Pageant | |
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Directed by | Ron Davis Stewart Halpern |
Produced by | Ron Davis Stewart Halpern |
Starring | Carl Glorioso Anthony Brewer David Lowman Robert Martin Victor Bowling Alyssa Edwards |
Cinematography | Clay Westervelt |
Edited by | Bill Haugse James Cude |
Release date |
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Pageant is a 2008 documentary film directed and produced together by Ron Davis and Stewart Halpern. The film explored the behind-the-scenes dramas and realities of the 34th Miss Gay America Contest held in 2004. The film's central theme was the universal desire to be beautiful, noticed and chosen. The film garnered 10 film festival awards before airing on the Sundance Channel in 2010. [1]
While some reviewers, such as Martin Tsai from The Village Voice felt that the film only skimmed along the surface insanity saying that "filmmakers Ron Davis and Stewart Halpern-Fingerhut's treatment is only skin-deep, eschewing any exploration of gender politics or psychological effects induced by the ubiquitous ugly-duckling-turned-swan narrative." [2] Other reviewers such as Nathan Lee in the New York Times felt that it was "not without its charm, and it's touching, in a goofy sort of way, to see how seriously everyone takes it." [3] George Williamson in An Eye for Film described it as "... an entertaining portrait of some wonderfully larger than life characters, a mind blowing amount of effort and an incredible desire to win." [4] Michael Klemm from Cinemaqueer recommended it saying "If you just want a good time, you can't go wrong with Pageant. [5] Anyone who likes to indulge their inner divas should be enthralled." Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 85% approval rating.[ citation needed ]
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Catherine Crouch is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, and actor. She has been active in independent film-making for over two decades. Most of her work explores gender, race, and class in lesbian and queer lives. She is known for Stranger Inside (2001), Stray Dogs (2002), and The Gendercator (2007).
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Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement is a 2009 American documentary film directed and produced by Susan Muska and Gréta Ólafsdóttir for their company Bless Bless Productions, in association with Sundance Channel. The film tells the story of the long-term lesbian relationship between Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer, including their respective childhoods, their meeting in 1963, their lives and careers in New York City, Thea's diagnosis with multiple sclerosis and Edie's care for her partner, and their wedding in Toronto, Canada, in May 2007, because gay marriage was not then legal in their home state of New York.
Dzi Croquettes is a 2009 Brazilian documentary film directed by Tatiana Issa and Raphael Alvarez about the dance and theater group of the same name.
Training Rules is a 2009 American documentary co-produced and co-directed by Dee Mosbacher and Fawn Yacker. It is narrated by Diana Nyad.
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Dylan Riis Verrechia is a Barthélemois award-winning film director, auteur, screenwriter, and producer. He grew up in Saint Barthélemy, French West Indies, and was bedridden at age 8 from severe ankylosing spondylitis for ten years. A graduate with honors of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Verrechia's movies have screened at film festivals around the world.
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Cloudburst is a 2011 Canadian-American comedy-drama film written and directed by Thom Fitzgerald and starring Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker. The film is an adaptation of Fitzgerald's 2010 play of the same name. Cloudburst premiered at the Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia on September 16, 2011. It opened in a limited release in Canada on December 7, 2012.
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