Girl King
82 min, 16 mm film, 2002
A dragking pirate movie.
With a fistful of fetish in every frame, Girl King delivers a sexy gender-bending swashbuckler on the high seas. Pirates capture a naïve Butch and promise him that if he can find the Queen’s stolen treasure, they will be give him his heart’s desire – the seductive femme Claudia. Soon Butch is sailing on treacherous seas, swept away by dangerous desires where tops are bottomed, pirate captains are seduced by tranny sailors and cross-dressing femmes pack a wallop. With the help of the mysterious Easy and the infamous pirate Captain Candy, can Butch find the treasure in time to restore the natural attraction between butch and femme?
Decidedly tongue-in-cheek, this clever tale uses a stylish pastiche of ‘pirated’ images to lead us into the uncharted oceans of dyke desire and queer identity. A sweetly perverse fable for our gender-fucked times.
Soundtrack by Amon Tobin.
RAVE REVIEWS:
A crazed drag-king pirate movie set on the shores of some tropicalized Vancouver, it’s jazzed and horny … hilarious.–Cameron Bailey (in Now Toronto magazine)
Guaranteed to become a classic. It is the kind of film that most imaginative dykes would make if they had enough talent. Witty and creative, Girl King is the ideal queer-date movie. I give it five stars (out of five).–Jean Robert (in www.technodyke.com)
Funny, hot, full of cult potential. In spite of Girl King being put squarely in the queer genre by its director, it is free from intellectual clichés and unimaginative theoretical correctness.–Charlotte Sjöholm (in Film International Magazine)
Full of sexy scenes, witty dialogue, and beautiful imagery. All of which paint a picture of lesbian sexuality that is at once intimate and surreal.–Adrienne Baker (in Velvetpark Magazine)
Girl King’s playful narrative, butch/femme erotica, and seductive aesthetics make for a wild cinematic odyssey on the high seas.–www.outtakes.net
Pour les adultes qui aiment l’art d’apparat et qui ne sont pas embarrassés par leurs désirs.–www.tassedethe.com
À la fois amusant et sexy.–Yves Lafontaine (in Fugues Magazine)
Girl King is a film about girls who look like boys who like girls who like boys, uh yeah, you figure it out. Actually this is a very cute film about breaking down butch/femme stereotypes. So what does it really mean to be butch? femme? Check this film out and learn a thing or three.–Brownie A La Mode (inwww.dykediva.com)
Cleverly utilizing stock footage, pornographic imagery and bedazzling sets that recall the films of both Kenneth Anger and Alain Robbe-Grillet – Pietrobruno weaves a creative high-seas dyke drama that charms and entertains while providing a good dose of eroticism.–Kier-La Janisse (in Terminal City Magazine)
Post-queer and post-feminist (and post just about everything else), it manages to tackle the complicated terrain of gender with insight and humour.–Rachel Giese (in Xtra! West Magazine)
Délicieusement perverse, mêlant aspects comiques, érotiques et fétichistes, tout en restant kitsh! On apprécie la beauté des actrices, l’ingéniosité de la réalisatrice et sa façon de jouer avec les genres. Un vrai coup de cœur.–www.gaysthouse.com
Une joyeuse melee erotique.–www.cinegay.net
What made the film pleasurable was its ironic and parodic play with butch-femme genres … wittily playing with stereotypes …The film makes innovative use of old film footage, drawing attention to the fantastic and fantasy elements of the story, evoking an ironic portrayal of the performativity of gender and the masquerade of simulation and dissimulation.–Alexandra Winter (in MC Reviews)
The crowd was full of drag kings, femmes, gay bio-boys, MTFs and FTMs and more, more, more! Girl King, has all the elements, identities, and enough queer erotic sizzle to knock this butch femme-loving drag king off his feet! Seriously, folks – if this film comes your way, go see it! Remember, though, to bring a date! –Will Dewar (in Cock Tales)
Part lesbian sexcapade, part swashbuckling adventure and part romantic love story, Girl King is a completely original drag king pirate film. A proud, audacious flaunt of butch sexuality.–www.her-movies.com
A millennium bodice ripper.–Anne Vitale (in Notes on Gender)
An independent film in every sense of the term, Girl King is a raucous feast of sight and sound thatgleefully entertains even as it challenges (with a wink of an eye) our notions of gender roles and sexual identity.– Ramon Diaz (in the Boulder Gay and Lesbian Catalogue)
A parody on butch/femme dynamics that had everyone in the theatre laughing out loud. –D. Cameron (in Drake’s Event Guide for Leather Women)
Below the exterior of a sexy, playful adventure lies an intelligent critique of gender identity and sexual role-play. This visual orgy of erotically charged butch-femme seduction is sure to find a place in Canadian independent film history.–Sabrina Alonso (in Frameline Queer guide)
Playing on several different narratives, including the boy’s swashbuckling pirate adventure narrative, the quest motif, and a search-for-origins story … Pokes fun at cultures of female and trans masculinities … For the pleasures of a queer fem(me)inine gaze that undoes masculinity as it is being consumed.–Jean Bobby Noble (Sons of the Movement)
Intelligent, ambitious, and imaginative. (in Arts News Magazine)
Passionately crafted and skillfully lensed, Girl King is both a romantic and sexy high-seas escapade and a clever exploration of sexuality, gender, and butch/femme roleplay. Playful humor and highly-charged erotics frolic together on screen in this innovative feature unlike anything that has come before it. –Image Out Rochester Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Catalogue
Packing a tickle trunk of laughs, wit and cahones, this low-low-budget epic inhabits a large, surreal stage. And the very sexy cast manages the campy dialogue with panache. Even Judy Garland fans will like this flick.–Gordon Bowness (in Xtra! Toronto Magazine)
Pure girlcamp.–Jim Fourat (in Gay City News)
Subversion is job No. 1. The outlandishness culminates in the eternal question: Can a butch and a femme be friends without the identity politics getting in the way?–Wesley Morris (in The Boston Globe)
The overall message being don’t be too particular about who you fuck or don’t fuck. Enjoy.–Hendrike Baker (in Film Ireland)
I love it.–Wieland Speck, Berlinale programmer (in Screen Int’l Magazine)
82 min, 16 mm film, 2002
Principal Crew
CAST
Chrystal Donbrath-Zinga
Michael-Ann Connor
Raven Courtney
Victoria Deschanel
Joyce Pate
Jonathan Sutton
CREW
PIETROBRUNO writer, director, producer, editor
JOHN HOUTMAN cinematographer
JEFF CARTER location sound mixer
AMON TOBIN music
TOMOMI HIGUCHI make-up artist
HEATHER YOUNG costume designer
CAITLIN PALMER fight choreographer
Festivals
The Berlin International Film Festival, Panorama
Best Lesbian Feature, Making Scenes Film Festival (Ottawa, Canada),
Nominated for Most Deserving Distribution, Girlfriends Magazine
Opening Night Screening, Waterloo Queer Film Festival (Waterloo, Canada)
Opening Night Screening, Out In Africa Gay Film Festival (Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban)
selected screenings: Outfest Festival Favourites (Los Angeles, California). “Best of Mixte” Cineffable (Paris, France). London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (London, England). Turin Gay International G & L Film Festival (Turin, Italy). Miami Gay Lesbian Film Festival (Miami, Florida). Verzaubert Film Festival (Berlin, Germany). Paris Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (Paris, France). Milano International L & GFF (Milan, Italy). Fire Island Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (Long Island, New York). Melbourne Queer Film Festival (Melbourne, Australia. Brisbane Queer Film Festival (Brisbane, Australia). Sydney Mardi Gras Film Festival (Sydney, Australia). Czech Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (Brno, Czech Republic. MixBrasil (Sao Paulo, Brasil). Outfest (San Diego, California). Outfest (Los Angles, California). Frameline (San Francisco, California). New Festival (New York, New York). New York S/M Film Festival (New York, New York). Buenos Aires Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (Buenos Aires, Argentina). Shwullesbiches FilmFestival (Zurich, Switzerland). Boston Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (Boston, Massachusetts). Inside/Out Film Festival (Toronto, Canada). Netherlands Transgender Film Festival (Amsterdam, Holland). Out Takes (New Zealand). Oslo Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (Oslo, Norway). Transgender Festival (Hanover, Germany). Tokyo International Gay Film Festival (Tokyo, Japan). Hamburg Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (Hamburg, Germany). Bremen Queer Film Festival (Bremen, Germany). Exground Film Festival (Wiesbaden, Germany). Capital Queer Film Festival (Canberra, Australia). Behind the Mask Film Festival (Dar es Salaam). Video Suitcase Festival (Gaborone, Botswana.), (Windhoek, Namibia), (Harare, Zimbabwe) (Braamfontein, Pietermaritzburg, Attridgeville, Mamelodi, Pretoria. South Africa). Vinokino Film Festival (Turku, Finland). Helsinki Queer Film Festival (Helsinki, Finland). Paris Lesbian Film Festival (Paris, France). Long Island Queer Youth Film Festival (Long Island, New York). Oldenburg University (Oldenburg, Germany). Scmachtfetzen Lesbe (Germany). Like A Man Art Festival (Regina, Saskatchewan). National Arts Festival (Grahamstown, South Africa). Queer Film Festival (Uppsala, Sweden). Reel Out (Kingston, Ontario). North Carolina Queer Film Festival (Durham, North Carolina). Lesbisch-schwules Filmfest (Hannover, Germany). Q! Film Festival (Jakarta, Indonesia). Bentlenses (Braddon, Australia). Long Island Youth Festival, (Long Island, New York). Reelout Queer Film Festival, (Kingston, Canada). Oldenburg University Festival, (Oldenburg, Germany). Dublin Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (Dublin, Ireland). Wingspan LGBT Film Festival (Tucson, Arizona). Out On Film (Atlanta, Georgia). Oklahoma Gay Film Festival (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma). Connecticut Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (Hartford, Connecticut). Seattle Queer Film Festival (Seattle, Washington). Image Out (Rochester, New York). Image Nation (Montreal, Canada). Boulder Gay Film Festival (Boulder, Colorado). Making Scenes (Ottawa, Canada). Counting Past 2 Film Festival (Toronto, Canada). Reeling Festival (Chicago, Illinois). Philadelphia Gay Film Festival (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-JMQn8a0u8