The star of “Audience with the Queens” has been a drag queen for 25 years, since the age of 17. Gary Marion possesses the desire to perform, the creativity to design and sew costumes and choreograph an entertaining show, and the business sense of knowing there is no successful show without ceaseless promotion.
Filmmaker Robbie Hopcraft is a straight man who has seen the endless wonder of drag queens in Key West. He is familiar with their numerous charitable projects and performances every year in the Southernmost City, and appreciates the remarkable freedom in the Florida Keys to be who you are.
As an example, a drag race in Key West has its own special meeting but it’s definitely still a spectator sport. In the film, drag queens run in stilettos through an obstacle course, drink shots, and engage in a pretend pushing and shoving fight. “Our wheels are high heels,” proclaims a queen, aiming for victory.
The team of Marion, also known as “Sushi,” the queen mother, and Hopcraft spent months documenting the life of the drag queens who perform at 801 Bourbon Street in Key West to produce an entertaining and informative look at this unusual occupation.
Sushi said when the film was shown and subsequently received honors at the International Film Festival in New York last year she felt like a real star. Additionally, she enjoys the fame of having been featured on CNN and other television stations nationwide as she annually descends from a rooftop cradled in a sparkly red high heel shoe in Key West’s New Years Eve celebration – a decidedly Key West version of the descending silver ball in New York City -- as midnight is counted down.
The drag queen is first and foremost an entertainer. He works hard at learning routines, spending hours in rehearsal and perfecting moves, and putting on makeup which can take two hours.
Watching “Audience with the Queens” gives the viewer an appreciation of how the drag queen gets into character. We watch as the performer applies lots of powder and perhaps false eyelashes, outlines eyebrows and lips and dons a wig. As drag queen Destiny shares, it’s all about “big eyes, big lips, big hair.”
The viewer also comes to appreciate how the men feel about women. They love and admire them, see them as beautiful and want to be them.
“Gassy Winds,” who creates hilarious drag characters, seems less concerned about beauty and more into the hilarity of being a drag queen.
Many of the men have careers outside of drag royalty. One has directed plays in New York; another is a writer, and Sushi is a costume designer and creator who works on as many as 30-40 costumes at a time for various local theater productions.
“Audience with the Queens” is the first film in a series and aims for worldwide distribution. Additional story lines to come could include from what Gugi Gomez, her stage name, had to be rescued; and further exploration of the queens’ relationships with their mothers. Snippets of the men with their moms are included and portray the mothers’ acceptance of their sons, their occupation and their unique friends.
For more information about the film, contact Hopcraft at 305-295-9501 or visit www.keywestunplugged.com. For information about the Florida Keys, see www.fla-keys.com.
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