This Valentine’s Day, a star is born.
A sumptuous love letter to all things red, pink, and divinely feminine, Introducing Belle Jolie! documents on Super 8mm film the debut burlesque performance of one of the filmmaker’s best friends, “Miss Belle Jolie,” at the Providence, RI queer bar The Dark Lady on Valentine’s Day in 2024. Glimpses of a Valentine’s party from earlier that evening, hosted and decorated by friend and artist Willow Giannotti-Garlinghouse, are intermingled with the burlesque footage.
Inspired by the cheeky eroticism of Doris Wishman’s nudie-cuties (Playgirls International, Blaze Starr Goes Nudist) and the decadence and ritualism of Kenneth Anger’s queer underground cinema (Puce Moment, Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome), Introducing Belle Jolie! also draws on the stroboscopic filmmaking style of such avant-garde filmmakers as Paul Sharits (Piece Mandala/End War; T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G), as achieved through rapid fire frame-by-frame intercutting.
“Magical… exquisite.” —MM Serra, filmmaker and curator
Screenings:
The 16th Annual Video Art & Experimental Film Festival (VAEFF) of New York City (New York, NY; November 13, 2026)
¿Qué pretende usted de mí? Curaduría cine Queer, Erótico, Transfeminista, curated by Sofía Martínez Frenkel for Laboratorio de Cine FAC (Montevideo, Uruguay; July 5, 2025)
FLICKERS Experimental Film Showcase, curated by Evan Schwartz for Starr Bar (Brooklyn, NY; July 31, 2024)
Millennium Film Workshop (Brooklyn, NY; March 29, 2024)
