Trixie Mattel: Moving Parts

Trixie Mattel won a competition programme and became better known. Now she is on tour; travelling city to city, performing, and preparing an album at the same time. Her music comes from somewhere with no relation to drag; she plays guitar and writes country. The documentary follows her across the tour. At the make up table, on the bus, on stage and behind it. At one point the team breaks up; she parts from someone she has worked with for a long time. In the same period she describes something about her family and steps outside the performance. Nicholas Zeig-Owens directs. Trixie Mattel, BenDeLaCreme and Bob the Drag Queen appear. It is an American production. Its form is a tour record; the narrative proceeds chronologically and moves between the performance and the life. The matter it treats is the distance between a character and a person; what remains once the make up comes off is a direct subject. The documentary also shows the economics of drag performance; tour costs, ticket sales and running a team are inside the narrative. The music is its second axis and the album recording is shown. The narrative also discusses the effect of the competition programme; recognition comes but continuity does not. Some sections are very intimate and its subject accepts that. Its limit is scope; the narrative focuses on one person and does not enter a wider picture. Who it is for: anyone curious about drag culture and behind the scenes documentary. Who it is not for: the subject is narrow, the structure conventional, and some sections sad.