is revealed, the bold and life-affirming message delivered by Parkās disarmingly light-hearted movie is guaranteed to resonate with almost any viewer.
From a queer perspective, itās important to note that some audiences have taken exception to the filmās depiction of a same-sex attracted person being tempted by an opposite-sex romance, seeing it as a throwback to an old-school Hollywood formula under which she just needs to āfind the right manā to be redeemed from her ādeviantā sexuality; yet while such objections might be understandable, āMy Old Assā has also been widely praised for its authentic portrayal of bisexuality ā something sorely lacking in a film industry that doesnāt know how to handle it ā and its strongly asserted message about the limitations imposed by the labels society wants us to claim for ourselves.
In any case, what makes āMy Old Assā into a truly special film is not the sexuality of its characters ā though thatās definitely an important theme ā but the open-hearted perspective that informs it. Park makes a point of stressing that life has its own ideas for us, regardless of what we may have planned, and further that true joy might only come from letting go of all our fears and simply embracing the experience of being. There are a great many larger, more āprestigiousā movies that have tried to do the same, but few have succeeded with as much raw and unmanufactured certainty as this relatively humble gem ā and while itās definitely Stellaās movie, capturing our empathetic engagement with her from its earliest moments and showcasing her unvarnished naturalism throughout, Plaza is the presence that gives the film its necessary weight, using her two scenes to cement her stature as a talent whose unequivocal stardom is long overdue.
You can catch āAgatha All Alongā on Disney Plus, with a new episode dropping each week. āMy Old Ass,ā given a limited theatrical rollout earlier this month, may still be in some theaters but will likely be available soon via distributor Amazon Primeās streaming platform.
Movies
Trans MMA star battles prejudice in āUnfightableā doc
A harrowing, heartbreaking, inspiring portrait of Alana McLaughlin
Itās no surprise that the fall movie landscape finds an unusually large number of films ā most of them documentaries ā about trans people and the challenges they face in trying to achieve an identity that matches their own sense of self.
Transgender rights or even acceptance have never been in such a precarious place within the American political landscape since queer rights were acknowledged at all in the mainstream conversation. After eight years of ramped-up efforts by anti-trans activists to essentially legislate them out of legal existence, trans people find themselves facing a divisive and uncomfortably close election that will likely have an existential impact on their future, accompanied by persistent and vocal efforts by the conservative right-wing crowd to ostracize and stigmatize them within public perception. Theyāre not the only target, but they are the most vulnerable one ā especially within the evangelical strongholds that might swing the election one way or the other ā and that means a lot of conservative crosshairs are trained directly on them.
Itās a position theyāre used to, unfortunately, which is precisely why there are so many erudite and artistic voices within the trans community emerging, prepared by years of experience and education gained from dealing with persistent transphobic dogma in American culture, to illuminate the trans experience and push back against the efforts of political opportunists by letting their stories speak for themselves. Surely there is no weapon against hatred more potent than empathy ā once we recognize our own reflection in those we demonize, itās hard to keep ourselves from recognizing our shared humanity, too ā and perhaps no more potent way of conveying it than through the most visceral artistic medium of all: filmmaking
Particularly timely, in the wake of an Olympics marked by controversy over the participation of Algeriaās Imane Khelif and Taiwanās Lin Yu-ting in the womenās competition, is āUnfightable,ā from producer/director Marc J. Perez. Offering up a harrowing, heartbreaking, and ultimately inspiring portrait of Alana McLaughlin ā a U.S. Army Special Forces sergeant who, following gender transition, turned female MMA fighter only to face resistance and transphobic prejudice within the rarified cultural microcosm of professional sports ā while also taking a deep dive into the world ofĀ Mixed Martial Arts and the starkly divided attitudes of those who work within it, it aims to turn one personās trans experience into a metaphor for the struggle of an entire community to be recognized and accepted on its own terms. For the most part, it succeeds.
Unlike many such biography-heavy documentaries, āUnfightableā allows its subject ā the charismatic and outspoken McLaughlin, whose presence rightly dominates the film and leaves the most lingering impression ā to narrate her own story, without interpretation or commentary from ātalking headā experts. From the grim-but-all-too-familiar story of her upbringing in a deeply religious family (and yes, conversion ātherapyā was involved) through her struggle to define her identity via a grueling military career, her eventual transition, and her emergence as only the second transfeminine competitor in the professional MMA arena and beyond, Perez treats most of the movieās narrative thrust like an extended one-on-one interview, in which McLaughlin delivers the story as she experienced it. This one-on-one honest expression is effectively counterpointed by the rhetoric of other MMA personalities who participated in the film, some of which is shockingly transphobic despite protestations of having ānothing againstā trans people.
At the same time, the film acknowledges and amplifies supportive voices within the MMA, whose efforts to bring McLaughlin into the fold were not only successful, but ultimately led to her victorious 2021 match against French fighter Celine Provost. Itās a tale that hits all the touchstone marks of queer/trans experience for those whose lives canāt really begin until they break free of their oppressive origins, and whose fight to claim an authentic life for themself is frequently waged against both the families who ostensibly love them and the prejudices of a society eager to condemn anything that deviates from the perceived ānormā. Naturally, as a story of individual determination, self-acceptance, and success against the odds, its main agenda is to draw you in and lift you up; but it does so while still driving home the point about how far the road still stretches ahead before trans athletes ā and by extension, trans people in general ā are afforded the same legitimacy as everyone else.
To ensure that reality is never forgotten or taken lightly, we are offered some pretty egregious examples; from prominent fighters who insist they āhave no problemā with trans people as a preface for their transphobic beliefs about trans athletes, to McLaughlinās long wait before finding another MMA pro who was willing to fight her we are confronted with a pattern of prejudice blocking her path forward. And though it documents her triumph, it reminds us that three years later, despite her accomplishments, she has yet to find another MMA pro willing to give her another bout.
If nothing else, though, āUnfightableā underscores a shift in attitudes that reflects the progress ā however slow or maddeningly hard-won it may be ā of trans people carving out space for themselves in a social environment still largely hostile to their success or even their participation. As McLaughlinās journey illustrates, it takes dogged persistence and a not-insignificant level of righteous anger to even pierce the skin of the systemic transphobia that still opposes the involvement of people like her in sports; her experience also bears witness to the emboldened bigotry that has doubled-down on its opposition to trans acceptance since the 2016 election of a certain former president who is now seeking a second chance of his own ā highlighting the dire consequences at stake for the trans community (and, letās face it, the entire queer community alongside every other group deplored and marginalized by his followers) should his efforts toward a comeback prove successful.
Yet as grim an outlook as it may acknowledge, āUnfightableā doesnāt leave viewers with a belief in sure defeat; in the toughness of its subject ā who is, as it proudly makes clear, a veteran of combat much more directly dangerous than anything she will ever encounter in the ring ā and her refusal to simply give up and go away, it kindles in us the same kind of dogged resistance that fueled her own transcendence of a toxic personal history and allowed her to assert her identity ā triumphantly so, despite the transphobia that would have kept her forever from the prize.
Thatās a spirit of determination that we all could use to help drive us to victory at the polls come November. Like Alana McLaughlin, we have neither the desire nor the ability to go back to the way our lives were before, and Perezās documentary helps us believe we have the strength to keep it from happening.
āUnfightableā opened for a limited release in New York on Sept. 13 and begins another in Los Angeles on Sept. 20. It will air on ViX, the leading Spanish-language streaming service in the world, and in English on Fuse TV, following its theatrical run.
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