The Last American Freak Show
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the last American Freak Show.
Careering across America in a ramshackle old school bus, run on stolen vegetable oil and piloted by Lowrent the Clown, Samantha X and Dylan have started their own show, staring such self-defined freaks as The Lobster Girl, The Half Woman, Dame Demure, and The Elephant Man. This motley crew of outsiders are resurrecting the dying art of the sideshow, but with attitude. They flaunt their disability – what makes them ‘different’ is also what unites them.
Disabled people calling themselves freaks, enjoying it, and hitting the road to exhibit their deformities, tell their stories and entertain a paying audience. This is about as far removed from the clichés of representing disability in cinema as it is possible to be and challenges society’s entrenched notion of the ‘freak’.
Destined to be a classic, The Last American Freak Show is an evocative, compelling, often funny and personal documentary looking into the world of the disabled and the idea of the sideshow. A world you probably never knew existed.
To read our interview with director Richard Butchins, click here.
To read our review of the film, click here.
