Marie Loisier’s “Peaches Goes Bananas” is no ordinary music documentary. A profile of queer singer Peaches, it’s unglued in time. Loisier began work on this film in 2008, fitting it between her other projects. “Peaches Goes Bananas” dives into the reality of a woman aging in public: when it begins, Peaches is 59. She speaks about showing her body onstage, as well as the physical changes she’s undergone since her music career took off in the 2000s. Her credo is “F**k The Pain Away,” which is her most popular song, but middle-aged women don’t get rewarded for putting their desire on display.
Originally from Canada, Peaches now lives in Berlin. Since she and Loisier are friends, the filmmaker got a tremendous degree of access to home video footage. In the earliest, Peaches was filmed at a job teaching day care. She says she found it dull and stressful, but when she brought her guitar and sang to children, they bounced her energy back to her. These scenes show her birth as a performer.
Working with the small, portable Roland MC-505 synthesizer, Peaches developed her mature style, following stints playing folk and rock. She plays a stripped-down, harsh version of electronic dance music, with outrageously sexual lyrics. (Her second album was called “Fatherf**ker.”) Back in 2002, “The Teaches of Peaches” made waves as part of the electroclash scene, alongside artists like Miss Kittin and Chicks On Speed. At the time, the genre was often dismissed as a novelty, but more than 20 years after its heyday, it’s starting to be reevaluated. As Peaches demonstrates, it seems more feminist and queer-friendly than the “indie sleaze” rock scene of 2000s New York. This year, she’s remixed the punk band Lambrini Girls’ “C*ntology 101” and dropped her own single “Not In Your Mouth None Of Your Business.”
“Peaches Goes Bananas” dodges all the tropes of recent music docs. There are no talking heads interviews with other musicians testifying to her importance. It doesn’t lay out Peaches’ life in chronological order, nor does it try to work every detail in. Her relationship with her family is given particular emphasis. She was very close to all of them, and the film works in a video greeting from her parents. Her sister became paraplegic as a result of multiple sclerosis, and Peaches was devoted to taking care of her. In a scene edited like silent comedy, they chase each other around a hotel corridor.
This becomes more poignant later on when the film reveals that her mother, father, and sister have all died. It uses editing to bring them back momentarily. “Peaches Goes Bananas” reflects the way dead relatives continue to exist as memories. Peaches’ connection to her family continues even though they’re no longer with us; one senses that to her, they still feel like living presences.
Sex is a key part of Peaches’ act, but she performs it with a wink. Rather than pandering to the male gaze, she turns her body into a theatrical stage, donning multiple plastic breasts or a bird-like headdress. (She’s also made a mullet her trademark.) Loisier films nudity casually, as part of Peaches’ backstage preparations. In the first few minutes of “Peaches Goes Bananas,” the singer speaks honestly about continuing to expose her body onstage as she’s developed a small belly. Her idea of sexiness is inclusive. Concert footage shows audience members singing an entire verse of “F**k The Pain Away.” Her performances are participatory, communal events: the crowd can jump onstage and take part.
Loisier has directed several other documentaries about musicians, including Suicide singer Alan Vega, the anonymous collective The Residents, and trans industrial artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. (She’s also profiled theater director Richard Foreman, gay wrestler Cassandro, and made shorts with gay director George Kuchar.) Her filmmaking techniques draw from the flow of music rather than storytelling. Her works search out the history of bohemian spaces and look for the ones which remain. “Peaches Goes Bananas” tries to figure out how punk rebellion can be sustained into middle age, as Peaches sits around bored backstage and sleeps on her tour bus. Although it takes in these unglamorous parts of the artistic life, it presents the singer as a three-dimensional person, far beyond her outrageous persona.
“Peaches Goes Bananas” | Directed by Marie Loisier | Film Movement | Opened at Anthology Film Archives Dec. 3
