It's All Drag :: 'Kings, Queens & In-Betweens' Director Gabrielle Burton

The award-winning "Kings, Queens & In-Betweens" is making the film festival rounds and by doing so, is highlighting the important issues the documentary presents to the audience.

The six-years-in- the-making project looks at a small, Midwestern town drag scene-tackling the themes of gender, sex and sexuality-topics about which the filmmakers are hoping will spurn conversations. The documentary shows audiences what it's like when the wigs come off and the men and women get real, exploring the importance of living their truths and in the interim, promoting the subject of diversity.

The Rage Monthly spoke with director Gabrielle Burton about her inspiration for making a movie about the performers who populate the bar featured in Columbus, Ohio. What she hopes the takeaway is from "Kings, Queens & In-Betweens" for audiences, and what it's like to work with her four sisters at Five Sisters Productions.

What was the inspiration behind the documentary?

I'm the parent of a boy and girl and I had them a couple of years before a friend invited me to a show his husband was the headliner in... He's a famous Columbus celebrity. I think [seeing him] on stage, made the things that I'd been thinking about around having children and how immediately they are divided into very separate camps, come forward.

When my daughter was younger and we went to a Lego store, I asked the clerk what would they recommend and this guy said, "That's the girls section." It was a couple of shelves, pink and purple. The irony was the castles and the princesses are in the boys section. He looked at me like I was some sort of person from another planet and said, very judgmentally, "You know ma'am, most people like their girls to shop in the girls' section," and I thought, "What the heck is happening?"

When I went to the drag show, there on stage was this huge representation of people shaking it all up and I thought, "This is the way into this discussion." Why do we equate gender and sexuality with biological identity? Why is it that people put all these things together in one package, somehow trying to conform into certain tropes? Drag is this art form that allows people to start questioning those things... all while being incredibly entertained.

How is it working with your siblings?

We're really an organic team. We all have a similar vision, of what we are wanting to put out into the world. All of them care a ton about this project and they've been there all along the way. We've gotten to a point where we're all saying, "What are the things that we want to leave behind us in this world?" That's where this project came out; these topics are something that we've all been thinking about a lot, each in our own lives.

What did you learn about the drag community, making the film?

Like everybody, I went into it having certain ideas of what things are about. Very quickly, I heard a lot of different opinions from people who were in the drag community. Like a lot of things, [around] feminism and identity, I think there are many interpretations. I could immediately see this obviously isn't a monolithic thing, and people do it for varying reasons. You can ask ten people what drag is and you'll get ten different answers.

What do you hope audiences will take away from the experience of watching it?

I hope they'll take away the idea that you just can't put anyone in a box and that none of us fit into a box. Then, making that realization about everyone and just about humanity itself. People can allow for space for others to just be, because there is so much diversity and so much richness in diversity.

"Kings, Queens & In-Betweens" will receive a limited theatrical release on Friday, March 3 and a National VOD launch on Tuesday, March 7. For more information, check out their Facebook page at facebook.com/KingsQueensInBetweens, or go to
kingsqueensinbetweens.fivesistersproductions.com