Strike a Pose
- Director: Ester Gould; Reijer Zwaan
CGiii Comment
How can you be homophobic? I mean...you look like a parrot!
Best line in the whole film.
The poignancy of this film cannot be ignored...especially when the first generation who had to face and fight the HIV/AIDS onslaught...well, they/we are rapidly approaching retirement age...those, that is, who were lucky enough to survive such a merciless bombardment...because, dear hearts - in the beginning - it really was down to luck. The film will explain!
All the dancers have grown...older, more portly, gone grey...and, mellowed.
Their blonde ambition aftermath: booze, barbs, balderdash, big heads and bitterness...that brush with fame, their minute in the spotlight and the carnage that followed the fallout.
This is catharsis for each and all...
A beautifully composed, touching, tender and tearful film...for them...and, for us.
RIP Gabriel...
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
For her ‘Blond Ambition’ tour in 1990, pop superstar Madonna was looking for performers who knew how to vogue. Out of countless hopefuls, the gay dancers Salim, Kevin, Carlton, José, Luis and Gabriel were chosen along with breakdancer Oliver, the only straight guy. The tour was accompanied by a film crew and Madonna cast herself in the role of mother figure of her stage family. The boys soon found fans among homosexual youths who saw them as role models, while the tour came to epitomise Madonna’s commitment to gay liberation and the acknowledgement of AIDS. But the idyll fell apart when Gabriel, Kevin and Oliver sued against their involuntary outing as gay men brought about by the film In Bed with Madonna. In 1995 Gabriel died of AIDS-related illness, while the others continued to pursue their professional careers. Now, twenty-five years after their time together, the six surviving performers are reunited and long-buried secrets are aired. The filmmakers excel at telling the stories of these very different dancers whilst carefully calling into question the official version of events in order to edge closer to the truth.