Velvet Vision - The Story of James Bidgood and the Making of Pink Narcissus

Opening Night Film: Velvet Vision__________________________________________________

Velvet Vision tells the story of photographer and director James Bidgood, whose groundbreaking 1960s beefcake photographs defied convention. Bidgood’s elaborate fantasy scenarios—bathed in lush, surreal color—transcended the genre and reshaped queer visual culture. His iconic 1971 film Pink Narcissus, originally released under the mysterious credit “Anonymous,” remains a landmark of queer cinema and underground art.

Join us as we kick off the Fabulous Independent Film Festival with this dazzling portrait of an artist who blurred fantasy and reality in unforgettable ways.

📍 Opening Night After Party @ 99 Bottles

Keep the celebration going after the screening! Our friends at 99 Bottles are hosting the official Opening Night After Party. Plus, festivalgoers will receive BOGO cards from our generous sponsor, 99 Bottles.

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Director Biography - Bart Everly

Bart Everly is an award-winning American filmmaker and photographer. His films and photographs - documenting art and culture, society, and politics - have been screened and exhibited internationally.

As a photographer, Everly has worked for magazines such as Interview, Details, Splash, Rolling Stone, the New York Sunday Times Magazine, Esquire, Spin, Vanity Fair and others. He has also worked as a contributing freelance writer for Detour and Interview, and for over eight years was a regular contributor to London's top pop culture and style magazine The Face.

As a filmmaker, his work has screened at venues such as the Vancouver International Film Festival, the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, The Mix Festival, Provincetown International Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, Frameline, Reel Affirmations as well as others.

His feature documentary Let's Get Frank (2003), following former US Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) through Bill Clinton's impeachment, had a run at Film Forum in NYC, was broadcast on Logo for two years and is distributed by First Run Features.

In 2010, Bart Everly produced and edited the 4.15 minute version of the unfinished work "A Fire in My Belly" by David Wojnarowicz for the exhibition "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture" held at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. (26 October 2010 - 13 February 2011), under the direction of exhibition Curator, Jonathan David Katz, and with permission of the Wojnarowicz Estate.

Everly’s version of "A Fire in My Belly", true to Wojnarowicz' original imagery (though not order of sequence), personal notes, and papers, became the subject of public controversy, and was removed from the National Portrait Gallery exhibit on 30 November 2010, a decision about which a panel of experts appointed by the Smithsonian Board of Regents later expressed regret: "In the absence of actual error, changes to exhibitions should not be made once an exhibition opens without meaningful consultation with the Curator, Director, Secretary and the leadership of the Board of Regents." (Hugh Ryan, "About Face: How Eleven Seconds of Film Endangered the Smithsonian", Critical Read, 17 May 2016.)

Velvet Vision, a documentary film about filmmaker/photographer James Bidgood of Pink Narcissus (1971) fame has been recently completed.

Host or Publisher Harvey Milk Festival DBA Fabulous Arts Foundation