In the heart of Chicago ‘s Humboldt Park, a predominantly Puerto Rican community there is an air of excitement at the small Vida/SIDA Office. They have just announced plans for the 3rd Annual Paseo Boricua Beauty Pageant which had been established initially as the Center Director considered the local transgender community as the most marginalized section of society and he thought this would give them a face and a voice and showcase their talent. One of flyers promoting the event caught the attention of a local young man Josue Pellot who armed himself with a camera and filmed all the events leading up to the night of the competition.Pellot and his co-director Henrique Cirne-Lima focus their attention on three of the contestants, all of them either still at high school or just about to leave, and how they had to deal with coming out to their closely knit families. Bianca, Julissa and Jolizza have had rough patches with their parents in particular and even though Julissa’s mother will now accept her new daughter, she will still not let her return home to live. Bianca’s mother is now on good terms with her daughter but she is the one who is the most scared of the reactions of the rest of society and admits that she had relatives in the past who tried to transition or just pass as women and they all ended up murdered. She is also petrified that Bianca will drift into prostitution just to make a living as so many other girls do, but Bianca in fact has plans im a new job to start soon.
Jolizza’s siblings now accept her for who she is, but her mother confesses that it was almost impossible for her to come to terms with the news at first. After cutting off all communication for a few weeks, she came to the realization that she was making this issue all about herself, when it was in fact all about Jolizza. At this critical moment she would need family around to love and support her, and her mother decided that she would rather it be Jolizza’s own family that provide this and not some alternative ‘family’ she formed out of people she met on the street.
They prepare for the pageant under the supervision of Ginger Valdez an older woman who had transitioned years ago back in Puerto Rico when it was still illegal and who had been a famous performer in N.Y. at the time of Stonewall. She shares her experiences with the young contestants as she teaches them how to prepare for the Competition but you get the distinct impression that these overly confident young women are not taking it all onboard.
We follow the girls as they hang out together, make each other up, and get their outfits ready, but beneath all the cheerfulness there is an ever present darker side. Julissa demands that the camera be shut off when her sister asks if it is true that she was beaten up the other night, and Bianca actually misses rehearsals because she is laid up after being knifed in the back one night by a pimp.
The film climaxes with night of the Pageant which takes place in seedy shabby club with Ginger bravely MC’ing whilst complaining none of the equipment works. There is however enough raw emotion and excitement in the packed room to make up for any problems. Jolizza’s entire family have arrived en masse, even her father and his girlfriend, which is just as well as she is declared the winner and crowned Queen.
Filmed in 2010 the movie feels and looks like it is someone’s home video more often than not, but for all the roughness and the disjointed editing, the story of these girls is so completely compelling that you will want to sit through to the very end to cheer them on. This is an extremely positive image of some heart-warming stories of these girls who not only knew who they were, but were courageous enough to own that fact even in this tight community which puts a great store in both family and God. I cannot speak for the latter, but at least their families went out of their way to embrace them and give them the love that they so deserved.
Due out on DVD/VOD on October 6th check http://cinemalibrestudio.com/ for information.
P.S. The filmmakers went on to film what happened next to the girls in a new documentary called ‘The Other Side of the Queen’, which I for one cannot wait to see.
