17 June 2018
London
6pm
Queerdirect is excited to screen Wu Tsang’s Wildness as part of our monthly queer films series at Almanac.
Wildness is a portrait of the Silver Platter, a historic gay bar on the east side of Los Angeles that has been a part of the Latin gay community since 1963. Today it is an important safe space for young trans women who are predominantly immigrating from Mexico and Central America. The bar itself becomes a character in the film as a figure in magic realism. Voiced by a transgender actress from Guatemala, it tells histories of the LGBT community for whom it has provided sanctuary and a ‘safe space’ for generations.
In 2008, a group of young queer artists started a party called Wildness. This weekly queer club showcased drag, contemporary art, and international dance music - a compelling contrast to the native scene on the weekends.
The film captures the creativity and conflict that ensues within the bar’s communities and the Silver Platter becomes a charged forum for forging coalitions and exploring class, community and activism.
Though innovative and playful story-telling, WILDNESS both celebrates and looks critically at creativity, nightlife, race, class, gentrification, and social movements, examining the politics of partying.
Wildness received its world premiere at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight. Wu Tsang’s work has been shown recently in the 2012 Whitney Biennial and New Museum Triennial in New York, the ICA Philadelphia, MOCA Los Angeles and the Gwangju Biennial (South Korea). Tsang is a 2012 Louis Comfort Tiffany Fellow and has received support from the Good Works Foundation, Frameline, the Wexner Center for the Arts, the IFP Documentary Lab, Art Matters, and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Writers: Wu Tsang and Roya Rastegar
Producer: Kathy Rivkin
Camera: Michelle Lawler
Editors: Claire Didier and Wu Tsang
Original Music: NGUZUNGUZU, Total Freedom and Robbie Williamson
www.queerdirect.com
