Running Time: 58 & 47 mins
Year: 2003

synopsis

While striptease is burlesque’s most modern subversive stick in the eye, the tradition is ancient. Fine art has always belonged to the rich, but burlesque is the revenge of the poor – a thumb to the nose, a fist to the fates—an expression of doubt that proves that hope still exists.

As a repudiation of exclusion, Burlesque’s vulgarity is a weapon against the propriety of the privileged or the prudishness of the middle classes. In its mocking disregard for what is decent, burlesque becomes the people’s art form. Of all the arts, burlesque may offer us the truest mirror to our selves. Like the portrait in Oscar Wilde’s “Picture of Dorian Grey,” it is grotesque, libidinous, fleshy, irreverent, and immensely watchable.

Credits

A film by Lindalee Tracey
Produced by Magnolia Movies and White Pine Pictures
in association with History Television Inc., Bravo!, Canal D, with the participation of the Canadian Television Fund
Created by the Government of Canada, and the Canadian Cable Industry, Telefilm Canada: Equity Investment Program CTF: Licence Fee Program, Rogers Cable Network Fund, Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit