In the Combat Zone, what was once Boston’s red light district populated by porno theatres and sex workers, the Playland Cafe was a queer bar that survived six decades. With a compelling ensemble of queer performers including The Lady Bunny, Danielle Cooper (Pose), and Aidan Dick (When Men Were Men, Frameline46), Playland condenses time and queer experience into a single evening populated by a half century’s worth of the bar’s inhabitants, and all the multitudes they bring with them.

Rather than a traditional narrative tribute, the film brings to life the bar’s glory with a series of decadently shot vignettes blended with archival audio and footage, resulting in a film of uncompromised audacity and vision. Feature debut director Georden West (Exorcisms and Other Supplications, Frameline Fangs 2021) takes us on a journey through the past century of queer expression, delivering a fantasia of lived-in sights and sounds. As the number of queer bar closures continues to increase across the country, Playland becomes an enigmatic, abstract requiem for what we lose when we don’t have these spaces.