“[The Cockettes, in TRICIA’S WEDDING] imaged and imagined a negation of ruling order, using satirical doubling and the violation of taboos to terrorize the notion of the paternalistic state… They at first appear to relish the pretense of importance they are mimicking, an act of class drag that exaggerates their own social status. Soon, though [after “Eartha Kitt” (Anton Dunnigan) spikes the punch bowl with LSD], the pious wedding ceremony descends into the narrative’s Bacchanalian climax, desecrating the pious order of Nixon’s heteronormative ritual.” — Malik Gaines*
In a tribute to the gloriously transgressive, acid-tripping San Francisco performance troupe, the Transnation Film Festival presents a screening of three Cockettes classics—TRICIA’S WEDDING, ELEVATORGIRLS IN BONDAGE, and PALACE—introduced by original Cockette Fayette Hauser.
TRICIA’S WEDDING, ELEVATOR GIRLS IN BONDAGE, and PALACE, Saturday, October 14, at 9:30 pm.
TRANSNATION FILM FESTIVAL 2017, hosted by ZACKARY DRUCKER, October 13–15
SILENT MOVIE THEATRE, 611 North Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles.
transnationfestival.org/2017-film-festival/
*Malik Gaines, “The Cockettes, Sylvester, and Performance as Life,” in Black Performance on the Outskirts of the Left: A History of the Impossible (New York: NYU Press, 2017).
Tricia’s Wedding production stills and poster.
Top, from left: Dusty, John Flowers, and Gary Cherry. Middle, from left: Kreemah Ritz, Bobby, Steven Arnold, Johnny, unidentified, John Rothermel.
Photographs by Scott Runyon. Poster by Todd Trexler, 1972.
