Preceded by: Drink Deep (Jem Cohen, U.S., 1991). An idyll in paradise (lost) mixing friendship, desire, and hidden secrets. Music by Stephen Vitiello, Gabriel Cohen, Mary Wooten. Special appearance by Michael Stipe. (9 mins, 3/4" video, Color, From Video Data Bank)Can a lowly life be of tragic proportion? This quandary infuses Jem Cohen's impassioned portrait, Benjamin Smoke-about a strung-out, part-time drag queen-with a radiant darkness. In a perpetual stumble, Benjamin Smoke drifts through his roiling days in a seedy section of Atlanta known as "Cabbagetown." An agonized poet, he fronts legendary local bands, The Opal Foxx Quartet and Smoke, performing his troubling verse in drag. With a gravelly, world-weary voice and an emaciated face, he seems the perfect model of dissipated brilliance. And perhaps B. Smoke's greatest composition is his own descending textthe poet in eternal slide. Shot over a ten-year period, Cohen's strangely mesmerizing film captures Smoke in slow decline, mired in his dilapidated neighborhood as if the two were passed over for much-needed renewal. When in performance, though, Smoke's mournful figure is outlined by a depth and dignity that are utterly enthralling-Rimbaud on fast foods and amphetamines. But as Patti Smith says of his fatalistic stance: "My weariness was nothing compared to his."-Steve Seid