RIDM

The last vestige of Montreal’s red light district, the legendary Café Cléopâtre, recently came close to closing forever, steamrolled by renewal projects in the Quadrilatère Saint-Laurent. But the institution won a reprieve, and its second-floor transvestite and burlesque shows, echoes of a bygone time, remain a defiant thorn in the side of the modern Quartier des Spectacles. Catherine Proulx takes us behind the scenes of Montreal’s last cabaret, where we meet the drag queens and variety artists who grace its stage: warm, colourful characters who represent a unique slice of Quebec heritage. There’s no escaping the glow of nostalgia during the sequence in which two elderly visitors to the Main share fond memories of a nightlife scene that’s all but gone.

Presented in collaboration with IMAGE + NATION.