Category: Drag

‘Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution’ examines the 1980s LGBTQ+ punk scene

Started in the 1980s as a fabricated movement intended to ‘punk’ the punk scene, Queercore quickly became a real-life cultural community of LGBTQ music and movie-making revolutionaries.

With this frank and fascinating feature-length documentary, director Yony Leyser (the filmmaker behind Chokehole, Desire Will Set You Free and William S. Burroughs: A Man Within) chronicles the start of the pseudo-movement through to the widespread rise of pop artists who used queer identity to push back against gay assimilation and homophobic punk culture.

Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution is just what the title suggests: a ‘how-to-do-it’ guide for the next generation of queer radicals. The extensive participant list includes Bruce LaBruce, G.B. Jones, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, John Waters, Justin Vivian Bond, Lynn Breedlove, Silas Howard, Pansy Division, Penny Arcade, Kathleen Hanna, Kim Gordon, Deke Elash, Tom Jennings, Team Dresch and many, many more.

Watch the trailer for Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

We guarantee you’ve never experienced anything quite like ‘Enter the Drag Dragon’

Get ready for a ‘Drag-Fu’ odyssey filled with face-crunching action, corset-busting comedy, gut-munching horror and soul-touching musical numbers.

We guarantee you’ve never experienced anything quite like Enter the Drag Dragon, a brand-new action-comedy-horror-musical from the people who brought you Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter.

Enter the Drag Dragon follows Crunch (Jade London), a part-time amateur detective and a full-time drag queen. His lifelong best friend is Jaws (Beatrice Beres), a roller skating entrepreneur and fast-food delivery girl.

The oddball pair – no strangers to fast times, adventure and action – have been through a lot together. They spend their days working hard and their nights watching kung-fu flicks in the abandoned movie theatre they’ve lived in since childhood.

Their popcorn-devouring bliss is cut short, however, when Crunch takes on the biggest case of his career. Tracking down a stolen panting that might reveal the mythical treasure of the Aztec Mummy, he discovers that he has much more to fear than the supposed undead army that guards the legendary loot.

He soon finds himself over his head dealing with corrupt cops, zombies, dangerous mobsters, a lost puppy, ninjas, ghosts, androids and, of course, a budding romance! With mounting obstacles, Crunch realizes that he can’t handle this one on his own, and must team up with Jaws if he wants to survive, let alone solve the case.

Ready-made for the “Midnight Madness” crowd, Enter the Drag Dragon offers up a truly twisted mix of Troma films, John Waters and Bruce Lee.

Watch the trailer for Enter the Drag Dragon below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Alexandra Billings stars in the endearing and inspiring comedy-drama ‘Queen Tut’

‘Transparent’ actress Alexandra Billings stars in the endearing comedy-drama Queen Tut as a trans stage veteran who takes an aspiring seamstress and drag queen under her wings.

Following the death of his mother, Egyptian-raised teen Nabil (Ryan Ali) reluctantly moves to Toronto to live with his traditionally-minded father. There he meets Malibu (Billings) who is on her own crusade to protect Mandy’s, her drag nightclub and queer haven, from demolition.

The shy Nabil, wanting to learn how to sew like his late seamstress mother, finds a drag mentor in the exuberant Malibu, who makes all her own dresses.

As the boy begins to find his true self, the local community’s fight to save their favorite nightclub quickly escalates, pitting Nabil against his architect father and drag queens and queers against the gentrification-minded establishment.

Funny, inspiring and packed with memorable performances, Queen Tut is a rousingly entertaining and insightful coming-out drag tale which has left audiences cheering at film festivals all around the globe.

Watch the trailer for Queen Tut below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘Wild Awakening’ is a deliciously campy erotic thriller about forbidden gay cowboy love

A deliciously erotic story of forbidden love from Spanish first-time director Joan Fermí Martí, Wild Awakening is equal parts family drama and campy gay soap opera.

The film stars Júlia Hernández as Emma and Fabián Castro as her gay brother Toni. Having inherited a business after the death of their parents, the siblings find themselves the unusually young proprietors of a horse ranch and riding school.

The land is populated almost entirely by buff, shirtless and extremely handsome male employees – all of whom are led by a homophobic taskmaster named Ramon (Richie Ormon). When both Emma and Toni start to develop feelings for Ramon’s son, Aaron (Christian Blanch), an unbelievably hunky Adonis, it sets the film’s conflict into motion.

Emma isn’t going to be pleased if Aaron turns out to be more interested in her brother. Equally concerned is the bigoted Ramon, who certainly doesn’t want to accept that his son may be gay.

Toni, known for having a promiscuous gay sex life, has a history of running away whenever things get too serious with a boyfriend. With Aaron, however, he may have finally found someone worth sticking around for.

Packed with some of the hottest Spanish men you’ll ever lay eyes on and dripping with sensuality, Wild Awakening is about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on.

Watch the trailer for Wild Awakening below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Go on tour with the drag wrestling collective ‘Chokehole’ in this fabulous documentary

Chokehole: Drag Wrestlers do Deutschland tells the story of how one disenfranchised group of queer performers defeated all the odds to create a wildly compelling theatrical show.

One hot summer night in New Orleans, a popular drag collective decided to stage a wresting night. Dressing as their vibrant alter-egos, they proceeded to beat the living daylights out each other while the audience collectively lost their minds. That night, the wrestling collective ‘Chokehole’ was born.

From Yony Leyser, the filmmaker behind Desire Will Set You Free and Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution, this new 22-minute documentary follows the group as they take their show to Germany.

The film observes the artists both in and out of drag, sharing their larger-than-life and theatrical alter egos while displaying the unique vulnerabilities that lie behind each character. This film explores their loud, vibrant personas alongside their heart-breaking personal stories – and the adversity they’ve had to overcome.

We learn how each character copes with love, sex, transitions, post-trauma and socioeconomics while getting a glimpse into their fantastical, vividly realized world – which is as much an escape for the artists as it is for the audience.

Watch a short teaser trailer for Chokehole: Drag Wrestlers do Deutschland below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Get ready to go ‘Deep in Vogue’ with this documentary about the Manchester ICONS Ball

Over the course of one year, British documentary filmmakers Dennis Keighron-Foster and Amy Watson developed relationships with the house mothers and members of the local Manchester drag community – charting the buildup to the wild and wonderful ‘Manchester ICONS Vogue Ball.’

Deep in Vogue celebrates the colorful, emotional, political and deeply queer stories of the vogue scene in the United Kingdom and the many talented people involved in the community.

Synonymous with the gay ballrooms of ‘80s New York, this documentary asks why we need Vogue in Manchester now more than ever. While focusing their cameras around the Manchester ICONS Vogue Ball, the filmmakers examine important themes – like the disenfranchisement of black youth and the often reductive ways in which gay subcultures become commercialized.

Offering a deep and candid look at one welcoming community, Deep in Vogue is ultimately about people coming to love and accept themselves while finding a new family – and putting on a hell of a show in the process.

Watch the trailer for Deep in Vogue below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.