CUFF Documentary: Vancouver’s Empress Explores the History of the City’s Gay Scene

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It’s hard to find a more suitable subject matter for a documentary than the Empress of Vancouver, Olive Howe.

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that’s what filmmakers are Dave Rodden-Shortt had an idea in 2018 when he came across a transgender icon while researching another project. The filmmakers were working on Beyond the Facade, a series of short films focused on Vancouver’s lesser-known history. Howe joined us to share an insight into the history of his scene, an important time for the community and a queer scene in his 1980s city where Howe has lived so vividly.

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“I met her for coffee and she talked for over an hour,” says Rodden-Shortt. “I was so fascinated by the stories she told and found her hilarious and smart. There are so many details in her memories of her past. People identify people in archival photos.” There’s a local Facebook page where people post stuff from the archives, always she knows who it is, she knows their first and last name. ”

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But Howe was not only a fountain of information and a living witness to Vancouver’s queer rights movement in the 1980s. Her own story of survival, perseverance, and community building has resulted in her character studies being interesting in their own right.

yes Now based in Vancouver, but having spent much of his childhood in Calgary, Rodden Short made Howe the focus of his feature debut, The Empress of Vancouver. This will be screened as part of his CUFF documentary at Globe Cinema on November 26th. .

Portions of the documentary follow Howe’s childhood on a farm near Fredericton, before fleeing to Montreal at the age of 10 and eventually becoming part of a close-knit queer community. She first started doing drag at the age of 14 in New York City and eventually became a regular on the queer and drag scene in Vancouver. In 1981, she was elected 10th Empress of Vancouver by the Dogwood Monarchist Association and led Canada’s first official Pride Her Parade.

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The film builds on Olive Howe’s plan to produce a series of shows to mark the 40th anniversary of her being crowned Empress of Vancouver. Rodden-Shortt presents some elaborate and entertaining performance pieces in the documentary.

yet, He says he was initially worried that he lacked archival visuals to tell the story. He feared a shortage of photographs and other documentation of Howe’s coronation and his one-year reign. Due to privacy concerns, certain gay bars were discouraged from posting photos. After all, at that point, there was nothing to protect members of the LGBT community from being fired or evicted if they were fired.

Rodden-Shortt was therefore delighted to find G.ayblevision was Canada’s first gay and lesbian television show that aired in Vancouver from 1980 to 1986, and its archives were digitized in 2016. He also discovered the work of photographer Oraf Oraffson. and her time as Empress.

“The more I dug, the more I realized there was enough to reconstruct that era,” says Rodden-Shortt.

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But while Howe’s story is included, The Empress of Vancouver also focuses on the fight for queer rights, the tragic impact of AIDS on the community, and even rare glimpses of divisions within the scene. It became a broader historical work about the period. Some of the more colorful members, including Olib, were left behind for fear of jeopardizing attempts to ensure equal rights. Howe calls it a “gay story,” showing that certain gays and lesbians sought more unity among activists, allowing them to integrate into the mainstream.

“It was pretty early on that I realized it was going to be a look at queer history through her eyes, not just Olive’s current issues,” he says. Rodden Short. “It was through this process that we narrowed it down to 1981 and 1982, otherwise it would have been too broad. but ended it with the arrival of AIDS, the end of her year as Empress of Vancouver.

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The AIDS crisis came into focus about an hour into the Empress of Vancouver’s launch, and how it was used to roll back not only the devastating toll AIDS has wrought on the community, but gay rights gains. is shown. In the film’s darkest scene, Rodden-Short fills the screen with black-and-white mugshots of the dead from Vancouver, while Howe speaks of the long and heavy toll the plague has taken. , two generations of nurturers, caregivers, elders and artists who would have played a role in nurturing and developing up-and-comers in our community. It’s all gone,” she says.

Rodden-Short is no stranger to fighting for gay rights. In 2001, he was a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Canadian government to legalize same-sex marriage. He is now married and has a son. The Empress of Vancouver is largely a period drama, but the filmmakers say they want it to be more than just a history lesson. Rodden-Short said he hopes the film will serve as a reminder to younger generations of the tough battles fought and the precariousness of equal rights.

“I think that’s one of the lessons learned,” he says. “Young people never know how much their elders have suffered. They can never fully understand how bad it was. Armed with that knowledge, I hope to prevent that from happening in the future.What we are seeing in America is that things don’t always go in one direction. I think. They can retreat.”

The Empress of Vancouver will premiere at Globe Cinema on November 26th at 7pm as part of the CUFF documentary. Visit calgaryundergroundfilm.org.