New York on Film: The Queen

Join us for a screening of The Queen (Frank Simon, 1968, 68 min). More than 40 years before RuPaul's Drag Race, this ground-breaking documentary about the 1967 Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant introduced audiences to the world of competitive drag. The film takes us behind the scenes with the contestants as they rehearse, throw shade, and transform into their drag personas in the lead-up to the big event. A vibrant piece of queer history, the film's final scene featuring drag queen Crystal LaBeija is an origin moment for the Ballroom scene. Crystal’s experience of racism competing in the white-led drag pageant captured in The Queen informed her decision to found the House of LaBeija, heavily featured in the trailblazing documentary Paris Is Burning (1990).

The program begins with the short film Square Times (1967, Rudolph Burckhardt, 6.5 min).  This mid-20th century experimental short traverses a typical Saturday night on 42nd Street circa 1966 from dusk to dawn: take in the glamour, the garbage, the hot dogs, the movies, the sex and the violence in the air. Music by The Supremes.

Introduced by Aja: Aja portrayed Crystal Labeija, in the Snatch Game on Ru Paul's Drag Race: All Stars Season 3. In The Queen (1968), Crystal Labeija calls out the racial bias of the pageant scene, and would go on to form the influential House of LaBeija.

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