Council House Movie Star: Ageing Drag Queens on the Borders of Society

Council House Movie Star is a film located in the UK providing a space where the drag queen performer and the invasive reality of age can coexist, and be evaluated. This film project is a creative and academic exploration of queer rooted in the sociological endeavour of living realism. It explores underprivileged and marginalized groups which fall under the academic umbrella of “queer,” yet in social and political terms, the drag queen remains on the margins of society. The work captures the cultural interventions of a drag queen as an ageing text in socially diverse situations, revealing the inner and outer images and emotions of a migrating temporal body in a state of permanent evolving and becoming. It embraces the idea of embracing age, body changes and a body in flux. It takes the spectator towards notions of what is it ‘to be’ aged, queer, drag, poor, isolated and vulnerable. Thereby offering visuals of an ageing queer persona fixed in a spiral of desire for some remembered time. Drag queens bring the private public in terms of the interplay and relationships with people across the gender spectrum. Such public displays signify that the ageing drag queen becomes a vulnerable person when the make-up is removed and the sequins are hung up. The unsociable hours of work alongside the stigma attached to the profession can result in difficulties of meeting a partner, a rejection from familial and friendship groups, and inequalities in relationships. This film documents the ageing drag performer as a forceful, powerful and effective narrative and a cruel and ruthless reality. The work addresses the social and cultural contexts and geographies of spectatorship and how this impacts on their understanding, appreciation, negotiation and experience of ageing for those who have non-heterosexual experiences.