Cinema Politica screening - Avant-Drag! Radical Performers Re-Imagine Athens

About the documentary
Ten different Athenian drag queens fabulously challenge social conventions while deconstructing gender, queerness and nationalism.

Avant-Drag! offers an exhilarating look at ten Athenian drag performers who deconstruct gender, nationalism, belonging, identity, while facing police brutality, transphobia and racism. As entertaining as it is thought-provoking, Avant-Drag! challenges societal norms and reshapes perceptions about LGBTQ+ culture by capturing the intimate lives of a tightly-knit group of drag performers, proving that being othered never felt so familiar.

This film captures the vibrancy of Athens’ underground drag scene and its role in pushing boundaries and expressing dissident identities. It goes beyond the mainstream representations of drag (and the Hollywoodian world of RuPaul) focusing on the more radical, explicitly political and raw performances.

At its core, Avant-Drag! is a love song to Athens; a city of contradictions, where oppression coexists with refuge. The film examines the use of public space and street performance as acts of visibility and protest by the drag community — while also confronting the growing problem of gentrification facing underprivileged Athenians.

The film is also a homage to Zackie Oh and other Greek drag activists and performers who have been victims of homophobic violence and police brutality. Their legacy lives on in the fierce artistry and defiance of a new generation. 

After the screening there will be an after talk plus Q&A with the audience.

Ester Jiresch is assistant professor at the chair of European Culture and Literature at the RUG, and teaches in the University Minor Gender and Diversity in Science, Society and Culture. Her current research examines the cultural representations of transgender and intersex people in contemporary literature and film.

Sergio Rigoletto is assistant professor of Film Studies at the RUG. Their research focuses on the politics of film aesthetics and its relation to social change, queer media cultures, affect, stars and performance studies and Italian cinema.

George Chatzopoulos is a clinical neuropsychologist and LGBTQIA+ advocate in the Netherlands, dedicated to trauma care, refugee mental health, and creating safer spaces for queer communities.

This event is free to attend.