Wig
- Director: Chris Moukarbel
- Producer: David Burtka; Bruce Cohen; Neil Patrick Harris
CGiii Comment
Compositionally speaking, it's a little bit erratic...but, hey, drag isn't exactly the epitome of composure!
Way back in 1995, Wigstock: The Movie was released, Wig adds a little bit more to the story via hindsight, maturity and nostalgia...oooh there's nothing quite like a reminiscent elderly queen...and, with all the archival [previously unseen] footage, makes for a most welcome update.
It really is one for drag aficionados...a rough-and-ready contemporary history of the begowned ones. From those humble [Wigstock] beginnings...to where drag is now, it's a staggering journey.
Drag has upped its game a hundred-fold...Rupaul & Co certainly raised the benchmark to a heady and unrecognisable level. Gone are the days...in a grotty old, smoke-filled pub with blackened out windows and sticky carpets...the 'star' attraction being a tired old queen in a bargain-bin frock that had been savagely attacked by a [feather] boa, sporting a bedraggled wig held up and together by years of lacquer, make-up apllied with a trowel and lip-synching to 'I am What I am'...those were the days, my friend, I thought they would never end...but, they did!
Sweet, sweet nostalgia.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Wigstock was an annual drag festival which glamorously signaled the end of summer for the gay community in New York City for almost 20 years. Late one night in 1984, Lady Bunny and a few friends drunkenly wandered from the Pyramid Club in the East Village to Tompkins Square Park and staged an impromptu drag show in the bandshell. This would soon become an annual drag bacchanal that lasted up until 2001. And now, Lady Bunny has brought it back. This past summer, the festival returned, bringing together legendary queens with some of the new children of drag, into one of the largest drag performances ever staged. Wig explores the origins and the influence of the historic festival through rich archival footage, as well as provides a look into the contemporary drag movement that the festival served as a foundation for. Wig is a celebration of New York drag culture, and those personalities and performances that contribute to the ways we understand queerness, art, and identity today.
Cast & Characters
Joey Arias
Kevin Aviance
Willam Belli
Lady Bunny
David Burtka
Flotilla Debarge
Neil Patrick Harris
Charlene Incarnate
Lypsinka
Dina Martina
Linda Simpson
Tabboo!
Alaska Thunderfuck
Lahoma Van Zandt