The Beauty President

Mar 20, 2021

0h 10m

★ 6.0

Overview

In 1992, at the height of the AIDS pandemic, activist Terence Alan Smith made a historic bid for president of the United States as his drag queen persona Joan Jett Blakk. Today, Smith reflects back on his seminal civil rights campaign and its place in American history.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

Breakwater Studios

Hillman Grad Productions

The Beauty President Trailers

Cast

Self

Terence Alan Smith

A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

7.1

Land Without Bread

Dec 1, 1933

An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time.

6.4

Primary

Nov 8, 1960

Primary is a documentary film about the primary elections between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey in 1960. Primary is the first documentary to use light equipment in order to follow their subjects in a more intimate filmmaking style. This unconventional way of filming created a new look for documentary films where the camera’s lens was right in the middle of what ever drama was occurring. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 1998.

7.5

Cassini's Grand Finale

Apr 7, 2017

To help visualize the dramatic final chapter in Cassini's remarkable story, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory produced this short film that features beautiful computer-generated animation, thoughtful narration and a rousing score. Producers at JPL worked with filmmaker Erik Wernquist, known for his 2014 short film "Wanderers," to create a stirring finale video befitting one of NASA's most successful missions of exploration.

5.0

Allegory of Prudence

Jan 1, 2013

A short film made for "Venezia 70 - Future Reloaded". A homage to Paulo Rocha and Kenji Mizoguchi, filming the director's two tombs, one in Tokyo and the other in Quioto.

5.6

Tehran Is the Capital of Iran

Mar 31, 1966

Tehran Is the Capital of Iran (1966-79) documents life in a deprived district in the south of Tehran. The images of destitution in Tehran's poor areas is accompanied by a variety of spoken accounts: the official viewpoint on the district's living conditions, what the inhabitants have to say, and occasional extracts read out of school manuals. The key element in Shirdel's film is the counterpoint effect he creates with image and sound. His impressively powerful portrayal of social unease helps reinforce the impact of his astonishing documentary images and social themes.

0.0

The Astronauts of Feuerbach

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Soon enough humankind will ascend to space. Who can join that mission? Who has to stay behind? In some places it has already started. Men and machine taking flight, leaving for the unknown future. For the endless void. That’s where they meet. The People using machines to clean machines and the people sheltered inside those machines. Destined to collide, never to engage. Welcome to Europes biggest car wash.

0.0

People Unite!

Mar 5, 2022

In the face of AAPI violence, an intergenerational coalition of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, People of Color organizers come together to organize a march across historic Washington Heights and Harlem, as a continuation of the historic and radical Black and Asian solidarity tradition.

0.0

Itapoa - Un proyecto que camina

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No overview available.

0.0

The Last Conversation

Feb 6, 2020

A son makes a surprising discovery on his elderly parents' answering machine after his father's passing.

8.5

New Horizons

Jun 30, 2015

A brief visualisation of NASA’s historic spacecrafts Mariner, Pioneer, Voyager, and Dawn, exploring the solar system, culminating in the New Horizons mission.

0.0

Wolfe

Jan 1, 2016

"Wolfe" is an intimate confessional from Nick, who learned through puberty that the imaginary friend in his head was real, and violent.

4.9

Visions of Europe

May 1, 2004

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

5.1

Playback

Oct 11, 2019

In Córdoba, far from the Argentine capital, the end of a military regime promises a spring that is all too brief. “La Delpi” is the only survivor of a group of friends who are transgender women and drag-queens, who began to die of aids in the late 80s. In a Catholic and conservative city, the Grupo Kalas made their weapons and trenches out of improvised dresses and lip-syncing. Today the images of unique and unknown footage are not only a farewell letter, but a manifesto to friendship.

0.0

Tree Begins Life, Indians Still Live Here

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A display of a fallen red cedar at Olympic National Park headquarters proclaims in 1349 "Indians live here." TREE BEGINS LIFE INDIANS STILL LIVE HERE produces a meditation on the territories of the First Nations of the Pacific Northwest, and invites an alternative interpretation of U.S. sovereignty over these lands.

0.0

La noirceur souterraine des racines

Sep 11, 2022

Shot in Quebec, Canada, The Subterranean Blackness of Roots is a 16mm film triptych which uses several processes specific to analog cinema (hand processing, optical printing, photochemical alteration). The film seeks to show the sensory experience of the invisible life of stones, plants and the nature that surrounds us. It’s a dive into the heart of matter, the essence of the vegetal world and the nourishing earth.

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0.0

Wild Boar Piglet

Dec 6, 2019

They say that if a daughter looks like a father, then she will certainly be happy. But what if you look like a person whom you have never seen in your life? And all you know about him is speculation, fantasy and a small bronze figure.

0.0

Where do they all go?

Apr 13, 2015

94-year old Esther, a pensioner with bad sight, is in search of her artist daugther’s public decoration. Endless phone conversations takes her through municipal bureaucracy and lost culture secretaries. Will she ever get an answer to the eternal question: Where does the art really go?

The Beauty President

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

The Beauty President Trailers