      Drag has always played
       its part in cinema.
     From straight characters
   cross-dressing for comedy...
      He's not the Messiah,
     he's a very naughty boy!
         ..to Cary Grant
    winking at the audience...
    Well, why are you wearing
         THESE clothes?
     Because I just went GAY
        all of a sudden!
 ..right through to biological women
    vamping it up for the camera.
            Jazz Hot!
 I'm Trixie Mattel, and I'll be your
     guide to drag in cinema for
 the next four-and-a-half minutes.
 How's this for a centre spread? Hmm?
            Ugh! Eww!
      In John Waters' iconic
         Pink Flamingos,
 the legendary drag queen Divine
    combines all of this into
 a grotesque caricature of womanhood
 designed to provoke the straight
    middle classes of America.
     This is a direct attack
         on my divinity!
   Divine looks like one tired-ass
 showgirl, with her crazy eye make-up
    high on her balding head,
        hair drawn back,
 and an array of gowns and fur coats.
 This shit-eating queen couldn't be
 more at odds with 1970s Baltimore.
 You stand convicted of asshole-ism.
       At a primal level,
 the audience gets its life from
  the idea of female depravity.
 Pink Flamingos mocks middle-class
    America in broad daylight,
   but Cabaret throws shade at
     1930s Germany by night.
  Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome!
    # Im Cabaret, au Cabaret,
         to Cabaret... #
  The draggy emcee and liberated
      queers of the cabaret
    are a slap in the face to
     totalitarian politics.
  At the same time, the musical
 presents an alternative to that
 violence and hatred by making the
     world of cabaret and drag
               a warm,
 reconstructed family for lost souls.
 Over time, drag queens start to be
    seen as emancipated figures,
   and the drag world is shown
  as an alternative family unit.
    Jennie Livingston's iconic
        Paris Is Burning,
 which introduced so many people
      to the world of drag,
     shows us drag mothers -
 queens who take in other queens
 and protect them from the world
  that turns its back on them.
     It's important for me to be
 a mother, cos there's so many little
 kids that I have to look out for.
  Drag reconfigures the idea of
     motherhood and family.
    Queer people are connected
 by so much more than their blood.
 Drag families are less painful,
  less strict, better dressed,
   and blessed with much better
         taste in music.
     # My, my, just how much
      I've missed you... #
 In The Adventures of Priscilla,
       Queen of the Desert
 the drag queen played by Guy Pearce
    introduces Benjamin, a child,
      to the world of drag.
        You see them dance
      and lip-sync together,
      after Benjamin's mother
 has handed him over to his queer,
        drag queen father.
   But most of all, drag queens
  in cinema stand for letting it
 all hang out - or should that be,
       tucking it all away?
     How many times do I have to
 tell you? Green is not your colour.
 LAUGHS
 One of drag's main attractions is
  the idea of putting on a show.
 Performing gender gives an added
   dimension to the musical or
       dance performance -
 and that dimension is queerness.
 # I'm just a sweet transvestite...
   Look at Dr Frank-N-Furter in
  The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
    He certainly wants you to!
       # Transylvania... #
 When he disrobes, revealing his
 kinky glitter and lace ensemble,
 complete with thigh-high stocking
     and patent leather heels,
 the murderous, sexually deviant
 scientist is clearly villainous.
     But we love him for it.
              Rocky!
 By making the bad guy a sexy queen,
   the film queer's Frankenstein,
 as a drag mother who gives birth to,
   and then, seduces her creation.
   This is the essence of camp.
     Something that takes us
        out of normality,
 shaking up white-bread complacency,
   triumphantly trampling over
        mainstream turf.
      # These boots are made
         for walking... #
 What's fun in these performances
  is seeing queens taking over,
     making their own rules,
    and making squares squirm.
 Deep down, we know that however
   powerful she seems onstage,
          in the real world,
 that sequinned bitch is an underdog.
     Because, to come back to
        Paris Is Burning -
   and everything comes back to
   Paris Is Burning, darling -
 the people it depicts are fighting,
    struggling to create their
  own space, their own identity.
  The euphoria of drag comes from
 adversity - and it do take nerve.
     There's joy in seeing people
 who were sidelined come dancing into
 the spotlight to snatch that crown.
