Slamdance Film Festival 2025 – For several decades, musician and drag artist Dean Johnson was a fixture in the East Village and a celebrity within New York City’s queer culture. The Big Johnson is a documentary that examines his life, while providing a much broader view of NYC’s queer history.

Written and directed by Lola Rocknrolla, the film traces Johnson’s arrival in NYC to attend NYU, all the way to his death in 2007 in DC, after he answered an escort call. The documentary includes vintage footage of Johnson performing at East Village staples like CBGB and a few on-camera interviews with him. Additionally, Legs Malone reads several of Johnson’s diary entries that span many years. All of this, coupled with interviews from drag artists, family members, and actors, really flesh out Johnson’s story, including his struggles with drug addiction. It creates an interesting and intimate portrait of the subject.

If viewers have never heard of Johnson, the documentary illuminates just how big of an influence he was on queer culture during a time when the East Village become a hub for the punk rock movement and alternative culture. The vintage footage from queer-oriented punk shows at CBGB and various night clubs adds to this documentary’s cultural value. Though that time may be long gone, and though the East Village has long been gentrified, its cultural touchstones mattered. So did Johnson’s role in it all.

Johnson’s story is also set against the backdrop of various challenges that the queer community faced, including the AIDS pandemic and the Reagan Administration’s initial negligence to deal with the crisis. Johnson was HIV positive, and the documentary underscores just how many in the community died from AIDs. This was followed by Rudloph Guiliani’s rise as mayor in the 1990s and his crackdown on gay clubs.

Yet, despite all of this, the documentary has a message of resilience. Johnson frequently organized music shows and open mic readings that spotlighted queer people. He did this even during the toughest of times, despite his personal demons or whatever social and political challenges existed.  This message feels especially resonant right now as we embark on Trump 2.0 and the backlash against the LGBTQ community, especially the trans community. Really, this documentary couldn’t have landed at a better time. There’s always a silver lining in this film, despite Johnson’s tragic ending.

The Big Johnson spotlights the larger-than-life persona that was Dean Johnson. Beyond that, it highlights the East Village’s queer history. At a time when certain conversative forces want to eradicate such history, this documentary feels prescient and important.