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Glennda and Bruce Do Times Square

Glenn Belverio

1994 00:29:00 United StatesEnglishColorMono4:3Hi8 video

Description

In Glennda and Bruce Do Times Square, Glennda is taken on a night tour of Times Square by author Bruce Benderson. They observe the dynamic between forms of culture that would typically be identified as “underclass” in “suburbanite” culture within the economic and spatial landscape of New York City. Glennda and Bruce visit the apartment of performer Consuela Cosmetic, who was prolific within New York’s ball scene. She maps out the ways in which she believes gender can be expressed, and discusses the implications of ‘passing’. Ultimately, the video acts as exploration of polymorphous identity in the 1990s, specifically in relation to the emergence of mainstream gay male discourses.

An episode of Glennda and Friends, hosted by Glennda Orgasm and Bruce Benderson.

“The show explores how race, class, and transgender identity intersect in the now-vanished Times Square demimonde. A time capsule of New York City in the early to mid 90s.”

— Glenn Belverio

About Glenn Belverio

Glenn Belverio is an independent film and video maker who lives and works in New York City. He began producing and co-hosting the popular Manhattan Cable series The Brenda and Glennda Show in 1990, a talk show that took the art of drag out of the nightclubs and into the streets, mixing politics with humor. In 1993, the series became Glennda and Friends, a post-queer talk show featuring provocative co-stars such as gay pornographer Bruce LaBruce and guerrilla scholar Camille Paglia. Belverio and Paglia's collaborative project Glennda and Camille Do Downtown later became a short film, and was well received at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival. Glenn's work has screened at venues such as the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, and the New Museum, NY. Glennda and Camille Do Downtown won the Best Short Documentary prize at the 1994 Chicago Underground Film Festival.

Also See: Glenn Belverio: An Interview