Doc Elements: Ideas for a Documentary

My news source is more of an online blog called http://www.diaryofadragqueenhusband.com. The website is run by the husband of Ohio based drag queen Vivian Von Brokenhyman. Vivian was the emcee of the Athens Ohio Area Drag Race competition in October along with RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Mimi Imfurst. Here is an article about that show : http://www.athensnews.com/ohio/article-40907-rupaulrss-lsdrag-racers-brings-glitzy-show-to-stuartrss.html and a collection of professional photos that I could use for the documentary: http://sarahwarda.com/2013-athens-area-drag-race . I love drag queens and find the whole art form to be incredibly interesting and I think there are several different ways to make an entertaining documentary from this.

Documentary Idea #1: My first idea would most closely follow the Von Brokenhyman’s. It would document the daily life of the two of them. I’d want the whole thing to be loosely chronological. For the first part of the documentary, I would interview Tom and Vivian and discuss their childhood and what it was like to grow up as gay men in Ohio. The documentary would discuss the beginnings of Vivian’s drag career and how the two of them met. For Tom’s interviews, we would discuss what it was like to be married to a drag queen, which he often does on his blog and Vivian would talk about the nature of a drag career and difficulties associated with such a thing. This would be intercut with footage of Vivian’s performances from various occasions and shots of her different wigs and outfits. The target audience would be drag enthusiasts, and local Ohio viewers. The goal would be to spread the knowledge that drag is just an aspect of a person, but they are actual well-rounded human beings in most cases.

Documentary Idea #2: This next idea would focus on popular Ohio based drag queens. Vivian Von Brokenhyman would still be highlighted, but the screen time would be spread to others including Penny Tration, Amaya Sexton, Selena T. West, Veronica Lake, Helena Troy, Nina West, Virginia West, and drag king group The Royal Renegades. It would include interviews and performance footage from each of those drag queens. The interviews would be questions regarding their drag careers, goals, and family reactions. Penny Tration won the fan vote to be on RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 5 and was the first eliminated contestant. We would discuss that and any regrets she may have had. Amaya Sexton was in the running for the fan vote for Season 6, but barely lost out to Adore Delano and Laganja Estranja. I’d ask her about her plans for the future. The target audience would again be drag enthusiasts, but my goal this time would be to get some talented local queens some attention and help build up their fan base in case they wanted to audition for RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Documentary Idea #3: One of the heated debates that was recently incited by the most recent seasons of Drag Race was over the validity of different types of drag, with polished veterans like Chad Michaels, Detox, and Roxxxy Andrews losing out to campier queens like Sharon Needles and Jinkx Monsoon. This documentary would interview local queens to get their thoughts on different types of drag. Ohio has a wide variety of styles of drag from pageant queens to comedy queens, so I think these queens would offer insight to this. The documentary would be aimed for a larger audience including fans of drag outside of the state of Ohio. It would be intercut with footage of some of the better fights between Sharon Needles and Phi Phi O’hara from season 4, Roxxxy Andrews, Coco Montrese, and Jinkx Monsoon from season 5, and of course the Heathers and the Boogers from season 3. The documentary would analyze the show. Right now the show has crowned 3 glamour queens (Bebe Zahara Benet, Tyra Sanchez, and Raja Gemini) and 2 camp queens (Sharon and Jinkx), but the two camp queens were from the most recent seasons, so it would end with the acknowledgement that the winner of season 6 could indicate where the trends are going (right now fans are either leaning towards the campy queen Milk or the polished glamour of Courtney Act).