Queen of the Bayou: An Exploration of Drag, Transness, and Gender

This is a portrait film of Vitamin B, a Houston drag performer and educator. With this film, we intended to explore the relationship between Vitamin B and drag - why and how they started performing, how they conceptualize of their drag persona, and the role that drag plays in their life. Using these core concepts, we crafted a film that offers not just a look at the interior life of our central figure, but also an exploration of drag itself and the connections between drag and identity.

Our primary aim with this film is to investigate and celebrate how drag intersects with and challenges gender norms and general societal conceptions of gender. More broadly, we are documenting what it means to be a person who exists outside of and – to some extent – in opposition to the socially normalized boundaries of gender, both in general and specifically within the current social and political climate of Houston and Texas. Along those same lines, we are exploring the connections and boundaries between drag and transness for Vitamin B, and how that is affected and augmented by the generally anti-trans state of politics in Texas right now.