Awards - 27th Frameline Intl Lesbian & Gay Film Festival

FRAMELINE AWARD
Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato are continually turning gay culture into pop culture. This director/producer duo has made over 100 film and television projects about people who are marginalized or misunderstood by mainstream media—notably the LGBT community—and other queer-adjacent topics. In recognition of their contributions to lesbian and gay media arts, Frameline is proud to honor Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato with the 2003 Frameline Award.
In the late 1980s, British upstart Fenton and Jersey boy Randy met at New York University’s film school. Building on the underground success of their band Pop Tarts, they formed World of Wonder Productions (WOW) in 1991, guided by the belief “today’s marginal is tomorrow’s mainstream.” They discovered RuPaul and catapulted his success with both the “Supermodel” video and VH1’s “The RuPaul Show.”
Fenton and Randy began making a wide variety of television specials for England’s BBC and Channel 4, including a profile of Wigstock, a history of porn, and a look at the increasing representation of gay and lesbian characters in American sitcoms. When Ellen DeGeneres prepared for her historic coming out, Fenton and Randy were right there observing resulting in “The Real Ellen Story”
As their reputation grew, Fenton and Randy began creating programs for other major television outlets, including HBO, Cinemax, VH1, Showtime, Bravo, and MTV. Many of the programs were about gay or gay-interest topics, including 101 RENT BOYS and PLUSHIES AND FURRIES. Then came THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE, their biggest hit yet which secured the love and adoration of queer audiences and won a handful of awards for their sensitive and respectful portrait of a fallen evangelist rebuilding her life and career—and who emerged a humbled icon.
In 1998, Fenton and Randy made PARTY MONSTER, a documentary about NYC “club kid” murderer Michael Alig. This riveting look at the early 90s underground queer culture became a cult favorite and led to the duo’s first foray into feature narrative filmmaking. True to form, they cast Macaulay Culkin as the murderous Alig.
This year, the Festival is excited to present three new programs from Fenton and Randy’s World of Wonder Productions. In addition to PARTY MONSTER, the WOW gang brings us SCHOOL’S OUT: THE LIFE OF A GAY HIGH SCHOOL IN TEXAS and DARK ROOTS: THE UNAUTHORIZED ANNA NICOLE.
With the LGBT community’s presence seen in almost all media, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato continue to shine lights in all the nooks and crannies discovering who’s marginal today. No doubt they will be tomorrow’s shining stars.