Flaming Classics presents The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant: A Night of Film, Fashion, and Performance

A Night of Film, Fashion, and Performance brings together three unique forms of artistry, all presented by individuals from South Florida’s queer community. The evening kicks off with a screening of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT and is followed by both a fashion show and a drag performance, distinctly themed to and inspired by the preceding motion picture.

A landmark of queer cinema, Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (1972) merges his love of American melodrama and its artifice with his austere roots in experimental theater. With extreme efficiency, Fassbinder dissects the power relations of three women in a single room in an unflinching study of the seductive and repulsive aspects of desire.

The titular character is a successful, yet stagnant, fashion designer, who falls in love with an aspiring model half her age, while her subservient maid watches silently. What plays out between the trio is a grueling masterwork on sadomasochism, cruelty, and love; a bizarre love triangle that Petra, Karin, and Marlene have ensnared themselves in.

Flaming Classics invited three gifted queer designers from South Florida to create unique looks based on the film’s iconic fashion, each one filtered through their own design aesthetic and inspired by a character from the film. Their works will be modeled by three of Miami’s most luminary drag performers, each one reinterpreting the film and their given characters through their own lens and use of pop music.