Trama

Documentary about the gender-bending San Francisco performance group who became a pop culture phenomenon in the early 1970s.

On New Year's Eve, 1969, a flamboyant ragtag troupe of genderbending hippies took the stage of San Francisco's Palace Theater and The Cockettes were born. For the next 2 1/2 years, these outrageous drag performers created 20 shows with titles like "A Crab on Uranus Means You're Loved" and "Tinsel Tarts in a Hot Coma," and were featured in four underground films. But when the Cockettes flew to New York City to appear Off Broadway - well, you'll just have to see what happened when New Yorkers took a look at them. Documentarians Weissman and Weber have crafted a record of a wondrous time and a wild group in The Cockettes.—Anonymous

From 1969 to 1972, the Cockettes were San Francisco's gender-bending, LSD-fueled, on-stage party. In the late 1990s, Cockettes and friends tell the story, illustrated by archival footage: the impromptu spirit of Hibiscus, colorful sets and costumes, the move toward scripts and rehearsals, a few films, Rex Reed's delirious review that got them a ragged gig in New York - where exuberant West met enervated East, and the end. Highlights include visits from Divine, the arrival of Sylvester - who could really sing, Hibiscus's departure to form the Angels of Light, "Tricia Nixon's Wedding," and the joy of the group's survivors even as they mourn friends who died from drugs or AIDS.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>