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form y separately published work icon The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert single work   film/TV   humour   satire  
Issue Details: First known date: 1994... 1994 The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Tick' Belrose, a Sydney drag queen, accepts his ex-wife's invitation to bring his stage show to the outback. Felicia, a younger drag queen, and the grieving Bernadette. They set out for Alice Springs in a second-hand bus that they name 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'. the journey takes them to Broken Hill, Coober Pedy and are rescued by an open-minded mechanic when Priscilla breaks down in the desert. In Alice Springs, Tick meets the young son he barely knows and the three climb Kings Canyon together in full drag, before making their debut at the Alice Springs casino.

Exhibitions

7921907
7913414

Adaptations

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The Musical Stephan Elliott , Allan Scott , 2006 single work musical theatre humour satire

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Form: screenplay
    • Paddington, Kings Cross area, Inner Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,: Currency Press , 1994 .
      Extent: ix, 86p.p.
      Description: illus.
      ISBN: 0868194166

Works about this Work

Making Queer Content Visible : Approaches and Assumptions of Australian Film and Television Stakeholders Working with LGBTQ+ Content Rob Cover , 2024 single work criticism
— Appears in: Media International Australia , February vol. 190 no. 1 2024; (p. 116-132)

'A concept of visibility frames much scholarship and public writing on LGBTQ+ representation in film and television, and underpins diversity reporting and inclusivity measurement. Although visibility is often depicted as a social good, there is a growing critical interest in asking if there are different kinds of visibility, and how these might be differentially valued. This paper reports insights gained from interviews with Australian stakeholders involved in the production of screen entertainment with LGBTQ+ content. The study found that stakeholders are motivated by to create texts that make LGBTQ+ stories and characters visible. The range of approaches to visibility was, however, nuanced and diverse: some understood any LGBTQ+ representation as valuable, while others discussed visibility in contexts of character depth, anti-stereotyping, and visibility tempered by concepts of human dignity. Although visibility is perceived diversely, it remains a significant lens by which creative artists involved in LGBTQ+ texts understand their work.' (Publication abstract)

y separately published work icon Time Flies Too Al Clark , Blackheath : Brandl and Schlesinger , 2022 24806028 2022 single work autobiography 'These new recollections playfully explore his adjustment to life in a new country, the labyrinth involved in making films, the gifted collaborators he encountered along the way, and the work itself —notably one of Australia’s most enduringly successful movies (The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert). It completes the journey of a solitary boy who fell in love with cinema, and of the man who strove to bring it to life.' (Publication summary)
Gender and Sexual Diversity and Suicide on Australian Screens : Culture, Representation, and Health Pedagogies Rob Cover , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Popular Culture , April vol. 54 no. 2 2021; (p. 365-387)

'Despite an often‐repeated cliché that gender and sexually diverse characters are relatively absent from film and television, Australian screen production has a very rich history of representing sexual and gender diversity: greater than nineteen wide‐release films since 1993, including internationally recognized films such as Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), The Sum of Us (1994), Head On (1998), and The Monkey’s Mask (2000), portray gender and sexual diversity. Nine Australian films with LGBTQ, gender, and sexually diverse themes were released between 2013 and 2018, indicating an entrenchment of LGBTQ representation on Australian screens. Characters in major Australian television dramas and soap operas, such as Home and Away and Neighbours, have increased in regularity and complexity over the past two decades. Sexual stories, including narratives of minority sexual lives, have never, of course, been repressed or invisible, but according to Ken Plummer, they have long been central to contemporary Western culture (4). Stories representing gender and sexually diverse subjects depicting identity struggles and articulating minority health outcomes are a major and ongoing part of Australian creative production. What is significant in cultural analysis is not questions of visibility or invisibility but how the continuities and disruptions of depictions of gender and sexual minorities play a significant, pedagogical role in social participation, social harmony, acceptance, individual health and wellbeing, and community belonging (Cover, Queer Youth SuicideEmergent Identities).' (Introduction) 

More Than Just a Gay Pun : the Changing Nature of Australian Queer Film Criticism Stuart Richards , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 13 no. 2-3 2019; (p. 51-66)

'This essay looks at the critical reception of Australian queer cinema demonstrating the difference in reviews of queer Australian films. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Elliot, Stephan. 1994. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Sydney: Roadshow Distribution) and The Sum of Us (Dowling, Kevin, and Geoff Burton. 1994. The Sum of Us. Sydney: Southern Star) will be compared to films that came later in the 1990s, notably Love and Other Catastrophes (Croghan, Emma-Kate. 1996. Love and Other Catastrophes. Sydney: Fox Searchlight), The Well (Lang, Samantha. 1997. The Well. Sydney: Southern Star) and Head On (Kokkinos, Ana. 1998. Head On. Melbourne: Umbrella Entertainment). These later films managed to generate buzz on the queer film festival circuit as well as at general international film festivals. Their queerness attracts international LGBTQ audiences while, secondly, genre-related elements have the potential to attract a wider cinephile audience. I will utilise paratextual elements, particularly reviews during their film festival and theatrical runs, to demonstrate how they cross-over to wider audiences. In investigating their framing and reception, these films increasingly engage audiences through their genre signifiers. This essay demonstrates that the discourse around Australian queer cinema has matured to offer multi-faceted perspectives.' (Publication abstract)

After Priscilla Anthony Nocera , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , October 2017;

'Whenever I think about marriage, I think about these sex dreams I used to have as a teenager. They were based on a porno called Here Cums the Bride where this bride sleeps with the best man on her wedding day and gets left at the altar, only to then fuck the best man again while the priest jacks off in a corner. I went to a Catholic school; it’s all very Freudian. Anyway, I would have dreams where I would be fucking the bride, making her cum, and then suddenly everything would shift and I would become the bride tearing my big white gown for easy access and using my veil for leverage so the best man could fuck me standing up, and then I would wake up confused, sticky.' (Introduction)

Don’t Let Them Drag You Down Diana Sandars , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , 2008 no. 48 2008;

— Review of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Stephan Elliott , 1994 single work film/TV
Cultural Comparisons Constantine Santas , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , September-October no. 9 2000;

— Review of Muriel's Wedding P. J. Hogan , 1994 single work film/TV ; The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Stephan Elliott , 1994 single work film/TV
'I Will Survive!' : Australia's 10 Best LGBT Films Luke Buckmaster , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 7 April 2016;

— Review of The Getting Of Wisdom Eleanor Witcombe , 1978 single work film/TV ; The Sum of Us David Stevens , 1994 single work film/TV ; 52 Tuesdays Matthew Cormack , Sophie Hyde , 2014 single work film/TV ; The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Stephan Elliott , 1994 single work film/TV ; Head On Andrew Bovell , Ana Kokkinos , Mira Robertson , 1998 single work film/TV ; Love and Other Catastrophes Stavros Kazantzidis , Yael Bergman , 1996 single work film/TV ; Remembering the Man Eleanor Sharpe , Nick Bird , 2015 single work film/TV ; The Suicide Theory Michael J. Kospiah , 2014 single work film/TV
y separately published work icon The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Philip Brophy , Strawberry Hills Canberra : Currency Press Australian Film Commission , 2008 Z1471536 2008 single work criticism
The Orphan Complex : An Australian Myth Travels to Asia Gabrielle Finnane , 1997 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australia and Asia : Cultural Transactions 1997; (p. 52-69)
'This essay is a redescription of Australian films set in or dealing in some way with Asia. If an imaginary 'Asia' is sometimes a feature of Australian films, it is only as a generic motif viewed entirely through a lens of internal preoccupations of Australian culture. [...] To my eyes Romper Stomper and The Good Woman of Bangkok have a long cultural genealogy (pp. 53, 54).
Top Five Oz Road Films Gillian Cumming , 2009 single work column
— Appears in: The Sunday Mail , 20 December 2009; (p. 12)
Australia Crossed-Over : Images of Cross-Dressing in Australian Art Elizabeth McMahon , 1997 single work criticism
— Appears in: Art And Australia , vol. 34 no. 3 1997; (p. 372-379)
McMahon discusses the way in which 'from the early colonial period, transvestism has been deployed as a central motif or conceit in Australian visual art, photography and film, as well as in ballads, literary narratives and drama (p.374).
Tripping on the Light Fantastic : A Bit of a Look at Australian Film Adrian Mitchell , 1997 single work criticism
— Appears in: Sydney Studies in English , vol. 23 no. 1997;
'In the beginning is the word: there has to be a script. But even before a word is said there's light, and camera, and action. Films are before all else about light, and about what can be realised through light. That pre-eminence of light was acknowledged in the old-time movie theatres, in the custom, now regrettably lapsed, of having the projection illuminating the screen before the curtains were drawn open, so that the promised world of light could be glimpsed before revelation, symbolically seen through a veil which then parted — and behold, a new heaven and a new earth. Those who arrived late, after the houselights had gone down, followed their own little subdued pool of light, the usherette's torch, down the carpeted aisles.' (Author's abstract)

Awards

1995 nominated Writers Guild of America Award Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
1995 nominated British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards Best Screenplay - Original
1994 nominated Australian Film Institute Awards Best Original Screenplay
Last amended 30 Aug 2017 09:55:28
Settings:
  • Australian Outback, Central Australia,
  • New South Wales,
  • South Australia,
  • Northern Territory,
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