Burlesque Festival Hosts Wisconsin Premiere of Burlesque Documentary

The world is opening their eyes to THE OLD STRIPPER. And there's no place like home. In the burlesque community.

Burlypicks 2018, an annual international burlesque festival, screened a 9 minute short film version of the award-winning feature documentary film THE OLD STRIPPER at it's festival in Oshkosh, Wisconsin on Saturday, August 25th. The Oshkosh screening over the weekend to open the show was the short film's Wisconsin premiere. The film, made by the real-life Mother/Son filmmaking team Jack Truman and Opal Dockery, is an epic documentary film about a burlesque legend who travels across the country, coast to coast, visiting her old dancing cities of yesterday.

Dockery and Truman were also judges at the festival, with Opal teaching a burlesque workshop, The Psychology of Burlesque.

Dockery was a burlesque dancer for over 20 years in the 1970's and '80's. Truman, her son, and director of the film, grew up on the road with her during her burlesque circuit.

"This film is very personal to me", Truman stated in press materials. "The burlesque industry is a lost era. I grew up in that environment, in the adult entertainment business. As a child, I was raised around nudity and pornography. And as a filmmaker, I want to open people's eyes to a world they know nothing about".

Dockery states "I was a stripper for 22 years. It was a different time. I have been wanting to return to the cities I danced in for a long time. I wanted to find other dancers from that time for us to share our stories, and meet the new dancers of today to see how the times have changed and also if they are the same".

Over last summer, Truman and Dockery traveled coast to coast, to all 48 states and the District of Columbia, on an epic journey shooting footage in every state nationwide, interviewing dancers young and old, visiting Opal's old dancing cities from her burlesque circuit, seeing landmarks around the country, and interviewing people in the burlesque industry.

"This is a story only we can tell", says Truman.

Earlier this summer, Dockery was inducted in the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, Nevada. Last month, at the World Premiere in Des Moines, the film took home top film honors at the Interrobang Film Festival. And in Los Angeles, the feature film recently won top film honors at Best Feature Documentary at the Golden State Film Festival. The feature film will have it's Las Vegas premiere September 9th at the Silver State Film Festival.

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