GIRL KING
dir. Ileana Pietrobruno, 2002
81 mins. Canada.
In English.
FRIDAY, JUNE 17 – 7:30 PM – Q&A w/filmmaker Ileana Pietrobruno!
(This event is $10.)
MONDAY, JUNE 20 – 10:00 PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 25 – 11:55 PM
TUESDAY, JUNE 28 – 10:00 PM
As part of Spectacle’s 2022 Pride Month programming, we are honored to host the first NYC exhibitions of filmmaker Ileana Pietrobruno’s underground miniDV classic GIRL KING in conjunction with its 20th anniversary.
Scored by Ninja Tune legend Amon Tobin, GIRL KING is an unclassifiable softcore pirate thriller that flips the script on “period pieces” of the high seas, and interrogates filmic representations of cis history with gender-blind casting and a mash-up of ancient and decidedly digital-era filmmaking styles.
GIRL KING is a fantasy drag-king adventure which takes place among the sexiest pirates that ever sailed the seven seas. It all begins when the Queen is left by her lover, the King; moreover, the cad has made off with her most precious stone, which means that she is no longer capable of attaining orgasm. And so she sends out Captain Candy to hunt down the thieving traitor and bring her back her jewel. However, the Queen’s pirate fails in his mission; the enraged Queen is just about to send her servant to the gallows when she catches sight of on a particularly attractive piece of booty – the virginal Baby Butch.
However, the regent’s impetuous desire is thwarted by the fact that Butch has already lost her heart to the beautiful, but strictly heterosexual, Claudia. The Queen decides to put Butch’s unhappy state to her own use by telling Butch that, should she succeed in retrieving the stolen treasure, she will in return receive the love of her idol. And so Butch puts to sea under the command of Captain Candy, where she soon learns what it means to be a pirate – casting wicked grins at the ladies and knuckling down like a man. Before long, all the usual rules governing decent behaviour are tossed aside and erotic chaos ensues. More so when it transpires that there’s a sailor on board who could be Claudia’s spitting image…
ILEANA PIETROBRUNO is a filmmaker based in British Columbia, Canada. Her films, on which she not only acts as producer, but also editor and production designer, are modern fairy-tales and surreal stories full of symbolic references, as was her recent modernised version of Scheherazade, CAT SWALLOWS PARAKEET AND SPEAKS! (1997). GIRL KING, her second feature-length film, was spotlighted in the 2003 Berlinale Panorama programme.