Short Film Program • Drag Shorts

A collection of Kings and Queens who are turning heads and changing the world.
– Shawn Cotter, Programmer

Program includes…

Kings of Taiwan

Syrus Sadvandi • Taiwan • Mandarin Chinese • 16 min

No one should have to ask what a drag king is. In Taipei, a unique community of drag kings has emerged and has been growing since 2019. Liting ‘LT’ Tan is a drag king from Singapore who came to Taiwan to be in an environment that has allowed them to live authentically. Over the past few years, they have become a grounding force in the community, pushing for a space where kings can thrive. After a challenging marriage, Tâilé sought out a queer community to be a part of, and that is how they came to meet LT. Rose is a captivating performer whose persona successfully explores caricatures of masculine tropes. Drag has allowed these individuals to push boundaries in ways they never thought possible. Follow a journey of freedom, empowerment, and self-discovery through these three kings.

Making Up

Ryan Paige • United Kingdom • English • 15 min

Making Up is set in the late 1980s, framed within the gritty drag scene of London’s east end. The short film stars BIFA award-winning Dave Johns, Jessica Ellerby and Carey Thring and follows Ted who is diagnosed with a hereditary illness. Ted must therefore reconcile with estranged daughter, Cassandra. However, being a celebrated drag queen, paired with the bitter feelings Cassandra harbours over their past, presents a larger obstacle for Ted to overcome. Making Up explores how much, and how little, has changed in terms of attitudes towards the LGBTQIA+ community since that era, and the resulting friction that impacts those of that community.

Mahjong Butterfly

Yinlin Chen • China • English • 6 min

Mahjong Butterfly is not only his name but also his story. This film tells the story of how Patrick, Mahjong butterfly, found himself in the city of New York and how he took intergenerational work and fighting for the rights of the…

T-Minus

Emily Lerer • United States • English • 13 min

T-Minus tells the story of Andrew, a trans mechanic, and a drag queen named Lex as they roadtrip from Ohio to Detroit to obtain an abortion.

Barbette + Fontaine

John-Carlos Estrada, Zak Zeh • United States • English • 14 min

A century apart, two icons unite through art, resilience, and a shared legacy of self-expression & freedom.

Steve the Queen

Zachary Lurje • Australia • English • 8 min

A drag queen struggles to be a better single parent before past baggage weighs him down. Seasoned drag queen, Steve, aspires to be a great parent to mechanic-mad son, Davey. Trouble is, he is disorganised, reactive and pales in comparison to ex-wife Therese who just left him three months ago. Steve is preoccupied with hosting duties at drag bingo and forgets about Davey’s all-important apprenticeship meeting at school. The next morning, Steve fails to smooth things over with bribery and is forced to confront the reality of his shitty parenting. The roles of parent and child are reversed, when Davey shows incredible maturity and makes a peace offering to his dad a week later at drag bingo. With boisterous bingo players as witnesses, Steve takes his first steps, kicking and screaming, into responsible parenting. Davey is proud and relieved when his father enters the teacher’s office in full drag – now the school knows what he has to deal with! Steve appears in drag throughout and is embraced by his son and bingo players. What if drag was more than spectacle and a regular presence in domestic life? Steve the Queen explores queer single parenting in all its mundane glory and whiplash glamour.

Drag You

Hadrien Daigneault-Roy, Nadia Koromyslova, Sascha Cowan • Canada • French • 21 min

A mourning being begins an odyssey, either memorial or imagined, in the empty space of a wasteland. Their wandering on the bangs of the city transports them into a fresco inhabited by a multitude of figures. On their way, a vampire, a metrosexual raven, a grider boy, an escort girl, a cyborg, a drag queen and a burlesque stripper stand in turn. At once an initiatory journey and a queer funeral, a remembrance and a premonition, DRAG YOU is the creation of a custom-made ritual, conceived by and for a community left without words.

Brattle Passes not accepted.