A Florida Enchantment

Directed by Sidney Drew

United States

A madcap gender-bending, cross-dressing camp classic filmed right here in the Sunshine State!Ý Who would believe that sixty years before Anita Bryant, Florida gave us a breezy glimpse at same-sex smooching, groping, dancing, and cruising, not to mention an outrageously funny send-up of "homosexual panic"?Ý In this 1914 silent, Lillian, a young vacationer at an elite resort, has nagging doubts about her fiancÈ Fred.Ý So, aided by magical edible seeds found in a mysterious old box, she takes matters into her own hands.Ý After all, who needs a man when you can be one yourself?Ý Actress Edith Storey gives a deliciously giddy performance, seemingly more and more male both to herself and the other characters.Ý But to gay and lesbian audiences, then and now, what she seems is an increasingly butch lesbian.Ý A girlfriend on each arm eager for kisses, Lillian rebuffs Fred with a disdainful once-over to his crotch.Ý Before long, Fred discovers the seeds himself and turns into - you guessed it - a big nelly queen.Ý Warning:Ý this film, like most of its time, includes white actors in blackface and some characterizations that would clearly be seen as racist today.Ý Nevertheless, the gender satire still remains sharp and the antics uproarious.Ý

Rarely shown in public, tonight's screening of A Florida Enchantment, just as it originally was over eight decades ago,Ý will be presented with live piano accompaniment, conceived and performed by Barbara Higbie,Ý Grammy-nominated composer, pianist, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.Ý She recorded for Windham Hill Records for fifteen years, has played on more than forty-five albums, has performed with Bonnie Raitt, Teresa Trull, Ferron and the Kronos Quartet, and has been regularly featured at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival.Ý Fred Fejes, Ph.D., Professor of Communications at Florida Atlantic University, and author of a soon to be published book, Gay Rights and Moral Panic in Miami: The 1977 Dade County Referendum Campaign, will introduce the film.

Preceded by The Grass is Greener, Dir. Amanda Raine, United Kingdom, SOUTH FLORIDA PREMIEREÝÝ The only two campers on an iffy gay singles retreat are a suit-wearing butch lesbian and a drag queen who find amusing common ground in the romantic fantasies of old Hollywood movies.

7:00 PM Screening $10