Watch The Cockettes

The Cockettes is a documentary that explores the flamboyant, gender-bending, and avant-garde San Francisco theater troupe of the early 1970s. The Cockettes, a group of hippies and drag queens, embodied the free-spirited and hedonistic lifestyle of the counterculture movement, blending musical and theatrical performance with psychedelic and camp aesthetics.

The documentary highlights the origin and evolution of The Cockettes, from their humble beginnings as a theater group performing for free in Golden Gate Park to their rise as a cultural phenomenon that attracted audiences from all over the world. The film features interviews with surviving members of The Cockettes, archival footage of their performances, and commentary from cultural historians.

The film starts with an introduction to the cultural climate of San Francisco in the late 1960s and early 1970s, where the hippie movement and the Gay Liberation Movement were intersecting. The budding theater group, originally called The Angels of Light, attracted a diverse group of performers, ranging from seasoned actors to street performers. The documentary explores the group's ethos of spontaneity and self-expression, as well as the role of drugs, particularly LSD, in their creative process.

One of the highlights of the film is the depiction of The Cockettes' most famous work, their 1970 production of "Pearls Over Shanghai." The play was a wild, experimental mix of kitsch, cabaret, and East Asian aesthetics, featuring drag queen Divine as the villainess Dragon Lady. The Cockettes' unconventionality and disregard for traditional theater norms garnered the attention of mainstream media, including The New York Times, which brought the group to international fame.

As the group's success grew, tensions within the group also emerged. The documentary explores the personal and creative relationships among the members, including the role of gender and sexuality in the group's dynamics. The film also addresses the impact of the AIDS crisis on the surviving members of The Cockettes and on the wider gay community.

Throughout the film, The Cockettes' influence on contemporary performance art and queer culture is also highlighted. The group's jubilant celebration of gender fluidity and sexual liberation paved the way for later artists and movements, such as RuPaul's Drag Race and Queercore. The documentary provides a valuable historical and cultural perspective on a pivotal moment in queer history and the counterculture movement.

The film's soundtrack features songs from The Cockettes' performances as well as tracks by contemporary musicians such as Rufus Wainwright and Mark Mothersbaugh. Director David Weissman, who previously directed the documentary We Were Here about the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco, skillfully weaves together archival footage, interviews, and historical context to create a vivid and engaging portrait of an iconic and influential group of performers.

Overall, The Cockettes is a delightful and fascinating documentary that captures the spirit and legacy of one of the most unconventional and unforgettable theater troupes of the 20th century. The film celebrates the joy and creative expression that The Cockettes embodied, as well as the challenges and struggles that the group and the wider LGBTQ+ community faced. The Cockettes is a must-see for anyone interested in queer history, counterculture, and the transformative power of performance.

The Cockettes is a 2002 documentary with a runtime of 1 hour and 40 minutes. It has received mostly positive reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 7.4 and a MetaScore of 77.