''The Queen'' is a 1968 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

directed by Frank Simon and narrated by

Flawless Sabrina Flawless Sabrina (September 10, 1939 – November 18, 2017), also known as Mother Flawless Sabrina, was an American LGBT activist, drag queen, performer, and actress, based in New York City. Flawless Sabrina was a pioneer for transgender people a ...

. 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 In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

. The film was screened at the

International Critics' Week The International Critics' Week (french: Semaine de la Critique) was founded in 1962 and is organized by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics. It was created following the showing of '' The Connection'' directed by Shirley Clarke which had been ...

section of the 1968 Cannes Film Festival; however, the festival was ultimately curtailed and ended due to ongoing civil unrest in France before any awards could be given out. First released in the United States in June 1968 to generally positive reviews, it was subsequently screened in France (November 1968), Netherlands (1969), Denmark (1969), and Finland (1969). The film was revived in January 2013 at New York Film Forum, followed by a

4K restoration 4K, 4-K or 4k may refer to: * 4000 (number) * Four kibibytes (4 × 1024 bytes, better written 4 KiB) ** 4K disk sector size (Advanced Format) ** 4K demoscene compo, a computer art competition using programs limited to 4 kibibytes ** The Java 4K G ...

screened during the 2019

Melbourne International Film Festival The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is an annual film festival held over three weeks in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1952 and is one of the oldest film festivals in the world following the founding of the Venice Film Fest ...

. In 2020,

Kino Lorber Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art house films, ...

released a Blu-ray of the restored version of ''The Queen'', with bonus additional footage, an interview with Flawless Sabrina, and ''

Queens at Heart ''Queens at Heart'' is an American short film described as both a documentary and an exploitation film in which four trans women are interviewed about their lives. It was produced in the mid-1960s. The film was digitally preserved in 2009 by th ...

'' as additional features.

Synopsis

Jack, a 24-year-old gay man living in New York and working as a

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part o ...

named

, 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 Sexual identity is how one thinks of oneself in terms of to whom one is romantically and/or sexually attracted.
''Sex ...

sex reassignment surgery Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a transgender or transsexual person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their identified gender, and alle ...

, transgender identities, and being a drag queen. One contestant, Pepper Labeija 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 Crystal LaBeija (born 1930s, died 1990s) was an American drag queen and trans woman who founded the House of LaBeija in 1968. The House is often credited as starting the house system in ball culture. She became a mother figure for homeless LGBT ...

(who would later become the founder of the

House of LaBeija The Royal House of LaBeija is a prominent drag family founded by Crystal LaBeija and Lottie LaBeija in 1972. Crystal and Lottie established the House of LaBeija in response to the racially oppressive drag pageant system of 1960s America. Their f ...

). 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 Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

George Plimpton George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American writer. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found ''The Paris Review'', as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. He was also known for " ...

and

Terry Southern Terry Southern (May 1, 1924 – October 29, 1995) was an American novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and university lecturer, noted for his distinctive satirical style. Part of the Paris postwar literary movement in the 1950s and a companion to ...

. 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 The Port Authority Bus Terminal (colloquially known as the Port Authority and by its acronym PABT) is a bus station, bus terminal located in Manhattan in New York City. It is the busiest bus terminal in the world by volume of traffic, serving abo ...

and twirling her crown on one hand.

Reception

Critical response

The documentary originally opened to generally positive reviews in June 1968, when first released in the United States, with subsequent releases across Europe in 1968 and 1969. In January 2013, ''The Queen'' was revived at the

Film Forum Film Forum is a nonprofit movie theater at 209 West Houston Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. It began in 1970 as an alternative screening space for independent films, with 50 folding chairs, one projector and a $19,000 annual budget. Kare ...

in New York, then restored in 2019 by

for screenings at the

IFC Center IFC Center is an art house movie theater in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. Located at 323 Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) at West 3rd Street, it was formerly the Waverly Theater, an art house movie theater. IFC Center is ...

and

. In a 1968 ''The New York Times'' review, Renata Adler called the film an "extraordinary documentary" that "shows us another America." Andrew Sarris from ''Village Voice'' stated "The drag queen contestants are eminently likable in curiously peripheral ways." In a retrospective piece written after the film's restoration, Jerry Portwood of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' described the film as "extraordinary because it captures so much, doubling as a time capsule of a generation's innocence and fashion-forward sophistication. You can tell why it functioned as a template for many future gender-nonconforming people looking for some sort of pre-internet guide through the confusing maze of sexuality and gender."

Influence on popular culture

The film's concluding scene featuring Crystal LaBeija has led to ''The Queen'' become a "cult favourite"; Crystal's speech was sampled in the track "Ambience 001" in Frank Ocean's album ''

Endless Endless or The Endless may refer to: Business * Endless (private equity), a British firm * Endless.com, an e-commerce website selling shoes and accessories * Endless Computers, an American operating system company Film * ''The Endless'' (film ...

'', and drag queen Aja (who would later join the House of LaBeija) impersonated LaBeija in

season three A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

of '' RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars''. ''The Queen'' has often been compared to '' Paris Is Burning'', a documentary focusing on the New York City drag ball scene of the 1980s, which includes in its cast members of the House of LaBeija.

References

External links