PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — "I was doing drag when I was about 17 — and for a minute, when I first moved to New York City," says photographer and filmmaker Matthew Placek, "but I was a mess."
So, he understands the artistry that someone like Sasha Velour, the winner of season 9 of "RuPaul's Drag Race," brings to drag performance. Velour (the stage name of Alexander Hedges Steinberg) stars in Placek’s new short film for Opera Philadelphia, called “The Island We Made.”
Placek, it turns out, is also a fan of opera.
"I’ve been going to operas at the Met since I’ve been in New York, getting $20 standing-room tickets and sneaking down into people’s seats when they leave during intermission."
For Placek, this project combines two art forms for which he has a lot of respect.
In the film, Velour wears a long, flowing yellow dress with platform high heels, gloves and earrings, all of which is dripping with crystals. The costume stands out against the background of a drab house with dated pink carpeting.
That, of course, was intentional.
"Finding the house was one of the most difficult parts of this whole production," Placek says. "I ended up going on Zillow ... to find houses on Staten Island. Because where are you gonna find a split-level house stuck in the mid-'80s? Staten Island."
Fans of "Drag Race" know Velour as a master of lip-sync performance. She is responsible for the iconic moment in the season 9 finale, when a shower of red rose petals from under her wig ended competitor Shea Couleé's run on the show.
Be advised, this video contains coarse language.
But Placek says he wasn’t looking for the over-the-top, frenetic performance popular on the show. Instead, he says, Velour and a few other actresses who come in and out of the video are mouthing the words the way someone might sing along at home to a song they know.
The characters, after all, are reminiscing.
"It’s a reverse lullaby," Placek said, borrowing a metaphor from Angélica Negrón, his collaborator and composer for the project. "Meaning it's a lullaby to the parent, in this case the mother. And by saying 'the mother,' I mean like the all-encompassing mother — all of them."
Related
“The Island We Made” is one of four projects commissioned by Opera Philadelphia that pair composers with filmmakers. All four are available on Opera Philadelphia’s streaming platform. A season pass costs $99. The films can be rented individually for $10, or as a bundle of four for $25. Three are streaming now. The fourth is not yet released.
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