Back in August, the fruition of months and months of work by my good friend Joe occurred at Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art. A sliver of an idea - a screening of Alek Keshishian's fantastic Madonna: Truth or Dare for the film's 25th anniversary, followed by a discussion with Alek, Blond Ambition choreographer Vincent Paterson, and two dancers from the tour - became such an actuality that Madonna herself turned up that hot August evening with her daughter, Lola, and an entourage worthy of Marie Antionette.
Luckily, at the last minute, I decided to capture Joe's introduction of the film instead of merely taking some photos. I'm glad I did - even though I captured it vertically instead of horizontally - as it was a lovely, sincere introduction, and I'm sure pretty tough - as he was speaking about Madonna's importance to the gay community, the power this film had to millions of people, the Blond Ambition tour, and her film - TO Madonna's face ...
The screening was just the beginning of a week long series of events put together by Joe. The following evening 'An Evening with Vincent Paterson' commenced at the School of Visual Arts to celebrate Vincent's impressive resume, which includes choreographing Madonna's Blond Ambition tour, Michael Jackson's Bad tour, and working in films and music videos with Michael Jackson ('Smooth Criminal'), Aphex Twin ('Windowlicker'), Björk (Dancer in the Dark), and much more.
The next evening started a weeklong retrospective of Madonna's work in film at Metrograph in the Lower East Side (Madonna's home in the early 80s), including Desperately Seeking Susan, Dick Tracy, Shadows & Fog, Who's That Girl, Dangerous Game, A League of Their Own, Body of Evidence, and last but not least, a full week of showtimes for the new DCP print of Madonna: Truth or Dare that Joe had struck for the week's events. To begin the Metrograph series, a Q&A with director Alek Keshishian and his close friend Chelsea Handler followed the Friday evening screening. Below is a highlight reel from the Q&A, including Joe throwing some heavy compliments at Chelsea beginning at 4:04 ...
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