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| Teaches of Peaches |
Friday, June 21, 2024, 6:00 PM, Roxie, US premiere
Frameline description: “Winner of the Teddy Award for Best Documentary at this year's Berlinale, this absorbing film offers a playful, all-encompassing syllabus for the 20 years of diddling our skittles and fucking the pain away to The Teaches of Peaches. Featuring interviews from collaborators, admirers, and lovers alike (including Leslie Feist, Chilly Gonzalez, and Shirley Manson), this rousing portrait of the musician/performer Peaches (née Merrill Nisker) traces her life and career from her days as a Canadian schoolteacher to becoming a cult star in the Berlin underground scene to her life today, as she prepares for the anniversary tour of her breakthrough LP, The Teaches of Peaches.
“Through candid interviews, Peaches sheds light on her sexuality, her onstage persona, and how she found her voice musically through trial and error. A bisexual woman, now in her 50s, Peaches' music and shows remain as aggressively sexual as they always were; and we learn that being a woman in the music industry who dares to sing about sexuality is an inherently political act. What other lessons lie ahead in the further Teaches of Peaches, you ask? Huh? What?”
My reaction: The song “Fuck the Pain Away” at first blush might sound like teen boy angst, but it is unequivocally and unabashedly from a woman’s point of view — a woman who is sex-positive, queer-positive, and not at all playing to “the male gaze.” Peaches colors outside the lines when and where it suits her, never just for shock value alone. I only occasionally dabble in punk music, but the energy of Peaches will sweep you along. It’s a MUST SEE, even if you don’t identify as a punk rocker.
* The bits in German are subtitled in English; some, but not all, of the English is subtitled in German.
• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Twitter • Instagram: @TheTeaches_OfPeaches @PeachesNisker • Facebook • preview 🔞 • CBC interview • Rotten Tomatoes: [not yet scored] •
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