Director Joseph Castel: "Although, "Nelly Queen: The Life & Times of Jose Sarria", will not be in San Francisco's Frameline's Virtual Film Festival this year, the festival committee is anxious to screen it next June for Pride Month (2021), hopefully, in a San Francisco theatre, if health codes permit."
To read the article in its entirety, please click the link below to "The Bay Area Reporter" website.
Documenting queer lives: Outfest & Docfest's LGBT selections
by Brian Bromberger
Tuesday Sep 1, 2020
During these COVID-19 times and its accompanying restrictions, feature filmmakers have been hampered in starting and finishing their projects. However, because their crews tend to be smaller, documentarians have been able to continue some production because they often use archival footage material and small-scale interviews, which provide safer working conditions.
Thus, it is likely we will be seeing more documentaries made in the coming year, a possible boom time for the genre. As if portending this trend, both the 19th Annual San Francisco DocFest (September 3-20) and OutFest (the Los Angeles version of Frameline) are offering several excellent LGBTQ documentaries, available for streaming at home, since the pandemic has resulted in the cancellation of theatrical screenings.
Thus, it is likely we will be seeing more documentaries made in the coming year, a possible boom time for the genre. As if portending this trend, both the 19th Annual San Francisco DocFest (September 3-20) and OutFest (the Los Angeles version of Frameline) are offering several excellent LGBTQ documentaries, available for streaming at home, since the pandemic has resulted in the cancellation of theatrical screenings.
Nelly best
Another winning documentary at OutFest is Nelly Queen: The Life and Times of Jose Sarria, the first film to explore the inimitable SF gay Latino drag performer. Produced and directed by Joe Castel, this is an intimate portrait of the milestone contributions made by Sarria towards LGBTQ equality.
Castel, as a graduate student, read about Sarria's inspiring activism in historian John D'Emilio's book, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities. When he moved to California in 1991, he befriended Sarria, who also became his mentor. He began to tape Sarria's cabaret performances, political theatrics, and informal interviews at the kitchen table beginning in 1992 until Jose's death in 2013 (his glittering funeral was held at Grace Cathedral).
Nelly Queen charts Sarria's rise as a drag entertainer at The Black Cat Cafe/bar during the 1950s, where he built a supportive community of gay patrons with the slogan, "United we stand, divided they will catch us one by one."
Courageously he stood up to the corrupt police and vice squad, summoning patrons to defend their rights by teaching them how to defy unjust laws, such as when undercover officers entered the cafe to entrap people he had customers stand up and sing with him, "God, Save Us Nelly Queens," a raucous variant of Britain's national anthem.
When the police threatened to close down all gay bars in 1961, Sarria became the first openly gay man to run for public office (in heels too) as City Supervisor, 11 years before Harvey Milk. Although he lost, receiving almost 6000 votes, he proved that LGBTQ people could be a potent political force in SF.
After the Black Cat closed in 1964, Sarria began the second largest LGBTQ organization in the country, the Imperial Courts, modeled after European royalty, anointing himself the Empress Widow Norton. The 70 chapters have raised millions of dollars for AIDS and other LGBTQ causes.
Sarria was the first gay person to have a street named after him in SF. Nelly Queen is a triumph, alternating invaluable historical footage with bittersweet revelatory interviews (especially his regrets about Jimmy, the alcoholic love of his life), showing how a marginalized outcast fought unjust laws and united an often fractured community by giving them a political and social identity.
Nelly Queen won Best Audience Feature Film award at the Long Beach Q Film Festival and was recognized by the State Senate as a significant film on the history of LGBTQ culture. Sadly, Frameline audiences will not get to see this very fine documentary. Castel submitted the documentary to Frameline but they did not select it.
When emailed by the B.A.R., Frameline gave no explanation for this significant omission of a masterful homage to a San Francisco gay icon, but instead said viewers will see a sneak preview of a 40-minute episode of Equal, a docu-drama series on the forgotten heroes of the LGBTQ movement, produced by HBO Max and through its parent company, WarnerMedia, one of the major corporate sponsors of Frameline.
WarnerMedia, in an email exchange with the B.A.R., refused to disclose how much money they donate to the festival. This one episode, in addition to featuring a minor re-enactment of Sarria (played by Jai Rodriguez), will also showcase Bayard Rustin and Lorraine Hansberry.
(Editor's note: On Sept. 9, Frameline Executive Director James Woolley said that Nelly Queen is scheduled to screen at Frameline45 in 2021.)
Another winning documentary at OutFest is Nelly Queen: The Life and Times of Jose Sarria, the first film to explore the inimitable SF gay Latino drag performer. Produced and directed by Joe Castel, this is an intimate portrait of the milestone contributions made by Sarria towards LGBTQ equality.
Castel, as a graduate student, read about Sarria's inspiring activism in historian John D'Emilio's book, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities. When he moved to California in 1991, he befriended Sarria, who also became his mentor. He began to tape Sarria's cabaret performances, political theatrics, and informal interviews at the kitchen table beginning in 1992 until Jose's death in 2013 (his glittering funeral was held at Grace Cathedral).
Nelly Queen charts Sarria's rise as a drag entertainer at The Black Cat Cafe/bar during the 1950s, where he built a supportive community of gay patrons with the slogan, "United we stand, divided they will catch us one by one."
Courageously he stood up to the corrupt police and vice squad, summoning patrons to defend their rights by teaching them how to defy unjust laws, such as when undercover officers entered the cafe to entrap people he had customers stand up and sing with him, "God, Save Us Nelly Queens," a raucous variant of Britain's national anthem.
When the police threatened to close down all gay bars in 1961, Sarria became the first openly gay man to run for public office (in heels too) as City Supervisor, 11 years before Harvey Milk. Although he lost, receiving almost 6000 votes, he proved that LGBTQ people could be a potent political force in SF.
After the Black Cat closed in 1964, Sarria began the second largest LGBTQ organization in the country, the Imperial Courts, modeled after European royalty, anointing himself the Empress Widow Norton. The 70 chapters have raised millions of dollars for AIDS and other LGBTQ causes.
Sarria was the first gay person to have a street named after him in SF. Nelly Queen is a triumph, alternating invaluable historical footage with bittersweet revelatory interviews (especially his regrets about Jimmy, the alcoholic love of his life), showing how a marginalized outcast fought unjust laws and united an often fractured community by giving them a political and social identity.
Nelly Queen won Best Audience Feature Film award at the Long Beach Q Film Festival and was recognized by the State Senate as a significant film on the history of LGBTQ culture. Sadly, Frameline audiences will not get to see this very fine documentary. Castel submitted the documentary to Frameline but they did not select it.
When emailed by the B.A.R., Frameline gave no explanation for this significant omission of a masterful homage to a San Francisco gay icon, but instead said viewers will see a sneak preview of a 40-minute episode of Equal, a docu-drama series on the forgotten heroes of the LGBTQ movement, produced by HBO Max and through its parent company, WarnerMedia, one of the major corporate sponsors of Frameline.
WarnerMedia, in an email exchange with the B.A.R., refused to disclose how much money they donate to the festival. This one episode, in addition to featuring a minor re-enactment of Sarria (played by Jai Rodriguez), will also showcase Bayard Rustin and Lorraine Hansberry.
(Editor's note: On Sept. 9, Frameline Executive Director James Woolley said that Nelly Queen is scheduled to screen at Frameline45 in 2021.)
