Ballerina Boys (2021)

• 75%
• 2021
• Documentary
• Martie Barylick
• Chana Gazit

Ballerina Boys celebrates the all-male dance company Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, whose male ballerinas have for 45 years taken great risks to practice their dazzling version of ballet parody. While the film celebrates the Trocks' joyful artistry, it also asks viewers to face issues of gender, inclusion, and social justice. "Ballerina Boys" interweaves a tour of the Carolinas (center of efforts to walk back LGBTQ rights) with portraits of the dancers and the survival saga of the Company itself-a story that begins with the Stonewall Riots in 1969 and culminates in "Stars and Stripes Forever" at the Stonewall 50th Anniversary Celebration where fifteen drag queens in red, white, and blue tutus exult in a moment of unabashed patriotism. "Ballerina Boys" is intimate and panoramic, historical and immediate. Now the world can look up to heroes who actually do wear tights.