Screaming Queens: Film Analysis Screaming Queens Is A Documentary Chronicling The Beginning of

The documentary film "Screaming Queens" chronicles the transgender and queer activism that emerged in 1960s San Francisco, including a pivotal riot involving drag queens and transwomen at Compton's Cafeteria in 1966. The film uses interviews with eyewitnesses and participants to educate viewers about this important precursor to the Stonewall riots. While it effectively shares the personal experiences of several women, the documentary only briefly discusses the additional struggles faced by women of color. It accomplishes its primary goal of documenting this influential yet overlooked event, but could have provided deeper examination of racial issues within the transgender rights movement.

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Screaming Queens: Film Analysis Screaming Queens Is A Documentary Chronicling The Beginning of

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Kate Klopfenstein

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Kathleen Klopfenstein

11/15/15
Screaming Queens: Film Analysis
Screaming Queens is a documentary chronicling the beginning of
transgender and queer activism in the 1960s, specifically a riot involving
drag queens and transwomen taking place at a diner in the red light
district of San Francisco in 1966. The film features interviews with several
eyewitnesses, a former policeman involved in advocating for queer rights in
the Tenderloin (the district in San Francisco where the event took place), and
a pastor involved in ministry in the Tenderloin. The diner in focus was called
Comptons, and was a popular all-night meeting place for the queens and
entertainers.
The film begins with the queens talking about the good experiences in
the Tenderloin- the parties, having a good time with the men who came to
see them, how festive it was at the time, etc. However, as the movie goes
on, the interviewees begin to talk more about the dark side of the Tenderloin
prostitutes were beaten or killed by customers for having male genitalia,
police accepted bribes from those involved in illegal activity, beat and
arrested queens every night, trans people were not socially allowed to leave,
housing was becoming less and less available, the women took drugs in
order to be able to continue to work, etc.
Police brutality against these women was an especial concern, and
caused resentment to grow and grow on the streets of the Tenderloin. This all
led up to the riot at Comptons Cafeteria. The riot started when a policeman

allegedly shoved a queen and she threw something at him. With this cursory
introduction to the film in mind, we can begin to look at the purpose of the
film was and what methods it employed to accomplish that purpose.
The purpose of the film seems to me to be mainly to educate on the
history of queer movements; since the Comptons riots preceded Stonewall
and was primarily a movement involving the uprising of transwomen to fight
for their right to freedom and to be themselves. Its focus on the individual
experiences and struggles of a few women to paint a picture of the feeling of
the sixties and how life really was for these women is used to show the
importance of a seemingly small, relatively unknown event that changed the
attitude and lives of the women living in the Tenderloin.
This purpose is achieved through interviews with eyewitnesses and
participants of the riot in 1966, along with other transwomen who were living
in the tenderloin around the time of the riots. Interestingly enough, two other
interviews were conducted with a police officer and a pastor, both of whom
worked with the women of the Tenderloin to establish rights to dress and act
as they wished, instead of being brutalized by police for their unconventional
gender expression. The interviews to me are the most home-hitting part of
the documentarythey show the lives of the women not through the eyes of
ratings-hungry mainstream media, but through their own words and
experiences.
Keeping this in mind, the film does tend to paint the experiences of the
women equally and generally. Though two women of color are featured in the

interviews, the only time their experiences as POC are touched upon is
during the part of the film focusing on Vanguard, the gay/trans rights group
formed by some of the young people of the Tenderloin during the time
leading up to the riot at Comptons.
Jennifer Worley wrote a piece on Vanguard, explaining the origins of
the group and saying of it,
This group has been virtually forgotten by history, but the
records that remain reveal an extremely active and organized
group whose position as street-based sex workers produced a
profound and deeply radical movement in resistance not only to
the unequal treatment of sexual minorities before the law, but
also to economic forces and state-sponsored violence that
served to marginalize and oppress gay and transgender youth.
(Worley 41)
Tamara Ching, a woman of color and AIDS prevention and sex work activist in
San Francisco, says during an interview, We heard about Vanguard, but
being a person of color I didnt feel like I belonged. We just felt like, you
know, it was a bunch of white radical people, and theyre just doing whatever
they want to do. Vanguard was the organization in charge of organizing the
boycott and picket of Comptons as well. So it seems that this organization,
though effective in creating a space for young gay and trans people to be in
community with each other, was mainly a space for white people.
The film accomplishes its main goal, educating the public about the
first real movement against police brutality and stand for transgender rights,
remarkably wellby using many eyewitness interviews to fuel the story.
However, the film doesnt delve very deeply into the different struggles

experience by the women of colorindeed, when the documentary speaks

about the beginning of questioning gender expression, it shows the white
middle class hippies opposing the war. Without directly saying it, the film
reveals something true about our culture: those with privilege have a much
easier time challenging the norms of society. This is also shown by one of the
women interviewed in the documentary. Aleshia Brevard was blessed with
feminine enough looks that she was able to become an entertainer with
decent pay, instead of having to work the streets like some of the other
women interviewed.
All in all, the film accomplishes its purpose: educating on the riot at
Comptons, the previously widely unknown precursor to the gay rights
movement and Stonewall in 1969. It does so through the use of firsthand
accounts, along with interviews with prominent members in the community
at the time, such as Ed Hansen, liaison between Glide Church and Vanguard,
and Elliot Blackstone, a policeman who advocated for trans rights, lending
the film credibility. The women at the center of the film are the real stars,
though: they tell the poignant and raw story of what life was like for them in
the Tenderloin. These stories of hope are inspiring beyond measure and show
that even though there is much left to be done in todays world to establish
equality for all people, it can be done.

Works Cited
1. Screaming Queens. Dir. Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman. 2005.
DVD.
2. Worley, Jennifer. Captive Genders, Street Power and the Claiming of
Public Space. 41-56. Print.