Divine

An investigation of how Hollywood's fabled stories have deeply influenced how Americans feel about transgender people, and how transgender people have been taught to feel about themselves.

When Andrew Logan founded the Alternative Miss World in a jigsaw factory in Hackney in 1972, he didn’t expect that his celebration of transformation would take him from the Croisette at Cannes, to the highest court in the UK.

Vito Zagarrio, who in 1985 directed the famous documentary "Divine Waters", after 40 years goes again through it's relationship with John Waters and his family, giving a new and intimate insight.

Harris Glenn Milstead, aka Divine (1945-1988) was the ultimate outsider turned underground hero. Spitting in the face of the status quos of body image, gender identity, sexuality, and preconceived notions of beauty, Divine succeeded in becoming an internationally recognized icon, recording artist, and character actor of stage and screen. Glenn went from the often-mocked, schoolyard fat kid to underdog royalty, standing up for millions of gay men and women, drag queens and punk rockers, and countless other socially ostracized misfits and freaks. With a completely committed in-your-face style, he blurred the line between performer and personality, and revolutionized pop culture.

Studio 54 was the epicenter of 70s hedonism - a place that not only redefined the nightclub, but also came to symbolize an entire era. Its co-owners, Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell, two friends from Brooklyn, seemed to come out of nowhere to suddenly preside over a new kind of New York society. Now, 39 years after the velvet rope was first slung across the club's hallowed threshold, a feature documentary tells the real story behind the greatest club of all time.

Throughout the 1950s, Tab Hunter reigned as Hollywood’s ultimate male heartthrob. But throughout his years of stardom, Tab had a secret. Tab Hunter was gay, and spent his Hollywood years in a precarious closet that repeatedly threatened to implode and destroy him. Tab Hunter himself shares first hand, for the first time, what it was like to be a studio manufactured movie star during the Golden Age of Hollywood and the consequences of being someone totally different from his studio manufactured image.

Though legendary lyricist Howard Ashman died far too young, his impact on Broadway, movies, and the culture at large were incalculable. Told entirely through rare archival footage and interviews with Ashman’s family, friends, associates, and longtime partner Bill Lauch, Howard is an intimate tribute to a once-in-a-generation talent and a rousing celebration of musical storytelling itself.

How drag queens sharing tips and tricks in dressing rooms shaped the face of today's mainstream makeup industry.

Documentary about British artist Andrew Logan as he attempts to put on the 2009 edition of his Alternative Miss World. The film also presents a history of the contest (which has run eccentrically since 1972) which was set up firstly as an excuse to have a good party, but has grown into a celebration of alternative lifestyles and sexualities. The documentary mixes archive footage, animated inserts, with talking head interviews and a fly-on-the-wall look at the organisation of the 2009 event

Robert Oppel's documentary about the life and murder of his uncle and namesake, Robert Opel, the man who streaked the Academy Awards in 1974.

Documentary tribute to what VH1 called “the single greatest rock omnibus program ever aired” and Brooklyn Vegan named “the most consistently weird and awesome thing on cable television in the ’80s.” This ‘Best Of’ episode features some of the most memorable moments of Night Flight's near-decade long run including restored interviews and segments from Kate Bush, New Wave Theatre, David Lynch, Prince, Wendy O Williams, Divine, Billy Idol, Johnny Rotten, and much more Night Flight treasures from the archive.

Interview outtakes from Jeffrey Schwarz's 2013 documentary 'I Am Divine' which feature director John Waters; actors Susan Lowe, Mink Stole, George Figgs, and Mary Vivian Pearce; film critic Dennis Dermody; production designer Vincent Peranio; and production manager Pat Moran. Produced for The Criterion Collection.

Produced for The Criterion Collecton.

No synopsis available yet.

The high energy movement in Mexico is visited without prejudice through its places and its protagonists. The icon Pascal Languirand is one of them.

Documentary about the gender-bending San Francisco performance group who became a pop culture phenomenon in the early 1970s.

The life and times of Baltimore film maker and midnight movie pioneer, John Waters.

From the moment Shakespeare wrote his first fart joke, audiences have loved gross-out humor. In this 'Starz Inside' documentary, take a trip through the history of taboo-busting comedy that began with slapstick and led to the most notorious Internet video in history, with stops at every infamous penis, poo, puke and pie gag in-between. It’s a totally uncensored look at the scenes that make you want to look away.

Documentary tracing the history of Hairspray from screen to stage and back to the screen. Featuring interviews with John Waters, Ricki Lake, Marissa Jaret Winokur, and more. Produced for the “Hairspray” DVD.

Drag Queen Divine Tribute

This DVD combines two concerts filmed at the Hacienda in 1983. Both were previously available on separate VHS releases. Shoot Your Shot is more dimly lit, but Divine really revs up the show toward the end, with the audience crowding the stage for the closing "Love Reaction." Recorded nine months earlier, Live at the Hacienda is better lit and Divine is more animated throughout. Both concerts feature a hardworking, sweating Divine obscenely bantering with the audience. Both concerts are about 40 minutes and feature Divine performing "Jungle Jezebel," "Born to be Cheap," "Alphabet Rap" and more.

A documentary on the career of filmmaker John Waters. Featuring interviews with actors and fellow film-makers. The life and death of the actor Divine is also discussed.

This show was filmed in Manchester, England in 1983, just as Divine's recording career was taking off, and shows him at his tasteless and tacky best. From his appearance in 1966 in his first John Waters film until his death in 1988, Divine always courted controversy. Love him or hate him you can't help but find him talented and very funny.

Aitor is a director making a film about a lonely man looking for love, called “Soul Ache.” While he uses his auditions to meet women, he really longs to cast actress Myriam Mezieres in the film.

The evolution of disco music through interviews and clips - Acid House, House, Disco, Funk, Italo-Disco, Italodance. Interviewed – Baby Ford, Deee-Lite, Frankie Knuckles, Mark Moore, Mel Cheren Featuring 5000 Volts, Amii Stewart, Anita Ward, Baby Ford, Bananarama, Black Box, Cerrone, Communards, The, Deee-Lite, Donna Summer, Eartha Kitt, Edwin Starr, Evelyn Champagne King, Evelyn Thomas, Farm, The, Giorgio Moroder, Gloria Gaynor, Hot Gossip, Hues Corporation, Isaac Hayes, Kool And The Gang, Kylie Minogue, M, Michael Zager, Miguel Brown, Musique, New Order, Odyssey, S'Express, Shannon, Shirley & Co, Sylvester, Three Degrees, Trammps, Van Mccoy, Village People

Produced in 1978, The Neon Woman is an “outrageous murder mystery” set in a run-down Baltimore burlesque house managed by a retired stripper, Flash Storm, the hottest stripper that ever lived who has gone legit, opened her own strip joint, and is trying to cope with whatever comes along. There's Kitty Larue, the stripper with an identity problem. There's the horny bible thumping senator who wants to pray with Divine but really wants something less spiritual. Finally, Divine's young virgin daughter returns from boarding school and within minutes is turned into an alcoholic, heroin addicted stripper who has been betrothed to the black janitor. There's more but as the cliché goes, it has to be seen to be believed! By the time of it's VHS release, the 12 year old live footage was already a bit raw and gritty, but still gives more than a fair idea as to why Divine was so loved as a performer. The production ran for eighty-four performances at the Hurrah Discotheque, New York.

'Pleasantly plump' teenager Tracy Turnblad achieves her dream of becoming a regular on the Corny Collins Dance Show. Now a teen hero, she starts using her fame to speak out for the causes she believes in, most of all integration. In doing so, she earns the wrath of the show's former star, Amber Von Tussle, as well as Amber's manipulative, pro-segregation parents. The rivalry comes to a head as Amber and Tracy vie for the title of Miss Auto Show 1963.

Blessed with a keen sense of smell and cursed with a philandering pornographer husband, a parasitic mother, and a pair of delinquent children, the long-suffering Francine Fishpaw turns to the bottle as her life falls apart -- until deliverance appears in the form of a hunk named Todd Tomorrow. Originally screened with "Odorama" scratch and sniff cards so the audience could (at their own risk) smell along with the film.

A deranged killer wearing a clown mask begins preying on a group of young women working at a phone-sex company.

The lives of an ex-con, a coffee-shop owner, and a young couple looking to make it rich intersect in the hypnotic Rain City.

Assaulted by outlaws, donkey-riding Rosie joins a silent drifter's search for gold in the Old West.

A filmed record of the 1978 "Alternative Miss World" beauty pageant held in a circus tent on Clapham Common in South London.

This video trilogy documents the music group Queen. Videos in this set are Magic Years Vol. 1 - The Foundations Magic Years Vol. 2 - Live Killers in the Making Magic Years, Vol. 3 - Crowned in Glory

This documentary focuses on the careers of influential partners in trash film, John Waters and Divine. The film includes interviews with Waters' parents and sister, actress Edith Massey sings two songs (Punks, Get off the Grass and Fever), as well as a live performance of Divine performing his song Born to be Cheap.

This video is the first of a three volume documentary on the band.

This anthology chronicles Queen's 16 years. Footage includes "Live Aid" and the 1986 tour.

Notorious Baltimore criminal and underground figure Divine goes up against Connie & Raymond Marble, a sleazy married couple who make a passionate attempt to humiliate her and seize her tabloid-given title as "The Filthiest Person Alive".

Teenage delinquent Dawn Davenport, incensed after her parents do not give her the cha-cha heels she wanted for Christmas, runs away from home. After an illegitimate child and hairstylist husband bring her more misery, she's enticed into a life of crime when the owners of her husband's salon promise her fame and fortune.

The Cavalcade of Perversion, a traveling freak show, acts as a front for Divine, who is out for blood after discovering her lover's affair.

This improvised film is based on the true-life suicide of TV personality Art Linkletter's daughter, Diane. Mr. and Mrs. Linkletter fret about their daughter's recent behaviour, which includes taking drugs and dating a lowlife named Jim. Eventually, the parents confront Diane… with tragic consequences.

Tally Brown, New York is a 1979 documentary film directed, written and produced by Rosa von Praunheim. The film is about the singing and acting career of Tally Brown, a classically trained opera and blues singer who was a star of underground films in New York City and a denizen of its underworld in the late 1960s. In this documentary, Praunheim relies on extensive interviews with Brown, as she recounts her collaboration with Andy Warhol, Taylor Mead and others, as well as her friendships with Holly Woodlawn, and Divine. Brown opens the film with a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” and concludes with “Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide.” The film captures not only Tally Brown’s career but also a particular New York milieu in the 1970s.

In this film, outspokenly homosexual filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim has documented his encounters with friends in the New York "underground" arts movement, the better-known of whom are William Burroughs (who says nothing for the camera), Andy Warhol (seen in the distance) and Fernando Arrabal (who is interviewed in Spanish). The emigrants named in the title are notable Germans who left the country before World War II, such as Greta Keller and Grete Mosheim. Reviewers at the time of the film's release considered it to have been a sort of paid vacation for the filmmaker rather than a serious effort. (Clarke Fountain, Rovi)

A day in the lives of a hit-and-run driver and her victim, and the bizarre things that happen to them before and after they collide (sexual assault by a crazed foot-fetishist, visions of the Virgin Mary, strange chicken-foot grafting operations).

Shot on 8mm, and featuring the introduction of Divine, John Waters' sophomore film is a plotless collage of random incidents involving sex, drugs, religion and The Wizard of Oz, it was shown with an equally random soundtrack mixing “obnoxious radio advertisements, rock 'n' roll and press conferences with Lee Harvey Oswald's mother”. It was shown three times publicly, but never released commercially.

John Waters' first sixteen-millimetre film, about a deranged nanny who kidnaps young girls and forces them to 'model themselves to death' in front of her boyfriend and their crazed friends. It was never shown commercially.

An in-depth portrait chronicling the rise of New Line Cinema, between 1967 and 1994, from the perspective of the filmmakers and executives involved in the company's early success—from collaborations with cult director John Waters to the smash hit Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.

On 16 February 1983, Divine performs a seven-song set at the Hacienda Club in Manchester. His peroxide blond hair sticks in all directions; he's dressed in a skin-tight, short, off-one-shoulder, sparkling dress that he says he got from the Queen, who wouldn't wear it. The set includes Gang Bang (the name-game song), Jungle Jezebel, Born To Be Cheap, Alphabet Rap, Native Love, Shake It Up, and, for an encore, Shoot Your Shot. The band, whom we never see, is techno-rock. Between songs, Divine chats up the audience, usually talking about sex.