The series, which started in 2017, has partnered with Coral Gables Art Cinema to put on its Summer Camp Redux, a weekly film screening throughout July, alongside drag performances to personify each film's unique style of camp, something cofounders Juan Barquin, 31, and Trae DeLellis, 35, struggle to define. (Editor's note: Both Barquin and DeLellis contribute to New Times.)
"For me, it's about going against the norm or narrative structure, usually in a queer desire," argues Barquin, who works as a freelance film critic. "It's sort of maximalist filmmaking to some extent and embracing these juxtaposed atmospheres."
After matching on Grindr, the duo platonically bonded over an array of movie nights and Double Stubble, Gramps' weekly drag event.
"It was back when Kurt Fowl, a drag performer who used to live here, did a Silence of the Lambs number, and I was like, This is everything I've ever wanted," Barquin recalls. "So the two of us were like, 'Why haven't we done a film series like that plus drag?'"
Thus, inspired by a combination of both drag and films challenging gender and sexual norms, Flaming Classics was born. Last year, Barquin and DeLellis also won a $10,000 grant from Oolite Arts' Ellies Creator Award, allowing them to further expand the series' programming.
Upcoming screenings at Flaming Classics include Death Becomes Her, featuring drag performances by Opal Am Rah and Persephone Von Lips on July 23, and Showgirls on 35mm, featuring a surprise guest on July 30. (Past showings include Romeo + Juliet with Lady Paraiso and Viola Putx, The First Wives Club with Karla Croqueta, and Drop Dead Gorgeous with Yoko Oso.)
These films don't inherently portray LGBTQ characters or storylines. Instead, Barquin and DeLellis curated the series based on the movies' inconspicuous portrayals of queerness.
Drag artist Bad Papi performs before a screening of The Poetic Life of Reinaldo Arenas at the Miami Beach Bandshell.
Photo courtesy of Juan Barquin
Barquin describes this feeling as the velvet rage, "the idea that we project and build our identities off of these women because we want to model ourselves after them," a term first coined by clinical psychologist Alan Downs.
The ambiguity of camp may actually be these films' appeal, Barquin argues.
"We just want to explore what representation really means and dive into all of these classic films that were coded in all of these really fascinating ways," Barquin notes. "Sometimes you'll see odd choices, like Showgirls, which many would argue is not a queer film."
DeLellis, a film writer and professor at the University of Miami, was also fascinated by the Paul Verhoeven film's accidental campiness — something he feels was not appreciated during its release in 1995.
"I don't know if any of these films thought they were being camp," DeLellis says. "It's interesting that most of the five films we picked weren't critically well-acclaimed back in the day, so I'm wondering if camp at some point needs a little bit of distance to fully appreciate."
With this, Barquin invites viewers to question characters' motives and subtext, like those of Showgirls' Nomi Malone and Cristal Connors, who Barquin believes display sensationalized characteristics of gender.
"The whole thing is just two women performing femininity at each other to see who does it best and finding themselves both attracted and disgusted to each other," Barquin explains.
The duo ultimately hopes to impart their teenage memories to audiences this month with an iconic homage to the '90s.
"We gravitated toward that era because these are the comfort films we grew up with, wearing out the VHS or DVD over and over again by ourselves," DeLellis recalls. "What's so cool now is getting to develop discourse and see them with a live audience."
Flaming Classics Summer Camp Redux. 9 p.m. Saturday, July 23, and Saturday, July 30, at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com. Tickets cost $8 to $11.75.
