Sunshine in Soho
1950s Soho beats with far more energy than its 21st century counterpart in this vivid time capsule.
Tassel-spinning showgirl Tina stars in this rare 60s British burlesque stage show reel.
1950s Soho beats with far more energy than its 21st century counterpart in this vivid time capsule.
Through handmade outfits and dancing, Coby, a 93 year old retired Chinatown nightclub performer, and Stephen, an artist twenty years her junior, find unlikely love, despite dissimilarities in culture and age. As their last performance in Las Vegas approaches, Coby and Stephen prepare a final routine.
This film weaves across sound, image, time, rhythm and place and is made up of a number of layers both sound and visual layered on top of one another, talking to and informing each other. It is made using digital transfer versions of c90 tape compilations I made between 1992-1995, juxtaposed with moving image footage of me in 2018 and 2020 and a typeface font graphic ‘See Me’ that I designed in 2005. The c90 cassette on screen is the cassette compilation that I still have from 1994. The film also includes drawings and photographs and other artworks from my personal archive as an artist from the last 25 years. As I walk down the streets that were so important in shaping my life as a young gay man living in London, I revisit the gay bars and pubs that have been my safe spaces for the last twenty years and more, spaces that are now closed.
A feminist view of how small businesses in London's Soho exploit working women.
After a tour of the sights and sounds of the Las Vegas strip, we enter the Club Paradise where we are treated to a night of song, comedy, and dancing.
A collection of numerous burlesque acts from the 1950s, including strippers, and cult character Betty Page introducing the acts.
Traffic chaos and parking pandemonium in London is nothing new around the capital.
In November 2014 the Iconic club Madame Jojos closed its doors. This event being interpreted by many as the death knell of Soho.The gentrification of Soho affects the LGBT community and its Drag Queen sub-culture, but the cabaret atmosphere of the entire neighborhood in enormous ways. This active pursuit to destroy a bubbling and vibrant part of the city's heart is viewed by many as an atrocity akin to turning the lights off on Broadway. Over 3rd of London's music venues have been closed in recent years and no one noticed. An active movement to bring a halt to this disaster has begun to unfold with one organization after another emerging to fight for Soho. Organizations made up of citizens and celebrities have sprung up to combat this onslaught. Will they win this battle and save Soho?
A short film about the changing face of London Soho and the implications of gentrification on Mimi, an aging transvestite.
This is an entire burlesque show, complete with a live band. Five strippers strut their stuff in between bawdy songs and sexy jokes delivered by burlesque singers and comedians.
Documentary charting the experiences of projectionists who work or worked in cinemas in London, exploring the skills and dedication required for this unique role, set against changes in technology, society, and entertainment.
Beth B takes us into the 21st century underground and reveals a secret world where cutting-edge performers are taking hold of a taboo art form, Burlesque, and driving it to extremes that most people have never seen. It's satire. It's parody. It's a populist blend of art and entertainment that gives new meaning to the word "transgression." Above all, it's a lot of fun, and it will blow your mind.
Part of the Look at Life Rank series reels. A look at the SOHO bohemian coffee bars of London in the 1950s.
A documentary on the Brew City Bombshells Burlesque neo-burlesque troupe in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Based on the real life events, this film tells the tragedy of Baby Porcuna, the sister of notorious gangster of the 1960s, Boy Porcuna, and her liaisons with men.
Lili St. Cyr is about ready for bedtime, which of course she does in the nude. Live stage performance includes chorus girl act, The Folliettes, and the dance team The Duponts.
Londoner Harry Fabian is a second-rate con man looking for an angle. After years of putting up with Harry's schemes, his girlfriend, Mary, becomes fed up when he taps her for yet another loan.
A young girl, passionate about fashion design, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters her idol, a dazzling wannabe singer. But 1960s London is not what it seems, and time seems to be falling apart with shady consequences.
Reclining on her chaise lounge in a see-through robe, Lili St. Cyr decides she needs a bubble bath. In a gilded tub fit for Marie Antoinette, she bares all that the law will allow. Then she squeezes into an evening gown and mink coat to paint the town red.
In 1965 - the eve of decriminalization for acts of male homosexuality in the U.K. - Matthews, a young gay man at odds with the world, discovers love, sex, and a new family in the backstreets and underground bars of Soho.