The inspiration for this film came from an article about unearthed photographs from the 1950s, depicting a wedding between two men. As a queer recently married person, the idea of a time when queer expression was so forbidden, resonated with me on a deep level. My research led to the rise of police photography in the 1930s and a main character emerged – an undercover officer Ronnie posing as a photographer – both documentor and executioner. I became compelled by photographer Brassaï’s sensitive portrayal of sex workers and transvestites. I imagined this police officer as an amateur Brassaï, cultivating his own style (a ‘snapshot aesthetic’), not as a distant observer but as co-conspirator – acquaintance even. 

I was deeply affected by accounts I read about the insidious lengths to which the police would go to arrest queer people, and how accepted this line of work was by society at large. For me, it was stunning to read about the amount of time, effort and money that went into the cracking down of this particular ‘vice’ and just how many arrests were made, and in the process lives ruined. Particularly chilling was the use of plain clothed officers, who would immerse themselves in queer nightlife for months on end, passing as queer in order to gather evidence before the all important raid.

Through the reveal at the end, I want to highlight how normalised this ‘dirty work’ (in the eyes of society) was for the average working class policeman. How and why could this have been the case? What was it like to be so up close and personal with, to flirt (literally) with this underground world before dealing it its death blow? Did these policemen ever question their motives? Did they feel any sense of guilt?

‘Powdered and Dancing’ is by no means just a slice of history. We want this film to serve as a warning to the 21st century audience that rights for queer people were hard won and can easily be taken away. The film draws direct parallels to the past and the worrying rise in anti-trans sentiment that exists in our society today – that the very same rhetoric used to suppress trans people currently (that trans people represent a threat to children, to family values, to the entirety of society as we know it) was similarly used against queer men in the past. ‘Powdered and Dancing’ is a reminder of how we can so easily slip into normalising discrimination, and is ultimately a call for empathy and understanding.