Workhorse Queen
Workhorse Queen is a documentary film currently screening at select film festivals. Stay tuned for announcements regarding theatrical screenings, broadcast, and streaming information in your region. More information here.
Synopsis:
By day, Ed Popil worked as the manager of a telemarketing center in post-industrial Rochester, New York for 18 years. By night, he transformed into drag queen Mrs. Kasha Davis. Not your average aspiring pop star drag queen, Mrs. Kasha Davis is a 1960’s era housewife trying to liberate herself from domestic toil through performing at night in secret – an homage to Ed’s own mother. After seven years of auditioning to compete on reality television show RuPaul’s Drag Race, Ed Popil was finally cast onto the show and thrust into a full time entertainment career at the late age of 44.
Workhorse Queen is a documentary film exploring the complexities of mainstream television’s impact on performance communities focused on gender and sexuality. In addition to following Ed’s life and career before and after being cast onto RuPaul’s Drag Race, the film focuses on the growing divide between members of a small town drag community – those who have been on television, and those who have not. Throughout the film Ed Popil navigates the exciting highs and devastating lows of pursuing the fame promised by a reality television platform. With one foot inching toward Hollywood’s doorstep and the other cemented firmly within her beloved Rochester community, Mrs. Kasha Davis finds a surprising new audience at home as she works toward becoming the queer role model for children that Ed didn’t have and desperately wanted growing up.
AWARDS
Best Documentary (Feature), American Film Festival (Wroclaw, Poland)
Grand Jury Prize for Documentary (Feature), San Francisco Documentary Film Festival
Grand Jury Prize for Documentary (Feature), Buffalo International Film Festival
Audience Award for Documentary (Feature), Indy Film Fest
Audience Award for Documentary (Feature), ImageOut Rochester LGBTQ+ Film Festival
FESTIVALS
Slamdance Film Festival
Florida Film Festival
Calgary Underground Film Festival
Indy Film Fest
ImageOut Rochester LGBT Film Festival
Milwaukee Film Festival
San Francisco Documentary Film Festival
Documentary Edge New Zealand
Prairie Pride Film Festival
Bentonville Film Festival
Vancouver Queer Film Festival
New Haven Documentary Film Festival
CinemaQ Film Festival
Indie Street Film Festival
Slamdance Joshua Tree Festival
MIX Festival Internazionale di Cinema LGBTQ+ e Cultural Queer
Out at the Movies
Buffalo International Film Festival
Tampa Bay International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
Way Out West Film Festival
Reel Q: Pittsburgh LGBTQ+ Film Festival
Rainbow Visions
TLV Fest
American Film Festival, Wroclaw Poland