The Sons of Tennessee Williams, tells the story of the gay men of New Orleans who created a vast and fantastic culture of wildly popular 'drag balls' starting in the late 1950s. These men worked with the traditions of Mardi Gras to bring gay culture into public settings in the early 1960s. By 1969, there were four gay Mardi Gras clubs legally chartered by the state of Louisiana, throwing yearly extravaganzas at civic venues around the city. 'Society matrons begged for ball tickets from their hairdressers'. They succeeded in bringing down the 'Jim Crow' type laws that targeted gay people during this period, staging a flamboyant, costumed revolution without politics and won freedoms during a time, as now, when laws and people fought against them. The documentary juxtaposes archival ball footage with straightforward interviews with the now elderly queens of yore, some of whom, we learn, had fathers who cheered when Kennedy was assassinated. They reminisce about the pleasures of dressing up as Scarlett O’Hara when they were little proto-gay children and finding a sense of community once a year, when it was legal to cross-dress in New Orleans
The documentary takes a simple—maybe too simple—approach, mixing archival footage with talking-head interviews and shots of people sewing sequins and applying makeup. And ostensibly, the movie is one long coming-out anecdote, divided among a dozen or so different people. It turn the subjects of history into character-less spokespeople delivering today’s lesson plan. None of the people being interviewed were interesting or had anything interesting to say about the whole thing. Neither the clothes, not the chat, nor the story; none of it holds your attention even of one minute. The film doesn't really educate you on anything and I am sad to say but this is one of the most boring and senseless documentaries I have seen on gay subculture. I'd avoid this. (1/10)
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