Playland
North American Premiere

Playland

Viewpoints
Feature | United States | 72 MINUTES | English, German | English subtitles
Experimental, LGBTQIA+

The ghosts of barflies’ past haunt Playland, “a transdisciplinary work of queer bricolage” by filmmaker Georden West. The film takes place inside the empty husk of the Playland Café, Boston’s oldest and most notorious gay hangout space. The cafe shut down in the late ‘90s, but West stages one last bawdy night on the town for the generations of drag queens, disco DJs, leatherdykes, and sissies who made Playland their home, creating an atemporal zone where queer ancestors can come out to play.


Featuring storylines set in 1943, 1965, 1977, and 1992, Playland takes a multimedia approach to storytelling. The film combines archival audio and home video footage with artistically realized vignettes that combine refined aesthetics and bold stylization. (There’s a floor show as well, of course.) At turns wistful, joyful, and brimming with righteous anger, Playland embraces the criminal queerness of the past, paying tribute to groundbreaking gay elders and creating a nostalgic fantasia of an era that had its beauty as well as its black eyes.––Casey Baron


Cast & Credits
Directed by
Georden West
Director
Georden West
Producer
Russell Sheaffer, Hannah McSwiggen, Danielle Cooper
Screenwriter
Georden West
Cinematographer
Jo Jo Lam
Editor
Georden West & Russell Sheaffer
Composer
Aaron Michael Smith
Executive Producer
Peter Luo, Nick Knight, Emily Ruhl & Zack Parker, Eric Chen, Shebbie Jacques, Eileen Amy Ryan, Nancy Xu
Associate Producer
Kate Gondwe, Mason Caminiti, Patti Moreno, Robert Patton-Spruill
Co-Producer
Sarah Dhanens, Pierre Jean Gonzalez, Cedric Leiba Jr., Jerry Lambert, Aria Li, Yang Liu, Elenore Pan, Céline Zen, Caiqin Zhan
Cast
Danielle Cooper, Lady Bunny, Mason Caminiti, Aidan Dick, Constance Cooper, José Lapaz-Rodríguez, Miranda Quinn, Gatekeeper Adrian, Maine Anders, Kelly Mittendorf, Sprat

Contacts
Press Contact
Russell Sheaffer
Artless Media LLC
San Diego, CA 92104
Phone: 7608224715
info@artlessmedia.com
US Sales Contact
Miguel Angel Govea
Alief
Paris, 75011
Phone: +33 9 81 03 50 95
miguel@alief.co.uk
* Rush Tickets available at venue except for
Beacon Theatre
Rush will be offered when advanced tickets for a screening or event are no longer available at venues other than Beacon Theatre.
The Rush system functions as a standby line that will form at the venue approximately one hour prior to scheduled start time. Admittance is based on availability and will begin roughly 10 minutes prior to program start time. Rush Tickets are the same price as advance tickets and are payable upon entry.

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