If the team behind the film doesn’t raise an additional $15,000 in the next four weeks (to cover music and other post-production costs), the film may not be distributed.
Hosted by Jane M. Saks and the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media, the screening featured a post-show discussion with Director/Producer Tremmel and Director of Development Jessica Halem. Both are former Chicagoans, and Halem headed the Lesbian Community Cancer (now Care) Project for several years.
Those featured in the film include both octogenarians who performed in the 1940s and 1950s, and those who are trying to survive in the modern burlesque revival: Satan’s Angel, Tempest Storm, Bambi Jones, Lottie the Body, Toni Elling, Ricci Cortez, Tura Satana, Mitzie St. Clair, Kitten Natividad, Dirty Martini, Julie Atlas Muz, The World Famous *Bob*, Alotta Boutte, Simone de La Ghetto, and Miss Indigo Blue.
“Filmed between 2001 and 2010, Exotic World and the Burlesque Revival is the story of a goat farm in the middle of the Mojave Desert that became ground zero of the largest burlesque revival since the 1940s,” the producers note.
What is most important is the decidedly queer and feminist perspective of this film. It is a fantastic documentary, and one that I hope makes it not just to film festivals around the world, but also to TV and DVD very soon.
Support this project through their Kickstarter campaign. See www.exoticworldthemovie.com/ and click on the “Donate” button.