Tribeca Film Festival

Saturday, April 26-------Back in the mid 1990s, a party promoter named Michael Schmidt had a novel idea: drag queens dumping the lipsynching routine to sing rock and roll live onstage. No one knew what to expect when they first opened the doors on the fateful night that SqueezeBox! was born in downtown Manhattan. With Mistress Formika presiding as hostess, the drag queens rocked New York nightlife in a way no one had ever seen before. Movie stars, drag queens, punks, and everyone in between partied elbow to elbow, waiting for a glimpse of what would happen on stage.

Directors Zach Shaffer and Steve Saporito capture the raw, debauched energy of SqueezeBox! in their uniquely stylized mix of archival performance footage and interviews, offering those who were there a chance to relive it, and those who weren't a chance to get a taste of the action. Seven years after the seminal party closed its doors, SqueezeBox! is the ultimate tribute to what can never be recreated nor forgotten.

Following the film's sold out screening last night, film buffs, rock-n-roll icons (including Debbie Harey) and New York's most celebrated drag queens (including mistress of ceremonies Lady Bunny) made their way to the Blender Theater in Chelsea for a night of music and debauchery, New York style.

Sandy Mandelberger, Tribeca FF Dailies Editor