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Pageant (film)
''Pageant'' is a 2008 documentary film directed and produced together by Ron Davis and Stewart Halpern. The film explored the behind-the-scenes dramas and realities of the 34th Miss Gay America Contest held in 2004. The film's central theme was the universal desire to be beautiful, noticed and chosen. The film garnered 10 film festival awards before airing on the Sundance Channel in 2010. Critical response While some reviewers, such as Martin Tsai from ''The Village Voice'' felt that the film only skimmed along the surface insanity saying that "filmmakers Ron Davis and Stewart Halpern-Fingerhut's treatment is only skin-deep, eschewing any exploration of gender politics or psychological effects induced by the ubiquitous ugly-duckling-turned-swan narrative." Other reviewers such as Nathan Lee in the ''New York Times'' felt that it was "not without its charm, and it's touching, in a goofy sort of way, to see how seriously everyone takes it." George Williamson in An Eye for Film descr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ron Davis (filmmaker)
Ron Davis is an American documentary film director, writer and producer. He is the founder of Docutainment Films. Early life and career Davis founded Docutainment Films in Wellington, Florida to produce his documentaries. Davis married Luis Rodriguez in 2017. ''Pageant'' In 2008 Davis released his directorial debut ''Pageant'', which featured the 2005 Miss Gay America female impersonator pageant. He co-wrote, co-produced and co-directed the feature-length documentary that followed five drag queens as they competed for the title. During its showings at film festivals the movie became "critically acclaimed", and was awarded festival prizes. ''Pageant'' received its television broadcast debut on the Sundance Channel after winning a total of ten awards from film festivals. Davis became a full-time documentary maker in 2010, two years after the release of ''Pageant''. ''Miss You Can Do It'' In 2013, Davis released his second directorial effort ''Miss You Can Do It'', an ori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stewart Halpern
Stewart may refer to: People *Stewart (name), Scottish surname and given name *Clan Stewart, a Scottish clan *Clan Stewart of Appin, a Scottish clan Places Canada *Stewart, British Columbia *Stewart Township, Nipissing District, Ontario (historical) New Zealand *Stewart Island / Rakiura United Kingdom *Newton Stewart, Scotland *Portstewart, Northern Ireland *Stewartby, Bedfordshire, England United States Airports *Stewart Air Force Base, New York, a former Air Force base and now-joint civil-military airport, shared by: **Stewart Air National Guard Base, New York **Stewart International Airport (also known as Newburgh-Stewart IAP), New York Counties *Stewart County, Georgia *Stewart County, Tennessee Localities *Stewart, Alabama *Stewart, Indiana *Stewart, McLeod County, Minnesota, a city in McLeod County, Minnesota * Stewart, Lake County, Minnesota, an unincorporated community in Lake County, Minnesota *Stewart, Mississippi *Stewart, Missouri *Stewart, Ohio *Stewart, Tennes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victoria "Porkchop" Parker
Victoria "Porkchop" Parker is the stage name of Victor Ray Bowling (born 16 January 1970), an American drag performer and actor who came to international attention on the first season of ''RuPaul's Drag Race''. She is notable in part for being the first contestant ever eliminated in the history of the franchise. Parker has also appeared elsewhere on television in and out of drag, and she has also served as a backup dancer for Miley Cyrus. Parker has been deemed one of the show's most successful and recognizable drag queens. Although finishing last on his season of ''Drag Race'', Parker has won over 100 pageants in her career as a drag queen and has toured internationally. She has frequently appeared as a guest on later seasons of ''Drag Race'' as Parker, with RuPaul often explicitly paying her homage due to her position as the first eliminated queen in the show's history. Early life Bowling was born in Anderson, South Carolina, and raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alyssa Edwards
Justin Dwayne Lee Johnson (born January 16, 1980), best known by the stage name Alyssa Edwards, is an American drag queen, drag performer, choreographer, and businessperson. Edwards was known for competing in drag pageantry (notably Miss Gay America 2010) before rising to international attention as a contestant on the RuPaul's Drag Race season 5, fifth season of ''RuPaul's Drag Race'', becoming a fan favorite during and after her time on the show. Edwards subsequently appeared on the RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars season 2, second season of ''RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars'' and starred in her own web series, ''Alyssa's Secret''. She won the first ever season of RuPaul's Drag Race Global All Stars, making her the first queen to be inducted into the "Newly Constructed International Pavilion At the Drag Race Hall of Fame". Johnson lives in Mesquite, Texas, where he owns and operates a dance studio, Beyond Belief Dance Company. Johnson and his dance studio are the centerpieces of a docus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clay Westervelt
Clayton "Clay" Westervelt is a film director, producer, and cinematographer based in Los Angeles, California. He is the founder of Martini Crew Booking and Imaginaut Entertainment. Career Westervelt attended graduate school at University of Southern California for film, where he received both the Bush and Kodak Awards for Excellence in Cinematography. Subsequently, he filmed pilots for ABC, A&E, Animal Planet, and HGTV. He also produced and directed the award-winning series Storyline Online, featuring such talents as Elijah Wood, Betty White, James Earl Jones, and Al Gore. In 2009, Westervelt was the Director of Photography for the documentary film '' The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club'', which won an LA-area Emmy award in the Arts & Culture / History category. He directed and produced the documentaries ''Popatopolis'' (2009) and ''Skum Rocks!'' (2013) and was cinematographer for ''Lucky Bastard'' in 2013. Martini Crew Booking Westervelt establish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Documentary Film
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and Media studies, media analyst Bill Nichols (film critic), Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in terms of "a filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception [that remains] a practice without clear boundaries". Research into information gathering, as a behavior, and the sharing of knowledge, as a concept, has noted how documentary movies were preceded by the notable practice of documentary photography. This has involved the use of singular Photograph, photographs to detail the complex attributes of History, historical events and continues to a certain degree to this day, with an example being the War photography, conflict-related photography achieved by popular figures such as Mathew Brady during the Am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miss Gay America
Miss Gay America is a national pageant for Drag queen, female impersonators. Established in 1972, the pageant is based on the Miss America contest and follows a similar format. Each year, contestants compete at various city, state, and direct regional preliminaries for the opportunity to advance to the official Miss Gay America pageant. Titleholders are often seen as the best in the industry and are frequently hired to entertain in a variety of venues, such as Las Vegas shows, cruise ships, and LGBT events. The Miss Gay America pageant system is the longest running pageant system for female impersonators. It is one of the four major pageant systems for the art form, in addition to Miss Continental, Continental Pageantry, Miss Gay USofA, Gay USofA Pageantry, and National Entertainer of the Year, Entertainer of the Year. Miss Gay America is unique in that it is the only national pageant that prohibits contestants from using female hormones or having undergone any feminizing plast ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sundance Channel (United States)
Sundance TV (formerly known as Sundance Channel) is an American pay television channel owned by AMC Networks that launched on February 1, 1996. The channel is named after Robert Redford's character in ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' and, while it is an extension of Redford's non-profit Sundance Institute, the channel operates independently of both the Institute and the Sundance Film Festival. Originally, Sundance was dedicated largely to airing documentaries, independent feature films, short films, world cinema, and coverage on the latest developments from each year's Sundance Film Festival. The channel has since incorporated both original and acquired programming and became fully ad-supported in 2013, with programming being edited for content soon thereafter. , Sundance is available to approximately 54,000,000 pay television households in the United States-down from its 2017 peak of 71,000,000 households. History As Sundance Channel (1996–2014) After negotiations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, ''The Voice'' began as a platform for the creative community of New York City. It ceased publication in 2017, although its online archives remained accessible. After an ownership change, ''The Voice'' reappeared in print as a quarterly in April 2021. ''The Village Voice'' has received three Pulitzer Prizes, the National Press Foundation Award, and the George Polk Award. ''The Village Voice'' hosted a variety of writers and artists, including writer Ezra Pound, cartoonist Lynda Barry, artist Greg Tate, music critic Robert Christgau, and film critics Andrew Sarris, Jonas Mekas, and J. Hoberman. In October 2015, ''The Village Voice'' changed ownership and severed all ties with former parent compa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of the longest-running newspapers in the United States, the ''Times'' serves as one of the country's Newspaper of record, newspapers of record. , ''The New York Times'' had 9.13 million total and 8.83 million online subscribers, both by significant margins the List of newspapers in the United States, highest numbers for any newspaper in the United States; the total also included 296,330 print subscribers, making the ''Times'' the second-largest newspaper by print circulation in the United States, following ''The Wall Street Journal'', also based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' is published by the New York Times Company; since 1896, the company has been chaired by the Ochs-Sulzberger family, whose current chairman and the paper's publ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang. Although the name "Rotten Tomatoes" connects to the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes in disapproval of a poor Theatre, stage performance, the direct inspiration for the name from Duong, Lee, and Wang came from an equivalent scene in the 1992 Canadian film ''Léolo''. Since January 2010, Rotten Tomatoes has been owned by Flixster, which was in turn acquired by Warner Bros. in 2011. In February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to Comcast's Fandango Media, Fandango ticketing company. Warner Bros. retained a minority stake in the merged entities, including Fandango. The site is influential among moviegoers, a third of whom say they consult it before going to the cinema in the U.S. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2008 Films
The year 2008 involved many major film events. '' The Dark Knight'' was the year's highest-grossing film, while '' Slumdog Millionaire'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture (out of eight Academy Awards). Evaluation of the year 2008 has been widely considered to be a very significant year for cinema. The entertainment agency website IGN described 2008 as "one of the biggest years ever for movies." It stated, "2008 was the year when the comic book movie genre not only hits its zenith, but also gained critical respectability thanks to '' The Dark Knight''. Animated films also proved a huge draw for filmgoers, with Pixar's '' WALL-E'' becoming not only the highest grossing toon but also the most lauded. Things got off on the right foot with the monster movie madness of '' Cloverfield''. Marvel got down to business laying the groundwork for their superhero team-up ''The Avengers'' with the blockbuster hit ''Iron Man'' and their respectable attempt at rebooting '' The Incredible ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
