High Spots in a Low Dive: Doris Fish Home Movies 1981-91 (Tenderloin Museum)

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Phillip R. Ford, director of the cult film classic Vegas in Space (1991) and “honorary straight man” in the legendary San Francisco drag troupe Sluts A-Go-Go, presents a “stand up lecture with moving pictures” from his extensive “home movie” collection of performance documentation (& behind the scenes), including many scenes at the Tenderloin’s legendary Club 181! Collaborating with his mentor and friend, the legendary drag queen Doris Fish, along with Miss X and “Tippi”, he created and co-starred in some celebrated drag theater, both on nightclub and legitimate stages, which are still lovingly remembered today by those who were there.  

Doris Fish hailed from Sydney but relocated mostly full time to San Francisco in the late 70s. Ford was a young filmmaker of 21 when he met Fish, who soon recruited him to direct her feature film obsession Vegas in Space. Little did they know the next decade of their lives would be given over to the toils and triumphs that awaited. Driving under the influence of glamour, film theory and an addictive love of vivid colors and bad acting, they devoted all of their time, money and youth to the completion of Doris and Phillip’s cinematic fantasy. Vegas in Space famously took nine years to complete and created a sensation at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival, appeared at festivals worldwide, and was broadcast on USA Network’s Up All Night. The film today is a greater cult phenomenon than when it was released, having inspired generations of young queens the world over to dedicate themselves to follow their own artistic dreams.

In High Spots in a Low Dive: Doris Fish Home Movies 1981 to 1991, Ford presents a selection of greatest hits from his extensive “home movie” collection of videos from stage and TV performances together with many glimpses behind-the-scenes. Live onstage he shares his stories and reminiscences, along with a fabulous assortment of video hits from San Francisco in the 1980s, a rather forgotten period of drag theater history. Among the high spots are clips from Nightclub of the Living Dead, The Happy Hour Show, Bad Seed, Gay Cable Network and The Sluts A-Go-Go All Star Gang Bang and Who Does That Bitch Think She Is?.

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