A PRIDE CELEBRATION! Two films featuring the groundbreaking psychedelic drag performance troupe that sparked a revolution! THE COCKETTES combined the hippie movement with the LGBTQ world by challenging oppressive norms with exhuberant joy and creativity.
DOORS 8PM, FILMS BEGIN 8:30PM, All are encouraged to come dressed à la the Cockettes, thematic cockette-tails will be available! Mature audiences only. Your Ticket includes Popcorn, Glittery Treats & Raffle Entry!
“The Cockettes” (Directed by Bill Weber and David Weissman, 2005, 99 mins)
It all began in Haight-Ashbury at the Kaliflower Commune in 1969 when George Edgerly Harris III, who by then was known as Hibiscus, formed the first incarnation of the Cockettes, a multiracial theater company featuring members of a variety of genders and sexual orientations, all bathing in glamour and LSD. Making their debut at the Palace Theater in North Beach on New Year’s Eve, the Cockettes quickly became counterculture heroes in San Francisco, quite literally, the world would never be the same.
The Documentary follows the groundbreaking psychedelic drag performance troupe from its formation amid San Francisco’s commune scene in 1969 to its infamous off-Broadway debut in 1971, and beyond. Nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, and named the best non-fiction film of 2002 by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, “The Cockettes” blends archival footage and interviews to conjure the energetic spirit of cultural, sexual and personal liberation that informed and inspired them.
CRITICAL ACCLAIM:
“A fascinatingly detailed snapshot of the flamboyant outer reaches of countercultural San Francisco in the hippie years and an emotional celebration of diversity, liberation, sexual anarchy and fabulousness, “The Cockettes” joyously re-creates the brief but resplendent reign of the legendary freakadelic drag troupe… . The climate of all-embracing acceptance, blurred sexual lines, joyful transgression, rebellion and freedom comes through with warmth, humor and nostalgia.”— David Rooney, Daily Variety
After the documentary we will screen the short “Tricia’s Wedding”, newly restored in 4k! The Cockettes’ dazzling and hilariously irreverent underground-film spoof of the televised wedding of Tricia Nixon, daughter of President Richard Nixon, in the White House Rose Garden.
Tricia’s Wedding (1971, 33 mins). The world-famous Cockettes—including disco superstar Sylvester— orchestrated a decidedly queer, hysterically funny, guerilla drag theatre dramatization of the solemn rite that joined Patricia Nixon and Edward Cox in holy matrimony. It was the first movie the Cockettes made and premiered at the Palace Theater in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco on the very day of the happy event, June 12, 1971. Shot by exploitation king, Mark Lester, outrageousness prevails when Eartha Kitt spikes the reception punch with LSD and pandemonium results. A wild orgy ensues as reserved guests tear off their clothes in a final scene, complete with Mahalia Jackson wielding a bull whip. Not only is the Cockettes’ movie much livelier than the original televised ceremony, it includes the all-too-brief screen debut of Tomata du Plenty, five years before he formed the seminal art-punk band The Screamers in Los Angeles. Come revel in psychedelic debauchery as you’ve never seen it before with a new pristine 4K remaster commissioned by Frameline and the OutFest UCLA Legacy Project and facilitated by the UCLA Film & Television Archive for the 50th anniversary of this queer cinema landmark.
