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Five minutes to Showtime!
Suddenly the curtain is flung aside, and filmmaker Augusta hands you a backstage, all-access VIP pass to The Velvet Hammer Burlesque.
Founded
in 1995, by Michelle Carr, The Velvet Hammer wrote
the Neo-Burlesque Bible: beautiful women of all shapes and
sizes, glittering costumes, raunchy music, elaborate stage
sets, magic, comedy, and unadulterated glamour!
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got that? Girls, girls, girls--legs up to there, come-hither
glances, shameless displays of wanton feminine pulchritude!
But wait--what’s that? —It’s the sound of
these champagne-swilling, post-modern, punk rock minxes debating
feminism and costume catastrophes. |
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cast features sultry tropical princesses, identical twin French
maids, go-go-gladiators, undulating belly dancers, naked Amazons
bound head-to-toe with rope, not to mention over-sexed housewives
and Atomic blonde bombshells using their mammaries to mix
martinis! |
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About
The Documentary
For three years, filmmaker Augusta faithfully followed the
troupe, from New York to Los Angeles, from New Orleans to
San Francisco, documenting sold-out performances, auditions,
and rehearsals. Highlights include the dancers as they transform
from sweat suit-clad chorines into sequined burlesque queens,
as the San Diego Vice Squad check the girls’ costumes
for ‘decency’, to the luscious Kitten De Ville
capturing the title of Miss Exotic World 2002. From gorgeously
shot live footage and candid interviews with the cast punctuated
with sublime and often hilariously surreal vignettes, this
film literally undresses a uniquely cultural phenomenon, the
American folk art known as Burlesque, capturing the very essence
of The Velvet Hammer. |
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| Shot
predominantly on a Sony DCR-PC9, The Velvet Hammer
Burlesque benefited from such a small handheld camera
in that Augusta was able to maintain a fly on the wall shooting
style, not to mention the accessibility of being able to fit
in her purse.The film also recreates vignettes that recall
the hey-day of burlesque. Covering everything from penny arcade
‘flickers’ thru to backyard nudie-cuties, Augusta
and D.P. Don Spiro explored several film formats to recreate
these vignettes. Two vignettes used Super 8mm much like to
old stag films featured on such tapes as Strip-O-Rama. |
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FILMMAKER BIO
One of the following statements is false:
*Augusta is over 5" tall.
* She graduated Temple University (Go Owls!)
* Augusta also works as a Set Costumer for such films and TV shows as the PRIZE WINNER OF DEFIANCE OHIO and POPULAR.
* The first documentary Augusta worked on was FLYING SAUCERS OVER HOLLYWOOD: THE MAKING OF PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE; you can see her in the film being bitten on the neck by Forest J. Ackerman.
* Augusta has appeared as a centerfold model for Barracuda Magazine and made her Burlesque debut at the
Miss Exotic World Competition.
*In 2004, Augusta, as her stage persona Penny Starr, Jr. took First Runner-Up at Miss Exotic World.
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all photos for these pages: Don Sprio,
except pin-up of Augusta by Paget Brewster
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