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The Art of Dirtwoman

RVA Staff | January 23, 2020

Topics: Dirtwoman, donnie corker, gallery 5, Jerry Williams, Matt Lively, Parker Galore, Spider Mites Of Jesus, TVJerry

Illustrator Matt Lively’s enamel-and-tar paintings for Spider Mites Of Jesus brought unforgettable imagery to Jerry Williams’ engaging documentary about legendary Richmond character Donnie Corker, aka Dirtwoman.

How can you make a documentary about Richmond icon Dirtwoman that shows him selling flowers in front of Mamma Zu when you don’t have any photos of it happening? And how can you illustrate Chris Dovi’s hilarious story about Donnie Corker’s Lee Bridge adventure with no visuals?

This was one of the challenges facing producer Jerry Williams when he was editing Spider Mites Of Jesus: The Dirtwoman Documentary. Donnie Corker, aka Dirtwoman, became a notorious local figure before he died in 2017. He started walking the streets, selling his body in his sister’s dresses, when he was only 13. This began his lifetime of outrageous exploits, from mud wrestling with GWAR founder Dave Brockie to running for mayor of Richmond.

Many of Donnie’s most notorious escapades happened in the time before cell phones. If you wanted a photograph, someone had to bring a camera, get the film developed, and have the pictures printed (so quaint!). Thanks to social media, when Williams started acquiring imagery for his documentary, numerous people provided him with photos and videos, some from as far back as the 70s. However, there were plenty of stories with no visual documentation.

Enter local artist Matt Lively. He and Williams met when Lively received a Pollak Prize from Richmond Magazine in 2012. When Williams approached him with congratulations, Lively replied, “When I was a small, small child, I saw you on TV and listened to your movie reviews and trusted them.” 

Williams, who still publishes his reviews on his website, SIFTER, invited Lively to join him for some films. Since then, they’ve become movie buddies, sharing an average of three shows a month. Lively was also familiar with Dirtwoman. “My interactions with Donnie were similar to a lot of 20-year-old male students at VCU,” Lively said. “He would whistle and say nasty things to me.”

While ignoring the trailers one night before a film, Williams recounted his frustration with finding visuals for a story in the documentary. Lively replied, “I could draw something.” The response may have been more than he bargained for; Lively ended up providing a dozen illustrations for the film.

All of Lively’s illustrations for Spider Mites Of Jesus were created in one of his signature styles, using tar on enamel. “It’s a material I used when I first started because it’s ultra cheap and basic,” Lively explained. “It’s kind of gross and smells nasty, but it’s beautiful when it dries.” This technique gave the drawings a gritty quality that reflected Dirtwoman’s style.

Lively provided each illustration in three layers, so Williams could “animate” them, with a foreground, middle-ground and background layer. Williams also slightly blurred the background layer to give them a shallow-focus effect. “It wasn’t true animation,” he said. “There was only slight movement, but it was enough to add an extra layer of visual interest.”

Other than Donnie’s own stories and the interviews with his family, Lively’s illustrations have been one of the most popular elements in the movie. He sold ten of them at the Gallery 5 art show that accompanied the film’s premiere at the Richmond International Film Festival last April. “We were excited to be able to showcase a plethora of the diverse art work inspired by such a colorful Richmond icon,” said Gallery 5 director Parker Galore. “Donnie was one of a kind and, despite being brash and offensive, had such a big heart.”

Lively was delighted to see the finished movie with his drawings. “It was great seeing them 30 feet high,” he said. “It’s like seeing a gigantic painting.”

You can see them for yourself, as well as even more Dirtwoman-related art, when Spider Mites Of Jesus: The Dirtwoman Documentary opens at Movieland for an extended, exclusive run on January 24. The film will run three shows a day as long as it sells tickets. Click here to get yours in advance, and keep an eye out for Williams — he will be attending the screenings on the first weekend.

Illustrations by Matt Lively, courtesy Jerry Williams

Dirtwoman Hits The Festival Circuit

Jerry Williams | January 17, 2020

Topics: Atlanta, Cinema Diverse, Dirtwoman, documentary, donnie corker, film festivals, Florida Film Festival, Movieland Boulevard Square, Orlando, Out On Film, Palm Springs, Richmond International Film Festival, Spider Mites Of Jesus

Before its upcoming run at Movieland Boulevard Square starting January 24, Jerry Williams, producer and director of Spider Mites Of Jesus: The Dirtwoman Documentary, took his film to seven different film festivals. Here’s how it went.

Here’s a choice between two movies: One features three hot men with their shirts off and the other showcases a 300 lb. drag queen (see above). Based on the images alone, which would you choose to see?

If you picked the three hot men, you understand my movie’s fate.

Spider Mites Of Jesus: The Dirtwoman Documentary looks at the multifaceted world of Richmond native Donnie Corker. As Diversity Richmond Executive Director Bill Harrison said in the movie, “There are people in the gay and lesbian community here in Richmond who have always been embarrassed by Donnie. I never have. Because I remember back in the day, when very few people from our community would go public and talk with the media. Donnie would. And he didn’t very often package his message the way most of us would have… but he was present.”

As the producer/director of the documentary, I was met with similar responses when I entered and played LGBT film festivals around the country.

In 2017, I interviewed 70 people about Richmond’s most notorious gay icon, Dirtwoman. 

In 2018, I entered film festivals. 

In 2019, I took it on the road. 

Of the 41 festivals entered, 16 of them were LGBT. 

Of the 7 festivals where it actually showed, only 3 were LGBT (and one of those was in South Africa).

Interestingly, I had several people tell me that my doc wasn’t likely to be embraced by LGBT festivals. That turned out to be the case. The reason: most of them are looking for upstanding, inspirational subject matter. Several transgender stories and the story of a gay men’s chorus playing in the deep South were prominent at festivals I attended. Anything politically charged or aspirational had a better chance of getting accepted.

Even though Donnie Corker (aka Dirtwoman) was notorious for his sexual exploits (sometimes in public), his life was ultimately a positive gay narrative. He was courageously out in the 70s, when many gay people (myself included) were still firmly in the closet. His outrageous exploits were tempered by his generous gestures. Sure, there are stories about Donnie’s sexual encounters, but the doc also tells stories of two women whose lives he saved.

Here’s a quick rundown of what I learned about showing a gay film at festivals.

Cinema Diverse in Palm Springs

Until I visited this desert resort, I had no idea that about 50 percent of Palm Springs residents over 55 identify as LGBT. That’s a whole lotta queers in one small desert city, and they were everywhere! Sadly, this festival is held in September, when many of the residents are still living in cooler climes (it was, literally, 102 in the shade). 

As a result, the festival wasn’t packed. But there was a healthy crowd, and there were after parties every night. Almost everyone we ran into was extremely friendly (probably due to the laid-back lifestyle and their more mellow age groups). 

As for the description of how the film was received in the introduction, that’s what happened at Cinema Diverse. Most of the audience attended the other film (with the three hot guys), while only about 25 people came to experience Dirtwoman. Of those, several were former Richmonders. The emcee, who hadn’t previously seen the film, enthusiastically expressed his admiration during the Q&A. He raved about the movie and wants to bring it back for a regular run. Even so, either the jaded audience or the unfortunate publicity meant a modest crowd for Dirtwoman.

Out on Film in Atlanta

A few weeks later it was on to another city in the middle of a heat wave, Atlanta. This festival had lots of great films, but mine got relegated to Saturday morning at 11am. Again, a few former Richmonders show up, but the crowd was smaller than 20, though everyone who was there thoroughly enjoyed the film and embraced Donnie’s legacy.

The Florida Film Festival in Orlando

Even though it’s not focused on an LGBT audience, this well-established, 28-year-old  festival features a number of LGBT films. Spider Mites Of Jesus: The Dirtwoman Documentary was one of them, and Programming Coordinator Tim Anderson was a big fan of the movie. He even booked it for two showings. 

As a bonus, they offer promotional opportunities with Central Florida University, which is about twice the size of VCU. Two students in the Film Marketing and Distribution class were assigned to be my advance publicity team. They handed out postcards with roses to people at various social events and helped generate interest. Here’s the exit interview video they created after the first show:

They also organized a drag show to cap off the second showing featuring Annie Mae, Draggedy Anne and Waka Shame. Since I was paying the queens to perform, I requested that they arrive before the screening. That way, they could add some fabulousness to the lobby and enjoy learning about Dirtwoman. In typical fashion, they showed up during the closing credits! Click here for highlights of their show.

Ironically, the reception from audiences (100+ at both screenings …and mixed sexual orientation) was wonderful. Again, if people just gave the story a chance, they found it entertaining and enjoyable.

The Richmond International Film Festival

In April, 2019, the Richmond International Film Festival made Spider Mites Of Jesus: The Dirtwoman Documentary the opening night event. The Byrd Theatre was packed! Of course, this was an expectedly diverse audience of locals who had experienced Donnie themselves. Gay wasn’t even an issue. As expected, the Richmond audience at the film was wildly enthusiastic.

So, this was my challenge. How do you “sell” a documentary about a gay man, who was ultimately ahead of his time and decidedly outrageous?  What does this say about gay audiences vs. non-gay audiences? Are our straight friends more open to experience the diverse array of characters that populate the LGBT universe? Are our own brothers and sisters more jaded and less open to exploring their own?

On January 24, this movie comes back home for an extended run at Movieland. I’m expecting a broad audience to show up… gay and straight and everything in between. Hopefully, Donnie has transcended Richmond’s gay community to become an icon of self-expression that anyone can appreciate. Come find out for yourself.

Jerry Williams is the producer/director of SPIDER MITES OF JESUS: THE DIRTWOMAN DOCUMENTARY. It’s opening at Movieland on January 24 and will run three shows a day as long as it sells tickets. Click here to get yours in advance. Jerry will be attending the screenings on the first weekend.

Photos courtesy Jerry Williams

The Man, The Woman, The Legend: Spider Mites Of Jesus Captures The Larger-Than-Life Legacy of Dirtwoman

Benjamin West | August 16, 2019

Topics: Byrd Theatre, Chris Dovi, Dale Brumfield, Dirtwoman, donnie corker, Parker Galore, Spider Mites Of Jesus, TVJerry

*This article, the latest in our ongoing “From The Desk Of GayRVA” column in RVA Magazine, originally appeared in RVA Mag #37, on the streets now at all your favorite spots.

I’d never seen such sprawling crowd at the Byrd Theatre. People wrapped around the block, clutching those little red “admit one” tickets you can buy in copious rolls at Dollar Tree, or holding out their phones bent-armed with the digital equivalent. They were dressed on a sliding scale — fit, lacey, dapper, all the way down to gym shorts and stained tees. No obvious correlation with age, either. 

The line was buzzing. People honked as they drove by. Then the line lurched forward around the corner, trickling past boutiques and cutesy sandwich shops, approaching the yellow glow of the Byrd Theatre. We filed over the red carpet, under the offwhite marquee, and filled every seat in ready anticipation for Spider Mites of Jesus: The Dirtwoman Documentary. 

Donnie Corker, more famously known as Dirtwoman, was immortalized this spring by Jerry Williams in his documentary, Spider Mites of Jesus. The film, which started production when I was just a toddler, had its hometown premiere as part of the Richmond International Film Festival: an eclectic, weeklong extravaganza of films from places like Kosovo, South Korea, Iran… everywhere, really. 

“Donnie was a real sweetheart of an individual, and very intense,” said Parker Galore, executive director of Gallery 5, where the film’s cast and crew convened at the end of the night for a bit of an afterparty. Galore knew Corker for many years, and acted as his campaign manager when he launched his 2005 bid for mayor. 

Corker was a gay man known primarily as a sort of impromptu drag queen. It was by his weird, sassy, kind, lovable nature, and his tendency to stay in the mix on the sloppy Richmond streets, that Corker became a local legend. And over the years, he fell headfirst into a series of misadventures with dramatic twists, turns, and arcs. 

By the age of 13, Corker was stealing his sister’s dresses and strolling around his neighborhood of Oregon Hill in full drag. Today, Oregon Hill acts as an offshoot of the VCU Dorm-Industrial Complex, and a nesting place for young upper-middle-class professionals. But in the 60s it was “extremely working class,” as Williams puts it; populated by the ancestors of Appalachian folks who traveled into the city for jobs during the Civil War. I, personally, have heard other people use the term “redneck.” 

“The people who lived there would joke, they’re as far away from Richmond as they were from the territory of Oregon,” said local author Dale Brumfield in the documentary. 

But Corker, even back then, was a sass quickdraw. He stood up for himself in the face of what was, initially, constant discrimination and ragging. 

“He was kind of at the forefront of not being afraid, or ashamed of being gay,” Williams said. 

Dirtwoman portrait by Doug Orleski, aka RVA Coffee Stain

He was big, too — and intimidating. Williams remembers first seeing Corker when he would walk the late 60s-era VCU campus wearing a wig. 

“He was unashamed. He would call you out if you gave him any shit.” 

There’s a reason why Corker was so unabashed. So ready to push boundaries — emotionally open, cheerful — yet less accessible to some subtle areas of societal niceties and social cues. 

“When he was a baby, he had spinal meningitis; his parents couldn’t pronounce it, so they called it ‘spider mites of Jesus,’” Williams said, explaining the title of his film. 

This ailment, so early in his life, had lasting repercussions for Corker. 

“Spinal meningitis affected his brain,” Williams said, “and caused some of the mental challenges he had the rest of his life… He was very savvy and very streetsmart, but he was also very childlike.” 

One example of Corker’s uniquely eccentric relationship with the rest of the world was his routine of calling people throughout the day — from good friends to people he hardly knew. Although he was illiterate for his entire life, Corker could memorize hundreds of phone numbers. He could talk for hours. 

Now the executive director of local educational nonprofit CodeVA, Chris Dovi ran Hamaganza for many years. The annual charity variety show featuring Corker front and center raised around $30,000 over its lifetime, and provided thousands of hams for those in need. But before all of that, Dovi said he first got to know Corker over the phone. 

“He would literally do the rounds throughout the day: call you, call the other 50 people in his mental rolodex,” Dovi said. “I have literally a thousand or more Dirtwoman voicemails that he would leave me, desperate to get ahold of anybody to just blab. He was a very social creature.” 

Photo by TVJerry

Corker’s primary origin story may best illustrate his relationship with the world. His moniker, Dirtwoman, surfaced in the 1970s when he was arrested for sex work by the city’s vice squad. While cuffed in the back of the patrol car, he — to put it nicely — made a mess. 

Or: “I picked up the shit and hit the policeman with it,” as he recalls during an interview in the film. 

The enraged, disgusted officers hurled abuse at Corker, calling him a ‘dirty woman.’ The story traveled around the city, and the term was used in Corker’s direction once again. But Corker embraced the term. Reclaimed it. Relished in it with his Southern-belle accent and demeanor. Before long he was calling himself ‘Dirtwoman,’ and soon it was a form of endearment. 

Some people were concerned that Corker was being mocked through this persona, and that he’s the butt of a joke that he was never entirely hip to. 

“When I started to realize that Donnie had become this character, I was concerned immediately that there was some form of ridicule,” Lorna Wyckoff says in the documentary. Wyckoff has a mentally challenged brother, and draws some parallels between cruel treatment aimed at her brother and the way some treated Corker. “I started to feel that in some way what had happened… had really stolen his dignity.” 

Deciding when we’re laughing with Corker and when we’re laughing at him, though, is complicated. 

“Some people did make fun of Donnie,” Williams said. “Especially his drag shows. I remember them — they were kind of like a train wreck.” 

According to Williams, Corker would often get on stage and forget the lyrics to his songs. He was known to start stripping just to get a response. Some of the negativity directed towards Corker was rooted in homophobia, but not all; some LGBTQ advocates criticized Corker for the unsavory ways he represented their community. Williams said he was aware of this issue from the beginning, and it posed a challenge he took seriously. 

“I was told by a number of people, ‘Be sure you show his heart; be sure you show all of Donnie, don’t just show the outrageous stuff.’” 

Dirtwoman portrait by Brad Douglas

Ultimately, everybody has to decide for themselves whether they think Dirtwoman is a dearly loved icon or the butt of a joke. But in the film, recounting her first meeting with Corker after years of hearing about him and thinking his fans were cruel, Lisa Cumbey remembers having her view reversed. 

“…he totally owned that brand, and that changed how I felt about it. I knew that it was his, and not something that was being done to him.” 

After years of declining health, Corker was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. He died in his sleep on September 26, 2017 at the age of 65. His obituary made the front page of the Richmond Times Dispatch, and a Dirtwoman retrospective was distributed nationally by NPR. It’s fun to imagine this radio program in particular: Corker‘s spirit slipping into radios across the country for all to hear, a woman stuck in traffic, a young guy cooking in a sun-speckled kitchen. In all these little moments, Dirtwoman lives on. 

New Kids on the Block 

Richmond is forever in flux. Freshman kids are dropped face first into buzzing neon bar signs and river ruins. After a few years, a few wild nights out, and maybe one too many all-nighters in the depths of Hibbs or Harris, they’re gone again. 

One side effect of this ever-shifting population is the fragility of cultural memory. Once beloved figures can disintegrate in just a handful of years, at least to the young. Do you remember the wild west days of Grace Street? When biker bars and punk rockers were like staccato marks on an erratic symphony? When Corker would sell flowers from a lawn chair in front of the Village Cafe, when he’d break up fights and stand up for the punks? When he saved Sharon Ellis’ life, pulling her into a doorway when a man drew a gun at somebody walking behind her and shot? 

“When I could finally breathe again, we happened to look up, the bullet happened to nick the area which would have been right about here,” she said in the documentary, running her finger over the door frame of the building next door to Grace Street Theater. “Had he not pulled me out of the way, it probably would have caught me in the head.” 

Dirtwoman portrait by Noah Scalin

I didn’t know Corker in his heyday. To me, he was a nameless figure whom I walked past countless times at various points throughout the city. Usually he was simply planted on a bench. He never threw out his famous catcalls. He just sat silent and content, his big belly in a pile, almost Buddahlike. I never spoke to him. I didn’t know about the time a local radio station gave him their press pass so he could crash Governor Doug Wilder’s inauguration. I didn’t know his role in a GWAR video, “Sleazy’s Crabhouse,” when ghoulish figures went to town eating crabs out of his crotch. I didn’t know about his drag shows or Hamaganza. 

Watching Spider Mites of Jesus, a Dirtwoman I had never known came alive for me. Not just the myths and legends, but the little moments too. How he reacted when a friend walked by. His pain and irreverence when recalling past trauma. The kind actions, the daily routine, and the general community he cultivated with hundreds of people. 

For us experiencing him now after he’s passed, Donnie Corker is all of these amorphous stories, no longer bound by time. They’re on our screens, in our memory, passed back and forth on front porch stoops. We remember Dirtwoman for these weird, amazing stories, but he’s ours because he so thoroughly embraced us — even when we weren’t perfect to him. 

The stories are important because they’re what’s left. They’re how Dirtwoman survives. 

Top Photo by Alice McCabe

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