mirror of
https://gitlab.com/PronounsPage/PronounsPage.git
synced 2025-09-27 06:52:35 -04:00
162 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
162 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
# Avant-Drag! – “Greece shall die so that we can live!”
|
||
|
||
<small>2024-05-11 | [@T_Vos](/@T_Vos), [@andrea](/@andrea)</small>
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<div class="alert alert-warning">
|
||
<span class="fal fa-exclamation-triangle"></span>
|
||
<strong>Content warnings for the movie:</strong>
|
||
flashing lights, blood, self-harm, abuse, queerphobia, xenophobia,
|
||
hate, murder, cops, medical issues, drugs.
|
||
</div>
|
||
|
||
It’s a rough world out there, especially for the queers. Luckily for us, there are always part of our community ready to fight and able to overcome fear.
|
||
|
||
We had the pleasure to talk with [Thanasis McMorait](https://www.instagram.com/mcmorait), one of the performers portrayed in the documentary Avant-Drag!.
|
||
They are a brave political queen from Thessaloniki, famous for their shows with heavy punk-anarchist commentary.
|
||
We've learned a lot and will share their thoughts intertwined within this review.
|
||
|
||
Avant-Drag! is a Greek production that showcases ten underground drag artists from Greece with all the beautiful and the ugly, no filter.
|
||
In the movie we get to know them through varying expressions and stories, their actions, political statements;
|
||
they are ready to be punk and to demand from the society their worth in gold.
|
||
Each distinctively unique, yet going in one direction: the future. The future that is queer.
|
||
The future for which a battle is being fought in the streets, on social media, in the buildings of parliaments all around the world.
|
||
A battle fought by, as McMorait has nicely put it, “a lot for queer people, who managed to be proud of who they are now,
|
||
and not who their grand grand grand grandmother _could have been_ potentially”.
|
||
|
||
In the movie we can see the underground scene of Greek drag. The one that is often unheard of internationally,
|
||
less accessed by tourists, less Instagram-worthy, less algorithm friendly, more brave, messy, silly, imperfect, human, not doll.
|
||
We learn of a community that's rough and quirky at first, but one that supports each other.
|
||
There is competition for gigs and opportunities, but there is also sisterhood. McMorait talks about their community as warm, welcoming –
|
||
this allows new performers to improve their acts and gives a sense of belonging and motivation to be better.
|
||
|
||
But all is not roses.
|
||
|
||
Avant-Drag! touches on many problems affecting the community that are deeply rooted in traditions and old ways –
|
||
something that is endemic for many, many countries in Europe and all around the world. In Poland, how often we hear of old archetypes?
|
||
Of hussars and kings, of heroes of world wars and of the independence struggle?
|
||
We cling to the old times in search for glory, and we don’t recognize that new times call for new archetypes.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
In the movie we hear how Greek patriotism and patriarchy are upholding mechanisms of oppression,
|
||
how ancient glory is being used to radicalize people today. The heroines of the movie take this old radicalism and put a mirror to its face.
|
||
They are not afraid to put on traditionally religious elements together with sexual symbolism and go out on the streets to praise abortion.
|
||
Why? To make you think. To question the authority that is deemed as unquestionable.
|
||
They are brave enough to go out and scream to no audience about social justice, daring to take aim at conservatism, patriarchy,
|
||
racism, and sexism, mock xenophobia and sometimes simply says the quiet part out loud.
|
||
We see their acts being performed in the streets, them claiming their space and being proud of who they are. Authentically.
|
||
|
||
Watching Avant-Drag! reminded me of my time and reality in Poland a few years ago.
|
||
In Szczecin, I remember going to a memorial of a killed gay from my community,
|
||
I saw the suffering and the struggles of my community, the hopelessness that accompanied it all.
|
||
I remember fearing the vast queer world out there. Not because it’s scary or wrong, but because if such a small deviation from the societal
|
||
cishet-normative narrative as being gay was enough to get killed, how to tap to even wider, often less accepted,
|
||
queer world full of beautiful and unique identities? And then I met local drag queens, misfits who were trying to make a change –
|
||
my local equivalent of Avant-Drag!'s cast. Clumsy in their steps, with intrinsic motivation to live free,
|
||
getting stumped on and stopped by external factors, they also took to the streets, sometimes alone. On the same fight for survival.
|
||
|
||
Here I need to mention name Zak Kostopoulos – Zackie Oh – a Greek drag queen murdered on an Athens street in 2018.
|
||
In the movie McMorait is using a lot of their platform to tell a story of grief and pain and loss.
|
||
6 years later, court cases are still happening. 4 years after murder two civilians involved got their sentences – but not the four cops.
|
||
|
||
Avant-Drag! shows us that queer struggles are universal in the European civilization.
|
||
That no matter if an Orthodox, a Catholic, or a Protestant country, we all deal with the same religion that doesn’t want us.
|
||
That can’t compartmentalize ourselves in little pastures – because we’re plenty and uniquely beautiful in our authentic selves.
|
||
No matter, Poland or Greece or the Dutch Bible Belt, we deal with the same indifference from moral figures and authorities.
|
||
In our streets we scream and protest for recognition of our rights. We have different backgrounds, but our struggle unites us.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
It's a struggle the creators of this documentary face first-hand.
|
||
McMorait told us about a very warm welcome that the movie received from the queer community,
|
||
but also about protests happening before its screening at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival,
|
||
the fear of repercussions (especially due to a scene where Aurora spray-paints an Albanian flag over the Greek one),
|
||
and the lack of allyship from the festival's organizers.
|
||
McMorait is now looking for happiness and safety living outside of Greece – and we wish them all the best in the Netherlands!
|
||
Yet we've never gotten an impression that they regret telling their story in the movie, quite the opposite.
|
||
The truth and reality can be frightening, not many have courage to tell bitter stories of life.
|
||
|
||
Before we signed off, after hearing the story of struggle, we asked McMorait what gives them power to go on?
|
||
how do they find strength to continue the struggle despite adversity?
|
||
We got three beautiful pillars of support, and we think they may be a good foundation for us all in our struggles:
|
||
|
||
> The things that give me power, especially in moments of darkness and despair are mainly three things.
|
||
> The first one is **sisterhood**. We live in an era where I feel so bad hearing little girls call each other “bro”.
|
||
> And I really can't stand this thing. Why do we need to have this bro identity and the bro code of masculine men
|
||
> even in our own more girly, more faggotry relationships? So having the sisterhood, relationships of care, of self-reflection,
|
||
> free space to communicate and to be in a bad place and to be in a bad mood and that people can accept you and show their way to support you.
|
||
> This is a very important thing, and this thing can only happen, in my perspective, in sisterhood.
|
||
|
||
> And the second thing that I find confluence to, which is **communities**.
|
||
> I am one of the people that do not believe in the so-called LGBTQIA+ community.
|
||
> I think that, it's a very neoliberal, and very white perspective of the queer identities.
|
||
> It erases all other identities and all other perspectives that queer people can carry. […]
|
||
> So I think that people should understand that we have to create our very own communities, and we need to be active parts of them.
|
||
> Because not everyone can offer the same things, in one community, and not everyone has the same things to offer all the time.
|
||
> And in these communities, we need to create spaces where authorities and traditional formations of power do not have a place in,
|
||
> and where people can feel safe to exist and to communicate everything that might be going wrong so that it can be done right.
|
||
|
||
> And the third thing is **intersectionality**, which again, is a key to understand why we live in periods of darkness and despair.
|
||
> It's one thing to find the space to exist and to find courage in these times, and another thing to understand why [those bad times] are happening.
|
||
> And for me, having an intersectional perspective on everything that is happening helps us understand why things are happening
|
||
> and how they're affecting the other people. Because, I might have felt despair a lot of times,
|
||
> but I can understand that there are people every time that experience the same thing, that brought this despair to me,
|
||
> must have been even harsher for them. And the murder of Zackie Oh was a very important moment in Greece, that showcase that we need to
|
||
> be very intersectional about it. Because, first, they said ‘it was an immigrant’, They didn't know, it was a Greek person that was murdered.
|
||
> Then they tried to say that Zaki was under influence of drugs at the moment that she was murdered, so she might have died from a heart attack
|
||
> or something like that from the drug abuse. This again, was proved to be a lie by the medical examinations.
|
||
> So, when we tried to communicate what happened, we had to communicate that, first of all, it was racism,
|
||
> then it was queerphobia and femmephobia and sexism, then it was hate for people who are drug addicts and the way they are perceived as less of humans.
|
||
> It was a case that intersectionality was key to understanding what happened, and I believe that it's key in almost all cases.
|
||
|
||
> So sisterhood, communities, intersectionality. Yes.
|
||
|
||
We all have each other. Avant-Drag! is reminding us of it in the most avant-garde way possible, through ten stories and many artistic expressions.
|
||
|
||
I want to finish this article with a chant created during protests after Zackie's murder, a chant that really stuck with us:
|
||
“Greece shall die, so that we can live”.
|
||
|
||
Old archetypes that don’t fit our modern understanding must be replaced. They helped us in the past times – but now they are hurting us.
|
||
This reminds me of another quote, from Willem De Kooning, displayed on his academy in Rotterdam:
|
||
“I have to change to stay the same”. We have to adapt to new times to stay ourselves.
|
||
|
||
We wholeheartedly recommend Avant-Drag! It shows real emotions entwined with angst for the future and appreciation of the community.
|
||
You can see the documentary during [DAG festival Warsaw](https://mdag.pl/21/pl/warszawa/movie/Avant-Drag%2521) and during Xposed Queer Film Festival Berlin.
|
||
|
||
<a href="https://mdag.pl/21/pl/warszawa/movie/Avant-Drag%2521" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="btn btn-outline-primary d-block-force mt-5">
|
||
<span class="fal fa-ticket-alt"></span>
|
||
Get tickets here
|
||
</a>
|
||
|
||
<a href="https://www.instagram.com/avant.drag.film/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="btn btn-outline-primary d-block-force mt-3">
|
||
<span class="fab fa-instagram-square"></span>
|
||
Follow on Instagram
|
||
</a>
|
||
|
||
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/avantdrag" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="btn btn-outline-primary d-block-force mt-3">
|
||
<span class="fab fa-facebook-square"></span>
|
||
Follow on Facebook
|
||
</a>
|
||
|
||
{gallery={
|
||
"/img-local/blog/avant-drag/avant-drag-1-kangela.png": "Kangela",
|
||
"/img-local/blog/avant-drag/avant-drag-1-kangela-art.png": "Kangela",
|
||
"/img-local/blog/avant-drag/avant-drag-2-er-libido.png": "Er Libido",
|
||
"/img-local/blog/avant-drag/avant-drag-2-er-libido-mary.png": "Er libido",
|
||
"/img-local/blog/avant-drag/avant-drag-3-aurora.png": "Aurora",
|
||
"/img-local/blog/avant-drag/avant-drag-3-aurora-flaga.png": "Aurora",
|
||
"/img-local/blog/avant-drag/avant-drag-4-parakatyanova.png": "Parakatyanova",
|
||
"/img-local/blog/avant-drag/avant-drag-4-parakatyanova-sergay.png": "Parakatyanova & SerGay",
|
||
"/img-local/blog/avant-drag/avant-drag-4-sergay.png": "SerGay",
|
||
"/img-local/blog/avant-drag/avant-drag-5-mcmorait.png": "McMorait",
|
||
"/img-local/blog/avant-drag/avant-drag-5-mcmorait-murder-site.png": "McMorait",
|
||
"/img-local/blog/avant-drag/avant-drag-6-cotsos.png": "Cotsos",
|
||
"/img-local/blog/avant-drag/avant-drag-6-cotsos-konstatntinos.png": "Cotsos",
|
||
"/img-local/blog/avant-drag/avant-drag-7-lala-kolopi.png": "Lala Kolopi",
|
||
"/img-local/blog/avant-drag/avant-drag-8-veronique.png": "Veronique",
|
||
"/img-local/blog/avant-drag/avant-drag-interview.png": "",
|
||
}}
|
||
|