I'm a man in a dress, and I'm not afraid to show that

April 18, 2015 10:03 PM

Beautiful by Night is a short documentary by James Hosking about veteran drag queens in San Francisco.

About Aunt Charlie's, from Out Magazine: Tender(loin) is the Night

Hosking also has photo galleries of the three performers featured: Donna, Olivia and Collette.

(via)

posted by frimble (3 comments total)

Gosh, those depressing, badly-lit, smelly hallways on Polk, and Eddie, and Turk and Jones and Larkin and
posted by growabrain at 8:56 AM on April 19, 2015

Aunt Charlie's is a national treasure. If you've never been and you live in SF, you have no excuse, you must go see the Hot Boxx girls at once. If you don't live in SF, it's worth a trip. Old-school drag from girls who really know what they're doing, who've been refining their acts for the majority of their lives. It's never dull and you always leave with a warm glow and a big smile on your face and feeling like you're the luckiest person alive to have witnessed something so unique and special. It's like a piece of queer history broke off and is just floating here in the present. So glad it's being documented, because the magic won't be around forever.

One thing the documentary doesn't capture is how incredibly tiny the bar is -- it's just one big hallway and there's no stage, so the performances are happening literally right in front of you. Incredible.
posted by treepour at 2:17 PM on April 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

See also the documentary Forever's Gonna Start Tonight, about the late Vicki Marlane, who used to perform at Aunt Charlie's. The block of Turk street where Aunt Charlie's is located has been renamed Vicki MarLane in her honor.
posted by larrybob at 11:18 AM on April 20, 2015 [1 favorite]