Lipstick and Leather Documentary

Official Selection: Virginia Film Festival 2020

Official Selection: Indianapolis LGBTQ Festival 2020

Official Selection: Q Fest, St. Louis 2020

Official Selection: Reel Affirmations, Washington DC's International LGBTQ Film Festival 2020

Official Selection: LGBTQ Toronto Film Festival 2021

Official Selection: Bethesda Film Festival 2021

Official Selection: Open Road Film Festival 2022

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Logline

In a buttoned-up city, like DC, what happens when drag queens go rogue?

Lipstick and Leather explores the "alt-drag" community in the nations capital, and how these performers are spreading their influence across the east coast.

Plot

DonnaSlash, organizer of Gaybash DC’s monthly alt-dragrevue, has relocated to Baltimore City.

Gaybash will continue in DC, but Donna wants to bring her girls to Charm City.

A character study of three alternative queens, Lipstick and Leather follows Donna, Jane, and Anna as they prepare for their first Baltimore show.

Setting

Trade, an established gay dive bar in Washington, DC, where Gaybash is prepared for and held.

Setting

The homes of Donna, Jane, and Ana, the three core queens from Gaybash.

Donna's home is Baltimore City, and Jane and ana reside in Washington, DC

Setting

Rituals, a new queer bar and venue in the Station North neighborhood of Baltimore City; the new home for Gaybash Baltimore.

Cast

Donna Slash, the founder and core organizer of Gaybash.

Donna has appeared at RuPaul's DragCon, starred in Troma Entertainment's Kill Dolly Kill, and fronted the DC punk band Homosuperior.

Cast

Jane Saw, an Aveda salon stylist, discusses her work and artistic inspirations in film.

Cast

Ana Latour, the youngest Gaybash queen, delves into her gender and identity evolution.

The Director

Emmy Award winning Producer and Director Amy Oden currently works at PBS's Maryland Public Television, where she sheds light on a variety of social and scientific topics, including the Baltimore uprising, fracking, mass incarceration, and the opioid crisis.

She is currently working on her thrid independent feature, "Calasag", which is fiscally spoinsored by the international Documentary Association, and was granted a fellowship in the Saul Zaents Innovation Fund at Johns Hopkins. She is also teaches intermediate documentary at the University of Maryland.

Amy holds BA in Jounralism from the University of Maryland, and an MA in Gender and Media from George Washington University. Her work has won Emmy, Davey, and W3 Awards.

Directors Statement

Drag is curently having a cultural“moment”, and looking at an underepresented community within this larger practice sheds light on power and hierarchy within the art form Drag has been performed for centuries, but what are newer “alt-drag”queens expresing?

Lipstick and Leather looks at the nuanced answer to this question, teasing out larger themes and reflections, and exploring identity, tradition, community, and relationships.

Drag continues to be a vehicle for the preservation of queer tradition, an art form, and a platform to build relationships within the queer community, as well as with allies. Drag can be a mirror, a way to express utopian or dystopian ideas, or simply an outlet for a talented performer. "Alt-drag" performers in DC and Baltimore are building new auidiences, and making the craft their own.

Lipstick and Leather explores a newer part of a much-beloved tradition.

Contact

Amy Oden

amyoden@gmail.com

Culhanimal Productions

js@culhanimalproductions.com