Above- Filmmaker Rama Rau whose film THE LEGION OF EXOTIQUE DANCERS opened this years’ Festival
HOT DOCS is the hot ticket of the moment in the Sydney cinema festival circuit.
The opening night film, THE LEGION OF EXOTIQUE DANCERS, set the standard of excellence that this diorama of docos promises.
A film starring characters called Gina Bon Bon, Lovey Goldmine, Kitten Natividad, Holiday O’Hara, and Marinka, might make one wonder whether it is the latest instalment of the Austen Powers franchise, but THE LEGION OF EXOTIQUE DANCERS is a celebratory documentary about a select and surviving set of sirens, now in their Sixties, Seventies and Eighties, who were blazing stars of burlesque, in the years before tease turned to sleaze, and fawning pawing porn deglamourized the art form.
A vanishing act accompanied the disappearance of Pasties and G strings, decorous nods to decorum, and pole dancers and lap dancers made the bump and grind a dry hump bind that these girls detested.
With a selection of acts of risqué art, rare archival footage, and a soundtrack from the golden age of burlesque this is pure joy from start to finish.
But behind the entertainment factor, this is also a film about female empowerment and about the sexism, racism and widespread stigma faced by Burlesque striptease performers of the era.
Rama Rau’s expose is a tits and arse spectacle like no other, a tribute to the golden heyday of the age of Burlesque, seen through the eyes, legs and nostalgia of some of the sassiest, sauciest characters ever to grace its stages.
Grace is certainly an apt word for Toni Elling, whose towering tale of tenacity that took her from telephonist to strip-teaser teems with the terrible inequality endured by African Americans. Her majestic triumph through her artistry is an inspiration. Her dignity, poise and wisdom are captured beautifully in this film.
Judith Stein is another trail blazer of the burlesque who didn’t go in for an exotic nom de plume. A native of Ontario, this Canadian stunner seized the esprit of the Sixties, travelling the world, embracing the Hippy and Feminist freedoms of the era.
Like the other women in this fascinating film she has no problem reconciling feminism with flaunting her femininity. They held the power over their purveyors and kept control.
Most of the girls have hung up their boas, bras and tassels, but Lovey Goldmine is planning a comeback with an opening act played to Right Said Fred’s, I’m too sexy for my shirt. You can say that again.
Kitten Natividad, one time protégé of Russ Meyer, and breast cancer survivor, plies her trade as a phone sex provider, and Holiday O’Hara has found a new career as a dominatrix.
Titillating and tantalising trumps the nothing left to the imagination of tawdry tit and twat traders, THE LEAGUE OF EXOTIQUE DANCERS is filled with humour, stories from the front line and backstage of the golden age of Burlesque.
In praise of older women, it is a splendid one night stand at the cinema you won’t want to miss.
Check out encore times at- http://www.hotdocsoz.com/