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Pageant

Play trailer Poster for Pageant 2008 1h 35m Documentary LGBTQ+ Play Trailer Watchlist
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Five talented and beautiful female impersonators prepare to compete against 47 other men to win the Miss Gay America Pageant.

Critics Reviews

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Martin Tsai Village Voice 02/02/2009
Pageant sorely misses the socioeconomic context of Paris Is Burning, which took seven years to complete. When one of the film's subjects indeed becomes Miss Gay America 2009, Davis and Halpern-Fingerhut's camera has long since stopped rolling. Go to Full Review
Nathan Lee New York Times 02/02/2009
3.5/5
This classicism is not without its charm, and it's touching, in a goofy sort of way, to see how seriously everyone takes it. Go to Full Review
Avi Offer NYC Movie Guru 02/02/2009
7.25/10
A diverting and uplifting experience. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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06/21/2015 An interesting look inside the world of Alyssa Edwards and Victoria 'Porkchop' Parker. See more 02/27/2015 Get to know some phenomenally different queens in a great documentary for Miss Gay America... It was honest & fabulous & seeing people's different stories to how they got where they were?! Fabulous! See more 11/16/2014 Illuminating -- not just the kitsch one might expect. A worthwhile exploration of the people who compete in drag beauty contests. See more 10/28/2014 Interesting documentary about the pageant drag queens. I even saw some familiar faces from RuPaul's Drag Race. See more 09/20/2014 Holy boring, Batman. I made it about 15 minutes. These were the lamest drag queens ever. Also, even though it was fairly current (last couple years), everything seemed very 80's. I expect more flair from these ladies. See more 02/01/2014 Mildly interesting look behind the scenes at the Miss Gay America pageant. It's kind of a companion piece to RuPaul's Drag Race showing the extremely serious side to female impersonation. There are a couple of familiar faces. Alyssa Edwards shows up (but it isn't THAT year) and Porkchop is also on hand. The documentary follows a few of the contestants as they prepare for the pageant. It's all quite interesting, but there is none of the shade of Drag Race or intrigue of say Paris is Burning. Not a bad film, but doesn't quite pop. See more Read all reviews
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Movie Info

Synopsis Five talented and beautiful female impersonators prepare to compete against 47 other men to win the Miss Gay America Pageant.
Director
Ron Davis, Stewart Halpern-Fingerhut
Producer
Stewart Halpern, Ron Davis
Screenwriter
Stewart Halpern-Fingerhut, Ron Davis
Production Co
Docutainment Films
Genre
Documentary, LGBTQ+
Original Language
English
Release Date (DVD)
Oct 20, 2009
Runtime
1h 35m