Drag Show Video Verite 2009

This summer, check out a fabulous retrospective video mash up by the fabulous Joe Jeffreys which I, CHRIS CONNER, did some shooting and editing on. You can see it June 18th at the premiere at the world famous Lincoln Center in New York City. I'll be there! Here's the trailer from YouTube:



It’s the ultimate New York City drag show… on video tape.

Drag Show Video Verite screens rare film and video footage that captures the faces and places, past and present, of New York City’s vibrant drag scene.

Now in its third year, Drag Show Video Verite premieres a new edition of all new footage each June during Gay Pride at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium. The 2009 edition premieres June 18, 2009 at 6 pm. Admission is free. Dress optional.



Drag Show Video Verite’s video mash up offers a who’s who of NYC drag over the past 50 years.

Of special note in this year’s line up are recently discovered and never before screened out takes from the landmark pre-Stonewall drag documentary The Queen (1968) with commentary by the film’s star Flawless Sabrina and the world premiere of Tie Biz with Murray Hill, directed by Mary C. Matthews and produced by Murray Hill. Also of note is rare footage of Divine (backstage and onstage in The Neon Woman at Hurrah’s) and Jewel Box Revue lead performer Mr. Lynn Carter. This material is part of The Emerald City, a 1970s NYC public access cable television program that covered the gay community.



As has become a tradition at each edition’s premiere, concert pianist and drag diva Jacqueline Jonee will open the screening with a performance on the Bruno Walter Auditorium’s grand piano accompanying a slide show of NYC drag photographs. This year’s featured photographer is Ves Pitts. Previous featured photographers have included Ande Whyland and Derrick Little.

Drag historian Joe E. Jeffreys produces and directs Drag Show Video Verite. His video work has screened at festivals including The London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Cine Kink, New Fest and Reeling. Jeffreys has written on male and female impersonation in encyclopedias, anthologies, academic journals, and periodicals including Time Out New York and The Village Voice.

Drag Show Video Verite’s various editions have subsequently screened at the Fire Island Film and Video Festival, The Fresh Fruit Festival, La Mama, The Gene Frankel Theatre, and The LGBT Center as well as universities and for the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at CUNY.



“Ranging across New York’s unique drag heritage...much to stimulate and provoke.” The Guardian

“Brings back those halcyon , hairsprayed days and nights.” Time Out New York