THE COCKETTES -------------
1969, Haight Ashbury. As free love and flower powered reigned in the streets of San Francisco, gay culture began to take hold of the city. The dreams of a man called Hibiscus, the harbinger of the glitter movement, to present free artistic performances gave birth to a short-lived but highly influential theater troupe known as "The Cockettes."
Directors David Weissman and Bill Weber discovered common bonds, including a fascination for this legendary underground group. Having never made a documentary before, the duo set out to contact the remaining members of the group (many had died of drug overdoses and A.I.D.s). Cockette Martin Worman, who died in 1993, had begun a PhD dissertation on the group and his partner turned over a treasure trove of archival footage and stills to the filmmakers.
The structure of the documentary follows the standard rise and fall of a 'star' who began with the best of intentions but became corrupted by outside influences. But this star was about so much more than show business. "The Cockettes" documents the hippy principles and sexual revolution of the day, the newfound identity of a city and the deep wedge that divides the West Coast outlook and lifestyle from its Eastern counterpart.
Memory lapses divide recollections as to whether The Cockettes performed their first show at the Palace Theater on Halloween or New Year's Eve. This group of gay men, straight women and the children they produced were joyfully uninhibited amateurs with a theatrical flair that laid the groundwork for glitter rock and "The Rocky Horror Show." Filmmaker John Waters, a San Francisco resident at the time, was a fan who pitched in sewing sequins.
The group evolved from unstructured revues to suggestive productions like "The
Pearls of Shanghai" and films like "Elevator Girls in Bondage." Their most notorious production was the parody film "Tricia's Wedding," which was denounced by the Nixon White House. After ecstatic reviews from the likes of Truman Capote and Rex Reed, "The Cockettes" traveled to the Big Apple, but their innocent exuberance puzzled the city sophisticates and they flopped. As individual members began to emerge as personalities in their own right (Sylvester became a disco star, Hibiscus became a soap star under his real name of George Harris) and Marxist ideals lost their luster in the face of economic realities, the group disbanded in 1972.
Weissman and Weber take a great subject and do it justice, having been blessed by decades old footage that looks so crisp it is difficult to believe one is watcing the real thing and not a reenactment. Ironically, the Haight Ashbury answer to Andy Warhol's Factory was done in by what made it different. The group deserves to be every bit as well know, though, and "The Cockettes" is the microcosm of a culture entertainingly tied up in a ninety minute package.
B+
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