Waxie Moon | |
---|---|
Directed by | Wes Hurley |
Written by | Wes Hurley |
Produced by | Wes Hurley |
Starring | Waxie Moon Miss Dirty Martini Miss Indigo Blue Paula the Swedish Housewife BenDeLaCreme |
Cinematography | Wes Hurley |
Edited by | Wes Hurley |
Music by | Eric Lane Barnes Jerry Peerson The Little Penguins Jeremiah Oliver Sarah Rudinoff |
Production company | I Ate My Eyes Films |
Running time | 70 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Waxie Moon is a documentary directed by Wes Hurley and centered on the gender-bending Juilliard-trained burlesque performer, Waxie Moon. The film captures the burgeoning and mostly-queer neo-burlesque community in Seattle in the 2000s. It features interviews with dozens of performers and artists, including the burlesque icons Miss Dirty Martini and Tigger!, author and performer Marya Sea Kaminski, drag superstar BenDeLaCreme, and many others. The film also includes the original song, titled "Waxie Moon", which was inspired by James Bond scores. The song was composed by Eric Lane Barnes of the Seattle Men's Chorus and Seattle Women's Chorus, and performed by Sarah Rudinoff and Paul Rosenberg.
Waxie Moon premiered in Austin, Texas, and went on to screen at the Anthology Film Archives, Echo Park Film Center, and at many festivals around the world, including a dozen screenings in Seattle. The film won Best Local Film at the Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, Jury Award for Best Film at Queer Fruits Film Festival in Australia, and Best Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Soundtrack at Love Unlimited Film Festival. It is available on video from TLAvideo. [1] [2] [3] [4]
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a 1975 independent musical comedy horror film produced by Lou Adler and Michael White, directed by Jim Sharman, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The screenplay was written by Jim Sharman and Richard O'Brien, who also played the supporting role Riff-raff. The film is based on the 1973 musical stage production The Rocky Horror Show, with music, book, and lyrics by O'Brien. The production is a tribute to the science fiction and horror B movies of the 1930s through to the early 1960s. The film stars Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Barry Bostwick. The film is narrated by Charles Gray, with cast members from the original Royal Court Theatre, Roxy Theatre, and Belasco Theatre productions, including Nell Campbell and Patricia Quinn.
The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) is a film festival held annually in Seattle, Washington, United States since 1976. It usually takes place in late May and/or early June. It is one of the largest festivals in the world, and features a diverse assortment of predominantly independent and foreign films, and a strong contingent of documentaries.
The Burlesque Hall of Fame (BHOF) is the world's only museum dedicated to the history, preservation, and future of the art of burlesque. Located in the Las Vegas Arts district at 1027 S Main st. #110, BHOF is a tourist destination and non-profit 501 (c)(3) educational organization offering tours of its vast Collection of costumes, memorabilia, props and ephemera from burlesque's heyday through contemporary practice; classes for individuals and groups at all levels including beginner; movie screenings; research access for students and journalists; and a gift shop.
Sarah Rudinoff is an American actress, singer, and writer. She was the recipient of a 2004 Genius Award from the Seattle, Washington alternative weekly newspaper The Stranger.
Grant-Lee Phillips is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He led the group Grant Lee Buffalo in the 1990s, afterwards launching a solo career. He features as the town troubadour in Gilmore Girls.
Neo-burlesque, or new burlesque, is the revival and updating of the traditional American burlesque performance. Though based on the traditional burlesque art, the new form encompasses a wider range of performance styles; neo-burlesque can include anything ranging from classic striptease to modern dance to theatrical mini-dramas to comedic mayhem.
Diverse Harmony is an American youth chorus based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 2002, it is the first Gay-Straight Alliance youth chorus in the United States. Today, Diverse Harmony is an LGBTQ-Ally youth chorus, and their stated mission is "to create a safe, affirming environment where everyone is accepted for who they are." In addition to singing members, the chorus has an extensive support network of volunteers, subscribers, and donors; they are also a non-profit organization. Diverse Harmony is a member of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses, and was the first youth chorus to participate in a GALA Choruses Festival. The chorus appeared in the independent film Why We Sing, which has been screened at LGBT film festivals and on PBS stations across the United States.
On Tour is a 2010 internationally co-produced comedy-drama film directed by Mathieu Amalric. It stars Amalric himself as a producer who brings an American Neo-Burlesque troupe to France, played by genuine performers Mimi Le Meaux, Kitten on the Keys, Dirty Martini, Julie Atlas Muz, Evie Lovelle and Roky Roulette. In a road movie narrative, the plot follows the troupe as they tour French port cities with their show, which was performed for actual audiences during the production. The inspiration for the film was a book by Colette about her experience from music halls in the early 20th century, and a part of Amalric's aim was to translate the sentiment of the book to a modern setting.
American burlesque is a genre of variety show derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall, and minstrel shows. Burlesque became popular in the United States in the late 1860s and slowly evolved to feature ribald comedy and female nudity. By the late 1920s, the striptease element overshadowed the comedy and subjected burlesque to extensive local legislation. Burlesque gradually lost its popularity, beginning in the 1940s. A number of producers sought to capitalize on nostalgia for the entertainment by recreating burlesque on the stage and in Hollywood films from the 1930s to the 1960s. There has been a resurgence of interest in this format since the 1990s.
Walk the Moon is an American rock band based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Lead singer Nicholas Petricca started the band in 2006, while a student at Kenyon College, deriving the band's name from the song "Walking on the Moon" by The Police. Although the band is best known for their most successful hit single to date "Shut Up and Dance", other notable songs include "Anna Sun" and "One Foot".
Kyiv International Film Festival "Molodist", also known as the Molodist International Film Festival, is an international film festival which takes place every October in Kyiv, Ukraine. It began in 1970 as a two-day festival of films, shot by students of Kyiv State Institute of Theatrical Arts, presenting 33 movies that year. In 2010, there were 439 films presented, making it the biggest film festival in Ukraine, with an audience of 127,000. The president of the festival is Andrii Khalpakhchi.
Wes Hurley is a Russian-American writer and filmmaker. He has collaborated with many theater, drag, and cabaret performers in Seattle and raised awareness of human rights violations in Russia.
Waxie Moon in Fallen Jewel is a 2011 pop-art musical comedy from cult filmmaker Wes Hurley. It stars the renowned performance artist Marc Kenison as his gender-bending burlesque personae Waxie Moon, as well as The Stranger Genius-award winners Sarah Rudinoff, Marya Sea Kaminski and John Osebold, Nick Garrison, Keira McDonald, Sage Price, Brandon Petty, Erin Emlyn Badenhop, Inga Ingenue, Lou Henry Hoover, with memorable cameos by Jinkx Monsoon, Lynn Shelton and Jackie Hell, among others. The film also features an original soundtrack with music by Campfire OK, Jose Bold, Gretta Harley, We Are Golden, the Little Penguins and Brendan Patrick Hogan. Two songs were arranged and recorded exclusively for the film by Eric Lane Barnes — his original composition "Everything is on Fire" performed by Sarah Rudinoff and a techno version of "Cold Song" performed by Nick Garrison. Wade Madsen, Anna Allen, Inga Ingenue and Waxie Moon choreographed the film's many dance sequences. Several hundred looks were created for over 200 performers by the costume and makeup designer Harmony Arnold. The Genius-award winner Jennifer Zeyl served as the art director for the film.
Waxie Moon is a gender-bending neo-burlesque persona of the performer Marc Kenison. Kenison studied modern dance at Juilliard School and acting at University of Washington. During his six years dancing for the José Limón Company, Kenison performed for the White House and toured other parts of the world, including the war-torn Sarajevo and El Salvador. After co-founding the Washington Ensemble Theater in Seattle, Kenison turned to burlesque and created Waxie Moon, whom he describes as "the gender-blending queer lady boylesque performance art solo stripping sensation".
BenDeLaCreme is the stage persona of Benjamin Brock Hamlet Putnam, an American drag queen, burlesque performer, and actor based in Seattle, Washington. He is known for being a contestant on the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race and the third season of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars. He is also known for his solo shows Ready To Be Committed, Terminally Delightful, Inferno A-Go-Go and Cosmos, and as co-creator and host of burlesque revues Freedom Fantasia and Homo for the Holidays.
Capitol Hill is a comedy-horror soap opera web series, which premiered on The Huffington Post website in 2014. The series was created, written, directed and produced by Wes Hurley. The show is named after Seattle's historic Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Yoyo A Go Go, usually abbreviated to Yoyo and often typeset in various ways, was an independent music festival in Olympia, Washington, first held in 1994 and followed by successor festivals in 1997, 1999, and 2001. Five- and six-day concert marathons featured dozens of punk and indie rock acts stacked back to back, as well as a variety of associated entertainment and small-scale local retail. The concerts took place at the historic Capitol Theater and showcased performers from the local Olympia music scene, while also including national and international artists.
Seattle has a notably large LGBTQ community, and the city of Seattle has protected gay and lesbian workers since the passage of the Fair Employment Practice Ordinance in 1973. Seattle's LGBT culture has been celebrated at Seattle Pride which began in 1977 as Gay Pride Week. Gay cabaret traveled in a circuit including Seattle and San Francisco since the 1930s. Seattle had gay-friendly clubs and bars since the 1930s including The Casino in Underground Seattle at Pioneer Square which allowed same-sex dancing since 1930, and upstairs from it, The Double Header, in continuous operation since 1933 or 1934 until 2015, was thought to be the oldest gay bar in the United States.
Gina Young is an American writer, director, playwright, songwriter and performer. They are a vocal member of the LGBTQ community and are openly queer and nonbinary, using both she and they pronouns. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild, The Ring of Keys, and The Kilroys. They are a winner of the HUMANITAS/PLAY LA Prize, and the Jane Chambers Award for Playwriting for their play Femmes: A Tragedy. Their work has been presented by The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), REDCAT, and The Hammer Museum.