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Synopsis

David Weissman and Bill Weber's 2002 documentary, The Cockettes, wowed audiences at the Sundance Film Festival and shone a bright new light on the Cockettes. Now one of the founding members of the legendary troupe takes us in side the flamboyant ensemble of countercultural radicals who decked themselves out in drag and glitter for a series of legendary midnight musicals at the Palace Theater in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. Pam Tent dropped out of college and left suburban Detroit in 1969 to join the come-as-you-are party that was going on in San Francisco. There she met Hibiscus, a member of a commune called KaliFlower dedicated to distributing free food and creating free art and theater. One night, in a burst of LSD-fueled spontaneity, Sweet Pam took to the stage in a cellophane hula skirt when Hibiscus and a group of friends commandeered the Palace during the Nocturnal Dream Shows, a weekly midnight eclectic film series, to perform a chorus line dance to "Honky Tonk Woman". The Cockettes were born! In their 2½ year existence, the Cockettes created 20 exuberantly chaotic shows with titles like "Tinsel Tarts in a Hot Coma" and "Pearls over Shanghai" that featured elaborate costumes and rebellious, gender-bending sexuality. Pam Tent's account recalls the heyday of the troupe, the inevitable infighting that accompanied fame, and, finally, how a Rex Reed column raving about the Cockettes led to a disastrous New York opening where the audience -- which included John Lennon, Gore Vidal, Angela Lansbury, and Anthony Perkins -- walked out in droves. The Cockettes gave their last performance in the autumn of 1972. Despite their short incarnation, however, the Cockettes' unique burst of cultural experimentation and artistic outrageousness continues to influence the worlds of theater, music, fashion, gay politics, gay spirituality, and urban club life.