Glitterboys and Ganglands
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Documentary
62 min
If you liked Roger Horn’s The Sisterhood at last year’s Festival, here’s more – Beukes’ peek behind the drag curtain at Miss Gay Western Cape has echoes of the Hazendal farmhands’ story. Beukes’ boys however, come from harder hoods on the Cape Flats and it’s the contradiction of Barbie-girls-in-gangstaland that fascinates her. Preparing for the event are a host of hopefuls; Kat the Princess, Eva the Mechanic, Kayden the Pre-Op and Janet Jackson among them. Interviews reveal the real people behind the stage names, and as rehearsals in the Joseph Stone Auditorium get underway, it’s as much about the rigours of a large production – timing, focus, music cues, placement – as about the body issues common to all; will I be good enough, will the pageant take to a plus-sized person? Beukes has a novelist’s eye for detail as well as a theatrical flair, evident in her dramatic reconstructions of childhood scenes, and sneaky camerawork capturing stolen looks between backstagers. Touching, engaging, the film is ultimately a beautifully crafted ode to (re)creation, memory and courage under fire.
Directed by
Lauren Beukes