CAPSULE: The Queen of Ireland (2015, Dir. Conor Horgan)

I'm pretty certain we aren't going to see a more succinct encapsulation of the normalisation of queer culture in readily available general release media than the journey of Panti Bliss (Rory O'Neill) in Conor Horgan's Queen of Ireland. In just a few short years, she went from having strings of pearls pulled out of her arse live on stage to fronting the 'yes' campaign in Ireland's recent, successful, public referendum on marriage equality.

The beauty of Panti, and of Horgan's documentary, is that there isn't a beat skipped in that progression. Nor is anything necessarily given away on the part of Irish queers. It is just that their more straight laced neighbours catch up. And, more importantly, arc up at the bullshit going on around them.

The Queen of Ireland is a stock standard bio-doco that serves its subject well and makes the most of the drama and emotions that fuel the struggle - for acceptance and for equality. Then, Panti is a subject that would not stand for not being well-served, as her spotlight thrusting response to RTE's cowardly pay out after a barely-provocative interview of hers (a.k.a. Pantigate) proved all too well.

I loved that despite all of Panti's fuck-off queerdom her activism grew out of the most banal of comments on public television. I loved that the community around her, queer and straight, rallied so forthrightly. I love that they could win the day so resoundingly. And I love that she finally took her act (albeit slightly cleaned up) back to her hometown.

From Australia, that makes a nice fairytale. One day we'll get to live it.

Pearls and all.

★★★☆

Trailer: