WAYS IN BEING GAY

Benjamin Smoke (Jem Cohen and Peter Sillen, USA, 2000, 80 min, 16mm)

A superb picture of Benjamin Smoke, a drag queen and singer for the Atlanta cult band Smoke. This gritty doc travels through a series of seedy locales, physical and psychic, from the impoverished "Cabbage Town" where he was raised to the mood-drenched queer punk music that made better-known talents like Patti Smith into huge fans. Benjamin’s husky drawl and colorful patois — "It knocked my dick in the dirt!" — make him irresistible even as he drifts toward death.

"I met Benjamin in 1989 when I was in Athens, Georgia, doing some film work for R.E.M. I saw posters for an Atlanta group called the Opal Foxx Quartet that was coming to town, and a number of people, including R.E.M.’s singer, Michael Stipe, told me that this was a show I must not miss. I recall being surprised that so many of the rock and roll people I knew were interested in classical music, or was it jazz? It turned out to be neither, and they were no quartet. We went to a tiny venue called the Downstairs, and in came a band that seemed bigger than the audience, playing such things as a violin, cello, organ, electric guitars, and a cap pistol, for percussion. The band was led by Benjamin, in the guise of "Miss Opal Foxx," a scrawny little powerhouse in a sun dress, carrying a battered purse and belting out an amazing set of songs: ballads of Southern wear and tear, punk rock rave-ups, strange blues, and everything in between. He was a bit of a deep South, dirt-poor Oscar Wilde."
– Jem Cohen

Some publications related to this event:
November, 2000. - 2000