Thursday, June 26, 2008

Pansy Division: Life in a Gay Rock Band

If you know anything at all about gay rock'n'roll, you've undoubtedly heard of Pansy Division. They take a defiantly in-your-face-queer approach to making rock music, but equally eschew the disco / boy-band / synthpop aesthetic of much of queer music. This documentary is a history of the band, made by their friend Michael Carmona and band member Chris Freeman, tracking from the very beginning when Jon Ginoli was Pansy Division as a solo act, to teaming up with Freeman, through the succession of drummers, the tour opening for Green Day just as they started tearing up the charts, and the change of record labels. Bits of concert footage, mostly submitted by fans with video cameras, are interwoven with TV appearances, plus interviews specifically for this film. I've known Jon Ginoli for years and been a Pansy Division fan, but I learned quite a bit about the band's ups and downs. Highly recommended for any fan of rock'n'roll.

Pansy Division: Life in a Gay Rock Band, dir. Michael Carmona, 2007 USA 84 min.

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