Benjamin Smoke is an acclaimed, intelligent, and intimate portrait of the lead singer of the Cabbagetown, Atlanta underground punk-blues group Smoke. The film is made up of candid interviews with friends and colleagues (including punk-goddess Patti Smith, who was a huge inspiration to Smoke), snippets of rehearsal and concert footage, and long discussions with Smoke himself, who was a drag queen/singer/songwriter/musician/poet with an affinity for cigarettes and alcohol. Smoke died of complications from AIDS shortly after filming ended in 1999, and Benjamin Smoke is an honest and loving depiction of the end of Smoke's life.