The Queen (1968 film)  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop


Featured:

The Queen is a 1968 American documentary film directed by Frank Simon and narrated by Flawless Sabrina. It depicts the experiences of the drag queens organizing and participating in the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Contest held at New York City's Town Hall.

Synopsis

Jack, a 24-year-old gay man living in New York and working as a drag queen named Flawless Sabrina, is the mistress of ceremonies for the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Contest. The competition operates on a points system: a maximum of five points each for walk, talk, bathing suit, gown, make-up and hair-do; and ten points for beauty.

In between rehearsing and performing, the contestants discuss topics such as draft boards, sexual identity, sex reassignment surgery, transgender identities, and being a drag queen. One contestant recounts receiving a draft notice and being turned away because of his feminine appearance, despite requesting to serve and protect his country.

Jack's protégé, Richard, performs under the name Rachel Harlow and enters the contest. Also competing is Crystal LaBeija (who would later become the founder of the House of LaBeija). Rachel and Crystal both make it into the top five, with each finalist completing a final runway walk into the audience, which includes Andy Warhol, George Plimpton and Terry Southern. Crystal places fourth, to her displeasure, and storms off the stage. Rachel is ultimately crowned as the winner.

Some contestants are shown protesting Rachel's win; Crystal states that the contest was fixed and that she may sue Sabrina. As they leave the building, Crystal runs into Rachel and Sabrina on the stairs where Sabrina denies the allegations. The film closes on Rachel out of drag, walking through the Port Authority Bus Terminal and twirling her crown on one hand.

Reception




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "The Queen (1968 film)" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Personal tools