Queerlesque Cutie

fuckyeahqueerlesque:

PLEASE SIGNAL BOOST! THANKS! :D

I had the pleasure and privilege of speaking with Goldie Darthmouth who, as you can see from her website, is a fellow performer and film-maker who has done extensive interviewing with sexy proud and talented queer- and fat-identified burlyqers to make a film all about them, called “Go Big or Go Home”!

She is currently in post-production, the phase that can drag on the longest, often because of funding. I think this is an incredibly important film— too often burlesque films (of which a plethora abounds) focus on our more mainstream family. Maybe queer or fat gets thrown a bone somewhere (big maybe). THIS is IT and THIS is what we need!

Goldie is for now dedicated to DIY (DIY til ya die!) so doesn’t have a kickstarter but can accept donations via her wordpress site.  

While you are at it, go “Like” the film on Facebook too: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Go-Big-or-Go-Home/230785010303435?sk=info. It really helps show funders there is real interest in a movie like this.

From Goldie:

Go Big or Go Home is feature length documentary about Fat Queer identified performance artists that seeks to present a potent cocktail of politics, personal vision, performance art, activism, physicality and empowerment.

The film is being directed and produced by Goldie Dartmouth (a.k.a. Emma Corbett Ashby) a fat queer burlesque performer from Berlin, by way of the UK.

Director’s Statement:

This project is conceived as part of a vision of mine to celebrate fat queer politics and the amazing work of fat creative activists. I do this as an admirer and as a fat queer performer myself.

The theme of the documentary is ‘radical self-actualisation’ and how we embody our activism through performativity. Self actualisation is particularly relevant for fat people as one of the ways that systematic cultural fat phobia works is that it typecasts us as losers and failures, with social and media structures often working to reinforcing this. For these reasons I believe that the process of publicly reclaiming your body via performance is one of the most powerful things you can do as a fat person.
The film recognises intersectionality and does not treat ‘Fat’ or ‘Queer’ in a single-issue fashion. Its important to me as a film maker that overlapping issues of race, gender, class and the wider political involvements of the participants are also brought to the table.

The inspiration for this project came largely from reading Heather McAllister’s brilliant chapter in the recently-published Fat Studies Reader concerning embodiment and performance as being crucial to fat activism. In accordance with her vision, I agree that a Queer Fat body on stage, when this body is not a punchline, is a radical act.

I offer this film partly out of respect and homage to Heather’s vision, and also in the hopes of highlighting and celebrating the many individuals who continue to resist stigma and perform as proud Fat Queers.
- Goldie Dartmouth

(via enduretheburning)