{{Short description|1995 Australian documentary}} {{Use Australian English|date=September 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}} {{Infobox film | name = Ladies Please | image = Ladies Please.jpg | alt = | caption = DVD release | director = Andrew Saw | producer = {{Plainlist| * Rebel Penfold-Russell * Phaedon Vass * Vicki Watson }} | writer = Andrew Saw | starring = {{Plainlist| * Cindy Pastel (Ritchie Finger) * Strykermyer (Mark Fitzhugh) * Lady Bump (Stuart Garske) }} | music = | cinematography = | editing = Danny Cooper | studio = | distributor = | released = {{Film date|1995}} | runtime = | country = Australia | language = English | budget = | gross = }} '''''Ladies Please''''' is a 1995 Australian documentary film directed by Andrew Saw about three Sydney-based drag queens who inspired ''The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ladies Please (1995) |url=https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/the-screen-guide/t/ladies-please-1995/8884/ |website=Screen Australia |access-date=9 September 2024}}</ref>
The lives of Cindy Pastel (Ritchie Finger), Strykermyer (Mark Fitzhugh) and Lady Bump (Stuart Garske) are profiled in detail and contrasted with their depictions in ''Priscilla''. This culminates in Pastel and Bump travelling to the Cannes Film Festival for the film's premiere and meeting Terence Stamp and Hugo Weaving. The documentary presents the encounter as brief and marked by social distance between the drag performers and the film's actors.<ref>{{cite AV media |title=Ladies Please |date=1995 |medium=Documentary film}}</ref>
Saw set out to "(make the film) in such a way that if you got three drag queens who could write and direct, this is the film they would make". He had the trio give natural answers to a series of questions, then transcribed their answers and had them read them aloud to camera twice, in and out of drag. The film then cuts between both sets of footage interchangeably to show both sides of their lives. Strykermyer called the film "a peace offering from drag queens (that) goes to show I am not an absolute freak".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Tuohy |first1=Wendy |title=The drag queens behind 'Priscilla' (article continued) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-age-ladies-please-continued/154943467/ |access-date=9 September 2024 |work=The Age |date=25 May 1995}}</ref> The film ends with Strykermyer reflecting on the future:
{{Blockquote| The future? I'd like to keep changing and evolving drag. It can be anything I want it to be. But you know what? It'd be nice to be paid properly. }}
''The Age'' wrote that the film "shows the vulnerability of the drag queen's life in more humanising detail (than ''Priscilla'')".<ref name="tuohy">{{cite news |last1=Tuohy |first1=Wendy |title=The drag queens behind 'Priscilla' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-age-ladies-please/154942101/ |access-date=9 September 2024 |work=The Age |date=25 May 1995}}</ref> Mary Colbert also wrote in ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' that the film "shows drag at its most innovative with performers taking acts far beyond the 'tits and feathers' world of Shirley Bassey-inspired female impersonations to shows that are satirical, political and socially pointed."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Colbert |first1=Mary |title=Life's a drag for the ladies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sydney-morning-herald-ladies-please/154942078/ |access-date=9 September 2024 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=27 December 1994}}</ref>
''Ladies Please'' first aired on the ABC on 22 May 1995.<ref>{{cite news |title=TV Guide |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sydney-morning-herald-ladies-please/154943339/ |access-date=9 September 2024 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=22 May 1995}}</ref> That year, it was nominated for Best TV Documentary at the AFI Awards.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hawker |first1=Phillipa |title=Focus on the documentary |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-age-ladies-please-afi-awards/154943385/ |access-date=9 September 2024 |work=The Age |date=9 November 1995}}</ref> In 2004, it was included as a bonus feature on the DVD reissue of ''Priscilla''. It was later released by Rebel Studios as a standalone DVD in 2008,<ref>{{cite web |title=Ladies Please |url=https://www.rebelstudio.com.au/rebelstudio/films/ladies/index.php |website=Rebel Studios |access-date=9 September 2024}}</ref> and then on video on demand in 2014.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ladies Please |url=https://vimeo.com/ondemand/ladiesplease |website=Vimeo |date=17 March 2014 |publisher=Rebel Studios |access-date=9 September 2024}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:1995 films Category:Australian documentary films Category:1995 English-language films Category:1995 Australian films Category:Australian LGBTQ-related films Category:Drag (entertainment) in Australia Category:1995 LGBTQ-related films