Susanne Bartsch: On Top

Susanne Bartsch is a living breathing work of art. Brilliant, driven and wonderfully grounded she has done a great thing in our time; she's influenced. While I was becoming absorbed in this documentary I was tipping my hat to Paris Is Burning and hoping it wasn't going to simply follow the map of that groundbreaker. But Alex and Anthony are smarter than me and they recognized the nugget that was most interesting to explore. Family. Not that Paris Is Burning wasn't about the sociology of family but, this film is about the very pure way our families influence where we go, whether they are Susanne and David's son or the entire club kid population. And full disclosure. By the end of the documentary two of my gay sons, Jose and Hector Xtravaganza appear before their dad's eyes and demonstrate how extraordinarily inventive the movers and shakers of the underground are. It's what Alex and Anthony have done so brilliantly in their film.

This is an accurate reflection of its era: overblown, decadent, and pretentious. It was a freewheeling time--unlike our present time--when having fun was the goal, and nobody took themselves too seriously.

The movie was fun to watch, and brought back many memories.

Loved every bit of this! This doc really gives a view of a certain part of New York in the late 80s-90s when NYC still had true grit. This was before the Disneyfication of Times Square and the artistic flight to Brooklyn.

I lived in NY during this time period and it was glorious. I remember going to those Copacabana parties and feeling like I had landed in the best party ever on Mars. Eight feet tall drag queens and just everything and anything you can imagine, which is shown in this doc. I hadn't realized those were Bartsch parties. I'd see her name all the time in The Village Voice. I had no idea how cool and interesting she is/was.

If you love fashion, spectacle, underground, dancing, make-up, and parties, this doc is for you. As superficial as all that sounds, this doc strikes a chord of love, inclusion and acceptance. We need all of that we can get. Makes me misty for days of yore in NY.

The pretension is so thick that you can cut it with a knife. Painful to watch.