The queer defiance of Fil Ieropoulos’s kaleidoscopic documentary manifests not only through its subject, but also through its form. Centring on a group of drag performers and gender-nonconforming artists in Athens, this shape-shifting film celebrates a vibrant underground scene that thrives in a homophobic system, rife with state-sanctioned discrimination and violence. Introduced through an episodic structure, figures from the community light up the screen with their artistry and activism as they carve out a safe haven of their own.
In each of the vignettes, we get a glimpse of both the joy and the peril of navigating the city as a queer person. Decked out in extravagant costumes and makeup inspired by Leigh Bowery, Kangela Tromokratisch struts in towering high heels, while her drag performances, with their vaudevillian feel, parody heteronormative ideals of motherhood and marriage. Equally irreverent is Aurora Paola Morado, who weaves her Albanian heritage into her act as she takes aim at xenophobia in Greek society. For them and other artists featured in the film, drag is both a form of self-expression and a tool of protest.
Some of the skits and performance pieces are shot on DV camera, a format that lends a fascinatingly grainy texture to the footage and also suggests a lineage between these contemporary artists and those who came before. Most powerfully, Avant-Drag! largely films its subjects on the streets, conveying the courage as well as the subversiveness of existing in drag in public spaces. Their presence is a political statement, just like slogans of protests graffitied on the city walls. The spectre of trauma might still linger – the film is dedicated to Zackie Oh, a Greek queer artistbrutally murdered in broad daylightin 2018 – yet the solidarity among this band of outsiders also imbues the city with the beautiful spirit of liberation.
Avant-Drag! is on True Story from 20 June.