WATCH: Boston’s oldest and most notorious gay bar comes to life in … – Queerty
Though it wasn’t intended to be a gay bar when it was built in 1937, Boston’s Playland Café rather quickly became a queer destination, attracting diverse clientele from all over the city with drag, debauchery, and so much more.
Sadly, the bar shuttered in 1998 after losing its entertainment license, closing a significant chapter of LGBTQ+ history on the East Coast. But, as you can imagine for any bar that operated for over 60 years, Playland Café still has plenty of stories to tell.
A good many of those stories come to fantastical life in the new art film, Playland, from queer filmmaker Georden West, which is set to debut at Rotterdam’s International Film Festival next week.
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Bringing together decades of the bar’s history in one night that transcends time and space, West’s experimental feature resists classification, incorporating “music, dance, archival footage, tableaux, opera, and performance art.” With first-hand accounts and other stories from the establishment’s fabled history—including notorious police raids, wild parties, and even murder—the film effectively brings Playland Café back from the dead.
Playland‘s eclectic cast of artists includes trans bodybuilder Mason Caminiti, Pose actress Danielle Cooper, and drag legend Lady Bunny. The film boasts incredible talent behind the scenes, too, including costume designer Edwin Mohney who has previously worked on pieces for a little up-and-coming musician you may have heard of by the name Beyoncé.
As West tells Variety in advance of the film’s festival premiere, the primary goal bringing all these artists together to make Playland was “wanting to do right by people who aren’t here anymore. And people who can still remember a time that has been erased, especially as they enter their twilight years.”
Just one look at the film’s gorgeous, haunting trailer—which you can watch below—you’ll agree that there’s never been anything quite like it.
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Playland makes its public premiere on February 2 at Rotterdam’s International Film Festival—stay tuned for future festival date announcements and more.