Wigging Out
The following documentary features my friend Chris, who runs my favorite video store in Portland. The film is currently showing on the Sundance Channel, and it's making the rounds at lesbian and gay film festivals across the country. It will play at the Portland Lesbian and Gay Film Festival at 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 7.
Follow My Voice: With the Music of Hedwig
Grade: A-
Hedwig and the Angry Inch – the cult musical about a sexually ambiguous East German punk singer – is a gift that keeps on giving.
The ingenious collaboration between composer Stephen Trask and actor John Cameron Mitchell premiered off-Broadway in 1998 and went on to become a successful indie film in 2001.
To the delight of “Hedheads,” the pet name for Hedwig fans, Portlander Chris Slusarenko devised yet another format for the musical. Slusarenko, who owns Clinton Street Video, is a record producer and occasional bassist for the band Guided by Voices.
Katherine Linton’s excellent new documentary Follow My Voice captures Slusarenko’s efforts to produce Wig in a Box, a 2003 Hedwig tribute album that benefits The Harvey Milk School at the Hetrick-Martin Institute for queer youth in New York City. The CD, which features cover songs by everyone from Jonathan Richman to Sleater-Kinney, has raised over $25,000 for the school.
On one level this is a film about music, and a damned good one at that. Linton’s camera leads us into intimate studios where Rufus Wainwright smokes as he sings, and Kim and Kelley Deal of The Breeders banter between takes of “Wicked Little Town.” In one of the most amusing sequences, a playful Yoko Ono tells John Cameron Mitchell to nudge her when its time for her to belt out the vocals for the electrifying song “Exquisite Corpse.”
But for sheer drama, the celebrities take a back seat to the four Harvey Milk students profiled for the film. Tenaja Jordan is a strong-minded black lesbian who must fend for herself when her Jehovah’s Witness family exiles her from home. Raphael “Ralphy” Ramos is a spirited Latino who attends Harvey Milk because he regularly faced abuse at his former school.
Angel Santiago is a troubled transgendered teen driven to self-destructive behavior because her parents force her to dress like a boy. Her sad tale plays in stark contrast to Mey Bun, a lesbian who overcomes many of her insecurities to become an international fashion model.
The only consistently frustrating thing about Follow My Voice is that Linton fails to provide sufficient information about the background and daily operations of The Hetrick-Martin Institute and The Harvey Milk School, an odd omission considering that the main purpose of Slusarenko’s project is to raise awareness about these organizations.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch – the cult musical about a sexually ambiguous East German punk singer – is a gift that keeps on giving.
The ingenious collaboration between composer Stephen Trask and actor John Cameron Mitchell premiered off-Broadway in 1998 and went on to become a successful indie film in 2001.
To the delight of “Hedheads,” the pet name for Hedwig fans, Portlander Chris Slusarenko devised yet another format for the musical. Slusarenko, who owns Clinton Street Video, is a record producer and occasional bassist for the band Guided by Voices.
Katherine Linton’s excellent new documentary Follow My Voice captures Slusarenko’s efforts to produce Wig in a Box, a 2003 Hedwig tribute album that benefits The Harvey Milk School at the Hetrick-Martin Institute for queer youth in New York City. The CD, which features cover songs by everyone from Jonathan Richman to Sleater-Kinney, has raised over $25,000 for the school.
On one level this is a film about music, and a damned good one at that. Linton’s camera leads us into intimate studios where Rufus Wainwright smokes as he sings, and Kim and Kelley Deal of The Breeders banter between takes of “Wicked Little Town.” In one of the most amusing sequences, a playful Yoko Ono tells John Cameron Mitchell to nudge her when its time for her to belt out the vocals for the electrifying song “Exquisite Corpse.”
But for sheer drama, the celebrities take a back seat to the four Harvey Milk students profiled for the film. Tenaja Jordan is a strong-minded black lesbian who must fend for herself when her Jehovah’s Witness family exiles her from home. Raphael “Ralphy” Ramos is a spirited Latino who attends Harvey Milk because he regularly faced abuse at his former school.
Angel Santiago is a troubled transgendered teen driven to self-destructive behavior because her parents force her to dress like a boy. Her sad tale plays in stark contrast to Mey Bun, a lesbian who overcomes many of her insecurities to become an international fashion model.
The only consistently frustrating thing about Follow My Voice is that Linton fails to provide sufficient information about the background and daily operations of The Hetrick-Martin Institute and The Harvey Milk School, an odd omission considering that the main purpose of Slusarenko’s project is to raise awareness about these organizations.
posted by Stephen @ 2:25 PM
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