Doc on SF ballet dancer's blossoming to drag artist headlines Frameline48

The nonprofit Frameline celebrates film and queerness when it stages the annual San Francisco International LGTBQ+ Film Festival , often with films about journeys of community members’ personal discovery.

And “Lady Like,” which follows Lady Camden’s blossoming from ballet dancer to drag artist, will be a prime example of that storytelling when the festival is held for the 48th time June 19-29.

The film festival’s opening Wednesday coincides with Juneteenth, and Frameline48 will kick off with its first-ever Castro neighborhood block party to fete the holiday. The Juneteenth Block Party is a free outdoor event that will include music, drag performances by Reparations, and a screening of “Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero.” Thereafter, the festival proceeds with presentations of some 120 films at multiple Bay Area venues.

“Lady Like” will have the starring role June 26 at 8:30 p.m. in the Vogue Theatre . So, too, will “RuPaul’s Drag Race” runner-up Lady Camden, aka Rex Wheeler. Born in Camden Town, London, in 1990, Camden moved to the U.S. in 2010, first to Sacramento and then in 2015 to The City.

“I moved to San Francisco because I wanted to experience more of a queer city,” Camden recounted. “As a gay man I wanted to experience the parties and the clubs, get out there and have a good time, maybe fall in love.”

While living in the state capital, Camden — who had studied ballet at London’s Royal Ballet School — was a classical ballet dancer with the Sacramento Ballet. She then joined Smuin Contemporary Ballet in San Francisco as a dancer and choreographer.

“I wanted to experience a different style of dancing, more contemporary dancing,” Camden said of her decision to become a company dancer at SCB. “They have dancers at the company who were similar to me — a bit shorter maybe, more versatile, more contemporary, perhaps a little more effeminate, which is multifaceted. And I think a lot of the repertoire at Smuin had camp theatricality, with humor and Broadway influence, which I fell in love with.”

Camden said she first started doing drag while recovering from an injury, an experience that can cause dancers to feel frustrated and down on themselves. She said she felt she needed a break from the seriousness of ballet and being competitive with herself. And with her social world largely revolving around her fellow dancers — many of whom had spouses, kids or love interests — she also wanted to make friends in San Francisco’s queer community.

“I started playing with makeup, which reminded me of being a kid doing doodles and drawing, playing with fabric and Barbie dolls, and it reminded me of not taking life so seriously,” Camden recalled. “I started getting more confident with makeup, which I enjoyed, and went out to clubs to make friends. I didn’t have a tribe yet, and people would come up to me and say, ‘Who are you? You are fabulous!’ And they would ask me if I performed in drag, and I lied and said that I performed all the time. And I started getting booked in gigs.”

Camden’s newfound endeavor in drag turned out to be a revelatory experience that taught her about herself.

“I found people who made me feel that it was OK to be super-feminine, loud and silly, larger than life, and it felt more like home,” she said.

As a dancer, Camden said, she was already used to performing on stage before an audience and felt comfortable about that aspect of performing in drag. And her career as a drag artist attained perhaps its highest profile in 2022 when she finished second in the 14th season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

“Lady Like” director Luke Willis, a former dancer with San Francisco Ballet and one of Camden’s friends, began doing short films for her to drop during her season of “Drag Race.” Willis said he quickly realized he had a more significant story to tell.

“At a certain point in making the short films for Lady Camden it became clear to me that her story was more powerful and inspirational than a competition reality TV series could do justice to, and I realized I had a bigger, more powerful and exceptionally beautiful story,” Willis said. “I felt that this story presented itself as the obvious rebuttal to anyone who would claim that the art of drag is harmful or in need of government regulation.”

Because Willis and the production team filmed “Lady Like” during the “Drag Race” season Camden competed in, they had no idea how the season would turn out and said they felt the suspense build up as much as Camden did leading up to the final episode.

There is one memorable scene from the movie that was carefully choreographed, though, in which a regally attired Camden and Max Van Der Sterre dance a pas de deux — a classical ballet duet — choreographed by San Francisco Ballet soloist Myles Thatcher in the Green Room of San Francisco’s Veterans Building. The scene was first created as one of the short films Willis did for Camden, but it became a spark for the creation of “Lady Like.”

“When Luke was interviewing me for that dance I think that’s when he realized he wanted to make a bigger project, so that dance was really the seed of it,” Camden said. “I felt like ballet was like escapism; it was this beautiful room, and the costumes, and this freedom to be feminine and dance, be myself, and be lifted around. I was lost in carefree liberation in that duet in this wonderland.”

More Films at Frameline “Mad About The Boy: The Noel Coward Story” A British documentary loaded with great footage spans the life of one of the entertainment industry’s most multi-faceted, resourceful and popular figures on both sides of the Atlantic, who moved up in the social world from working class to knighthood and kept his fondness for men close to the vest. Roxie Theater, June 20, 6 p.m. “Duino” Argentine, American and Italian drama artfully shifts back and forth in time to follow Matias — the terrific actors Santiago Madrussan when he’s a youth and Juan Pablo Di Pace as an adult — as he grapples with his love for a fellow male student with seemingly similar though perhaps suppressed sexuality at an international school in Italy, and revisits that issue while making a film in adulthood. Palace of Fine Arts, June 23, 8:30 p.m. “High Tide” Provincetown, Mass., provides a picturesque on-location setting for this sexy, moving drama about a gay, undocumented Brazilian immigrant, excellently portrayed by Marco Pigossi, who tries to get over a recent relationship and make ends meet as a handyman, meets a new suitor (an alluring James Bland), and seeks to figure out where he belongs. Oscar winner Marisa Tomei, Bill Irwin and Mya Taylor round out a great cast. Herbst Theatre, June 28, 8:30 p.m. “A House Is Not A Disco” Festive, frolicking and yet sobering documentary set in Fire Island Pines, N.Y., one of the most iconic, popular gay playgrounds, provides a historical context behind the fantasyland 50 miles from New York City while sharing stories of modern-day visitors and residents, and raising the existential issue of what will happen to it as a result of climate change-induced stronger storms and rising sea levels. Herbst, June 29, 6:30 p.m. {related_content_uuid}1a6de063-b280-4a0a-b9dd-8c70fa676a91{/related_content_uuid}

Frameline48 The 48th Annual San Francisco International LGTBQ+ Film Festival Where: Roxie Theatre (3117 16th St.), Palace of Fine Arts Theatre (3301 Lyon St.), Herbst Theatre (401 Van Ness Ave.), Vogue Theatre (3290 Sacramento St.) and New Parkway Theater (474 24th St., Oakland) When: June 19-29 Tickets: $19.50-$85 for general public; $18.50-$80 for students, seniors and people with mobility or accessibility needs; and $17.50-$75 for Frameline members. Streaming encore tickets are $9.50-$11.50 Info: frameline.org