Such a drag: drag king doc Venus Boyz suffers from the filmmaker's apparent unfamiliarity with the world she's portraying.

Venus Boyz * Directed by Gabriel Baur * First Run Features

This nice-looking but dreadfully dull portrait of a half dozen "gender pioneers" contains a handful of interesting moments that could have made for a terrific short film. Unfortunately, Venus Boyz writer-director Gabriel Baur's worshipful enthusiasm for her subjects results in a naive, overlong, and at times voyeuristic exploration that will appeal primarily to curious heterosexuals.

This rambling trip takes us from New York's famed Club Casanova to London's community of self-described "new men" and back again, introducing us to the film's main subjects--noted drag king photographer Del LaGrace Volcano, Berlin performance artist Bridge Markland, and New York drag kings Dred Gerestant, Diane Torr, Storme Webber, and Mo B. Dick. Highlights of the film come mainly from the minor characters, in particular the brief appearances by gender theorist and University of California, San Diego, professor Judith Halberstam, drag queen Queen Bee Luscious, and artist-filmmaker A. Hans Scheirl.

Baur's decision to delve into the personal lives of her primary subjects manages to make them all seem more boring and self-involved than they probably are. While some have moments of intelligent self-reflection--Volcano comes off the best of the lot--what's lacking in the film is a coherent, substantive analysis of gender identity.

Instead, Baur treats her subjects as dabblers in something "taboo" (to quote her from the film's press notes). And this is the film's overarching flaw. Clearly these "transgendered worlds" are all news to Baur, and in her excitement she spends far too much time on inarticulate philosophizing--"They [society] don't want women to look like men," opines one interviewee--and not enough time putting her subjects in context. A bit more commentary from Halberstam or some other serious thinkers would have helped Venus Boyz it mnensely.

The soundtrack conveys a feeling of eerie strangeness and contributes to the film's fetishistic feel. Baur has captured some nice performance footage, though--if you've never seen the onstage antics of the "Backdoor Boys," here's your chance. And while Venus Boyz is nicely shot and technically pretty sharp, the end result is a very slow film that does a disservice to the drag kings it so breathlessly admires. There is a great drag king documentary yet to be made. Venus Boyz is not it.

Olson is the author of The Queer Movie Poster Book (coming from Chronicle Books, fall 2004) and is currently in production on her first experimental feature film, The Joy of Life.