John Waters and Dita Von Teese Featured in Documentary About Cult Icon Tura Satana
Great news for Tura Satana fans: a documentary about the legendary actress, vedette and exotic dancer is in the works.
Satana became a cult icon after playing Varla — the leader of a women’s gang who kills a young man with her bare hands and helps kidnap his girlfriend — in the 1965 Russ Meyer’s cult classic “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!”
Off screen, the Japanese-born actress lead a turbulent live. As a child, she was interned at WWII Japanese relocation camp Manzanar, in California. Then, she moved with her family to Chicago, where she was the victim of a racially-motivated rape by a group of teenagers before her tenth birthday.
However, Satana turned her life around, becoming a famous burlesque dancer, and even dating Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. According to The Guardia, in later interviews, Satana claimed that over the years she had tracked down the boys who raped her and had exacted revenge. Many call her the “female Bruce Lee.” Lee’s daughter Shannon Lee will appear in the documentary.
Titled “Tura!” the documentary will feature interviews with burlesque dancer, vedette, and model Dita Von Teese and director, actor and author John Waters. In his book “Shock Value: A Tasteful Book about Bad Taste,” published in 1981, Waters called Meyer’s film “beyond a doubt, the best movie ever made. It is possibly better than any film that will be made in the future.”
The documentary will be narrated by actress/comedian Margaret Cho.
“Any kick-ass leading lady you see in movies today? Tura was there first. She blazed the trail for them and deserves recognition for that,” said producer/director Cody Jarrett. The film is being co-produced by Satana’s longtime manager and friend Siouxzan Perry.
A Kickstarter campaign has been set up to raise funds for the production of the film. So far, $11,256 have been raised. The goal is set at $50,000.
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