BFI Flare: Hot Topics

Today I will look at two documentaries that have screened online at this year's unusual Flare film festival. No Ordinary Man looks at the fascinating life of jazz musician Billy Tipton, while PS: Burn This Letter Please recovers the lives of 1950s New York City drag queens. 

One interviewee in No Ordinary Man explains why Billy Tipton's name is familiar. "It was in a Le Tigre song." That song was, of course, "Hot Topic", but I actually heard Tipton's name much further back and am pretty sure Phranc wrote a song about the musician who died in 1989. Back then the general understanding was that Tipton, who was born a woman but lived as a man, was a frustrated lesbian who thought dressing as a man would help her music career. Later this understanding evolved to recognise Tipton as a trans man. Interestingly, this same pattern followed Brandon Teena, who is also mentioned in the documentary. I pondered this, as nobody in the documentary seemed to really delve into this paradox: we recognise someone as queer but get the specifics wrong. 

No Ordinary Man used an unusual method to canvass opinion on Tipton, convening auditions to play him. Auditionees played out scenes and then offered their reactions. I was confused, however, as to whether there really is a biopic in the works or whether they understood their contributions were solely for this documentary. But, the real emotional heart of the film for me was the interviews with Billy Tipton, Jr., who found his father dying back in 1989 and has had to live ever since with the salacious gossip about his life and whether he and his siblings (never seen) or mother "knew" about Tipton senior. He comes across as rather damaged by life and incredibly grateful that so many trans people revere his father. "I thought I was the only one," he says. Where have we heard that before?

P.S. Burn This Letter Please

PS: Burn This Letter Please starts with a brilliant premise: a stash of letters found in storage in 2014 that turn out to be 1950s missives sent by drag queens to one man, their friend who was travelling for his radio job. And what letters, full of dish and gossip about the scene and its players, all signed with their drag names. Incredibly, many of them are tracked down by the filmmakers and interviewed in the present day to reflect on their lives back then. And what stories! The great Met wig heist lingers long in the memory. A must-see.