Spider Mites of Jesus: The Dirtwoman Documentary
Jerry Williams
starring Dirtwoman (aka Donnie Corker)
Every city has its street people and unbalanced public characters. Mostly they panhandle and poop in inconvenient places, but sometimes they achieve celebrity beyond expectations. Donnie Corker, AKA Dirt Woman, walked the streets of Richmond, VA. He preferred to wear a wedding dress and became a force for good. He reported crimes to cops, committed a few himself, but mostly worked as a hustler. He helpfully tells us “some of the best sex I ever had was in a dumpster. They’re very roomy.” You can learn a lot from film festival documentaries.
Cinematographer Jerry Park began this project a career ago and returned to the Dirtwoman story near the end of Corkers life. This doc shows us Dirtwoman’s friends, family, and performances as he becomes grossly obese and riding a mobility scooter. His family is a blast; they all look identical: men and women, old and young, all look like clones and hail from the mining country in West Virginia. While they don’t approve of his lifestyle, this still love Donnie and support him as best they can. The local hipster crowd adopted Donnie as an icon, and he shucked a mess of garlic for a local Italian restaurant. That gave him a distinctive aroma and cleaned him up a good bit. Even John Waters offers a postcard of encouragement to the project, and while Dirtwoman may not be the guy you want sitting next to you on the bus, he’s the guy you want to help you if your mugged and lying on the sidewalk. Here’s a solid documentary about an outstanding eccentric makes this one of must-see movies of this year’s Florida Film Festival
This film was presented as part of the 2019 Florida Film Festival sponsored by the Enzian Theater in Maitland, FL.
http://dirtwomandoc.com/; https://www.floridafilmfestival.com/
