Lynn Davis Divine is the subject of a new documentary.AUSTIN, Tex. â€" Playing on screens throughout the South by Southwest festival this weekend were a variety of documentaries focusing on key figures in gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. “Continental†shines its eye on Steve Ostrow, the owner of the Continental Baths, a bathhouse that became a cultural beacon. “Big Joy†focuses on the gay poet and filmmaker James Broughton, whose work in the 1960s and ’70s made him a voice of the sexual revolution. “Mr. Angel†spends time with the porn star and activist Buck Angel, whose work has changed perspectives on transgender performers in adult film.
The Film Collaborative The director Jeffrey Schwarz.But one of the figures who cut a particularly strong and rebellious swath was Divine, a drag queen and film actor who took his brash, over-the-top characterizations on the stage and screen from the fringe and into the mainstream. “I Am Divine,†from the gay filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz (“Vitoâ€), takes a closer look at the man formerly known as Harris Glenn Milstead and how he created a persona that encouraged the celebration of the outsider and renegade in all of us. In an interview, Mr. Schwarz spoke about his work on the project. Following are edited excerpts from that conversation.
How did you first come to know about Divine
What did you see in Divine that you thought would make for an interesting film
He left such a huge imprint on the world. Over the years, people enjoyed him but were also inspired by him. He helped people be comfortable with who they were, no matter what they looked like or no matter what society told them was wrong with them. He was able to turn all that around and empower himself. Anybody who feels like a freak, for whatever reason, can really find a role model in Divine. And so that was really what touched me about the story.
Robyn Beeche How do you think Divine was influential in the world of drag
Before Divine, drag was certainly not hip in any way. There was some of the more radical drag, like the Cockettes and such. But a lot of the drag culture in mainstream gay life was people impersonating Carol Channing or Judy Garland or Barbra Streisand. And Divine was about as far away from that as you could get. He was more punk rock. He made it kind of cool to do drag. When you see drag culture today, the performers are much more outsider and all sorts of body types. Divine made it O.K. to be a big girl.
Where do you think Divine’s renegade nature came from
Rage. This was a time where there was all this pent-up queer energ! y from al! l those years of repression. To have Divine come in a red fishtail dress in “Pink Flamingos†or in “Multiple Maniacs,†where she shoots straight people, was surprising. I loved that gay culture could be so radical after so many years of being obsequious. That was a new thing.
Clay Geerdes How did Divine turn his outsider act into something that became more and more accepted by the mainstream
Well, he wasn’t doing the “Today†show, but he was doing “Late Night With David Letterman.†As someone says in the film, it was a long act that kept building. It was a different time where you could be an underground superstar, where the right people in the right cities know who you are. Early on,he wasn’t craving mainstream acceptance. As time went on and he had created his brand, he did start to think about how he would make a living at it. He did that by creating a disco persona, recording disco songs that weren’t huge hits here, but they were gigantic hits overseas.
What was your process for structuring the documentary
It was kind of a cradle-to-grave approach. We looked at it as kind of a superhero origin story, the birth of this character. So it’s sort of a traditional three-act structure. I’m not trying to rewrite rules of documentary filmmaking. I really just try to focus on a clean through line of a life.
What archival materials did you use
There are the films themselves. We were able to find interviews that Divine did over the years on radio and TV shows. John did extensive interviews with Divine that he recorded for his book “Shock Value.! †We tr! ied to amass everything and let Divine tell his own story as much as possible. And of course, all the incredible photographs over the years people took of him. He loved being photographed.
Did you have any new discoveries about Divine making the film
A lot of people would talk to me about Divine and say he was overweight and he was lonely and he never had love. And that’s so not true. What I learned, from talking to his friends, was that he did have a lot of love in his life. And also, he got a lot of action.
