Superstar in a Housedress
Superstar in a Housedress
"Jackie Curtis is not a drag queen. Jackie is an artist. A pioneer without a frontier." -- Andy Warhol. SUPERSTAR IN A HOUSEDRESS examines the life and legend of Warhol transvestite superstar Jackie Curtis who was a poet, playwright, performer, and one of the great personalities of his time. Jackie both lived and performed sometimes as a man, sometimes as a woman -- and died tragically of a drug overdose under bizarre circumstances when he was only 38. The film features on-camera interviews with actor Harvey Fierstein (who played Jackie's mother in "Americka Cleopatra" when he was 18), Ellen Stewart (founder of LaMama Experimental Theater Club), John Vaccaro (founder of the Playhouse of the Ridiculous), Paul Morrissey (Director of the Andy Warhol films), surviving superstars Holly Woodlawn and Joe Dallesandro, plus 24 other friends and colleagues of Jackie's. The film includes never-before-seen video and film clips of Jackie performing in stage plays including "Femme Fatale," "Glamour, Glory and Gold," and "Vain Victory: The Vicissitudes of the Damned." and cabarets. The music of jazz musician and composer Paul Serrato is featured, as is the photography of Jack Mitchell (who took more photographs of Curtis and the Warhol crowd than any other professional). Interviews with media personalities, writers and editors put the work and life of Jackie Curtis in historical perspective. Narrated by Lily Tomlin.
  "The most resonant parts of the movie are, oddly, the interviews with his fellow glam bohemians." -- Owen Gleiberman, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
  "A fabulously fond and entertaining tribute." -- J. Hoberman, VILLAGE VOICE
  "A vivid and affectionate portrait of Jackie Curtis, the drag personality who cut a speed-driven swath through New York's downtown bohemia in the late 1960's and 1970's."
-- Stephen Holden, NEW YORK TIMES
  "An enthusiastic backstage biography of one of Warhol's drag-queen divas, Jackie Curtis." -- Liam Lacey, GLOBE AND MAIL
  "There are several admiring -- and often hilarious -- interviews with an astounding array of Curtis' surviving pals."
-- Lou Lumenick, NEW YORK POST
  "Fascinating." -- Carla Meyer, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
  "Highberger's movie is as much a reclamation of cultural territory as it is a bio-pic." -- Susan Walker, TORONTO STAR
  "[Curtis'] life fascinates, as colorful as one of the old movies he loved." -- Stephen Whitty, NEWARK STAR-LEDGER
"What makes Highberger's docu so rewarding is the wealth of material available." -- Richard Sheib, VARIETY
  "The most resonant parts of the movie are, oddly, the interviews with his fellow glam bohemians." -- Owen Gleiberman, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
  "A fabulously fond and entertaining tribute." -- J. Hoberman, VILLAGE VOICE
  "A vivid and affectionate portrait of Jackie Curtis, the drag personality who cut a speed-driven swath through New York's downtown bohemia in the late 1960's and 1970's."
-- Stephen Holden, NEW YORK TIMES
  "An enthusiastic backstage biography of one of Warhol's drag-queen divas, Jackie Curtis." -- Liam Lacey, GLOBE AND MAIL
  "There are several admiring -- and often hilarious -- interviews with an astounding array of Curtis' surviving pals."
-- Lou Lumenick, NEW YORK POST
  "Fascinating." -- Carla Meyer, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
  "Highberger's movie is as much a reclamation of cultural territory as it is a bio-pic." -- Susan Walker, TORONTO STAR
  "[Curtis'] life fascinates, as colorful as one of the old movies he loved." -- Stephen Whitty, NEWARK STAR-LEDGER
"What makes Highberger's docu so rewarding is the wealth of material available." -- Richard Sheib, VARIETY
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