Strike a Pose

The 2016 documentary by Ester Gould and Reijer Zwaan finds, twenty-five years on, the seven young men who danced on Madonna's Blond Ambition tour in 1990. Made visible at the time by the film Truth or Dare, the dancers became symbols of living openly; the documentary asks what that cost them. Its most shattering passage is the silence of the dancer who told nobody during the tour that he was HIV positive: having to hide even inside a group presented as a symbol of freedom. The conversation with the family of the dancer who died sits at the centre. Madonna herself does not appear, which keeps the focus on the dancers. Who it's for: viewers interested in the history of pop music and in debates about queer visibility. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a documentary centred on Madonna, or avoiding accounts of illness and loss.