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Street Roots • July 10-16, 2015
News
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It’s about gender. It’s about healing. It’s about
a drag queen.
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S.Z.: What are your thoughts about
Caitlyn Jenner? (Just weeks after the
release of “Drag Becomes Him, "Jenner
made her debut appearance as a
woman on the cover of Vanity Fair.)
ili ■
A.B.: Um ... (Hesitates) Oh, God.
I’m still thinking about i t I just know
that there have been so many
transgender people before who have
really fought battles to come through
the other side. And they did, and I’ve
heard this story so many times. I’m
not sure why this one person is so the
face of that movement, or community.
I’m more interested in the
underdog, who is a little bit closer to
Earth, someone I can relate to more.
Someone who is a little bit more part
of the real world. I also don’t know
that much about Bruce Jenner; I don’t
know much of his story. He’s been a
celebrity his whole life.
Film m aker Alex Berry's documentary tells the story
o f Portland's Jerick Hoffer — aka Jinkx Monsoon
BY SUE ZALOKAR
the documentary “Drag Becomes Him ”?
STAFF W R ITER
A.B.: I’m interested in people who
eattle-based filmmaker Alex Berry
explore gender and who are comfortable
is the director of the documentary
with their androgyny.
“Drag Becomes Him.” The film
chronicles daily life for drag queen Jinkx The first time I met Jerick ... he kind
of lit up. I was instantly intrigued by him.
Monsoon, stage name for Jerick Hoffer.
I had never even met Jinkx — I met
Hoffer hails from Portland and, as
Jerick first. I wanted to work with him in
Monsoon, gained fame for winning the
some way.
Season Five
There is this little production
title on
company in Seattle, “Quiet Productions,”
“RuPaul’s
and they really liked my work, and they
Drag Race.”
asked me if I would be interested in
The film,
doing a film for their film festival.
which made its
They wanted the film to be about
debut in
gender. Jerick was the first person I
Seattle in
thought of. I just went over to his place
April, is
with a camera and asked him questions
traveling a
that I had based on my own personal
circuit of film
interest in him.
festivals
S
around the
world. Berry
says it is a
collage of
COURTESY PHOTO
moments, and
Seattle filmmaker Alex Berry directed the
from the
documentary “Drag Becomes Him. ”
gentle note in
his voice, it’s
clear that the
project is incredibly meaningful to him.
It should be. He is making a film about a
drag queen. Something that has been on
the fringe is becoming more and more
mainstream.
Berry says his desire for the film was
to show moments in a person’s life, and
this person happens to be a drag queen.
Sue Zalokar: What brought you to
filmmaking?
Alex B erry: I found my dad’s video
camera when I was 10 or 11.1 just fell in
love with the craft of making film. My
first films were with my little sister.
One of my favorite parts of working
with Jinkx kind of reminded me of when
I would film my little sister as a kid
because she would always play these
wild, crazy characters. She was younger
than me — I was 11 so she was like 7
— and we would make little short films.
We always just kind of made them up as
we went along. We didn’t script anything,
we didn’t plan anything, and that’s how
Jinkx and I made this documentary.
S.Z.: What attracted you to the story of
Jinkx Monsoon and compelled you to create
S.Z.: To me, the importance of
Caitlyn Jenner is that a person like my
dad might be someone who admired
Bruce Jenner. And now, in a weird way,
someone who my dad can relate to as
that athlete is making him wrap his
brain around alternate gender identities.
There’s something to reaching the
masses...
A.B.: I see what you’re saying. It
does introduce this topic to people
who normally wouldn’t ever be
introduced to that culture.
S.Z.: According to a report by the
National Center for Transgender
Equality and the (National LGBTQ)
Task Force, transgender people are four
times more likely to live in poverty; they
experience unemployment, harassment
and prejudice at higher rates ...
S.Z.: The film is on a festival circuit
right now. It left Seattle and has screened
in Greece and South Africa and is gaining
momentum. How is that going?
A.B.: I haven’t heard too much from
people about it. That’s been the hard
part for me. The film started out as little
episodes on YouTube. Through that
medium, I was able to immediately see
the people’s reaction. Since it was
anonymous, there were lots of people
being honest about it. I really love that
kind of feedback. I love to see how
people respond (to my films), whether
they see it as negative or positive. But
showing it in theaters, I really don’t get
to hear too much. From what I
understand, people seem to really be
liking i t
S.Z.: YouTube has become a platform for
filmmakers in many ways.
A.B.: When I was making the shorts, I
was just making them for fun. I never
imagined it being a feature film. That
wasn’t the plan. I was more capturing
moments in my friend’s life. I took it as
an opportunity to have fun, to practice
and experiment. It really helped me to
find an audience.
There are so many people who are
drawn to Jinkx but also noticed the
(cinematography) of the film, and they
appreciate that, too, so I kind of found
an audience through the experience.
S.Z.: Clever title.
PHOTOS OF JINKX M O N S O O N COURTESY OF ALEX BERRY
When Portland’s Jerick Hoffer, above, takes the stage, he’s Jinkx Monsoon, top, the drag queen featured in the documentary “Drag Becomes Her.’
A.B.: I was working on the very first
episode. In it, Jinkx talks a lot about the
film “Death Becomes Her” and how it
really influenced his drag persona. It
really inspired him, and I really loved
that movie as a kid too.
I was editing and I was thinking of a
title, and it came to me: Drag ...
Becomes ... Him. I just changed the
pronoun. It just popped in my head, and
I knew instantly it was the title. I didn’t
have to think about it anymore.
S.Z.: I have to say I felt especially
cautious as I was crafting questions about
personal pronouns and wanted to be
accurate and respectful of a person’s
gender. I wonder about that duality; for
instance, there is Jerick and there is Jinkx.
What do you think about that duality,
more generally: like drag queens and their
alter egos?
A.B.: Everyone has a gray area
ultimately. It’s not so black and white.
There are some people who are just
drawn more toward one or the other —
people who can contain both.
Everyone has masculine and feminine
sides, and then through our experiences
and our conditioning, we kind of decide
what is appropriate for which gender. In
order to fit in and survive, we kind of
just end up molding ourselves a certain
way.
It is so interesting when someone
doesn’t fall to th a t They stay true to
themselves, and they stick to this inner
sense of who they are, you know?
Drag queens are artists —
performance artists — and they’re taking
their perspective of femininity and
filtering it through a male lens and their
own (personal) lens and pointing out
what gender is and what femininity is
and how it’s an act, a performance. By
exaggerating certain elements, it’s a
reflection of how gender is experienced
in our culture.
S.Z.: Drag is different from being trans
or cisgender, and it creates an opportunity
to familiarize mainstream America with
gender identities and sexual identities and
to begin conversations. Why is it important
to represent diverse gender and sexual
identities in our pop culture media?
A.B.: It’s so much more interesting
that way. There are so many types of
people and so many flavors of humanity.
'i To only focus on three or four
(flavors) because it’s the majority, we’re
missing out on this whole other element
of this unique experience that can offer
us insight into what we’re doing here
and how to do things better.
By cutting out certain perspectives or
certain people’s experiences, I think
we’re missing out.
Film is so, so powerful. It’s one of the
most powerful tools on the planet So
many people can define themselves in
accordance to it. It can be used for
healing, like art therapy.
When I was interviewing Jerick’s
parents, his dad was talking about his
relationship to Jerick and how he
experienced him coming out and
becoming a drag queen.
I’m not a drag queen, but I really
related to how Jerick’s relationship is
with his dad. I almost felt, at times, I was
being healed through his conversation. I
Page 9
News
Street Roots • July 10-16, 2015
hear that a lot of people are really moved
by that scene.
Even Jerick said, when he watched
that scene of his dad — because he
wasn’t there when I was interviewing
(his parents) — it was a surprise to him.
Jerick said his dad had never told him
those things before.
S.Z.: Wow. That is powerful.
A.B.: Film offers the opportunity for
healing.
S.Z.: We need it. We need to offer diverse
role models to all of our youth. Native kids
need to see native adults living happy lives,
and so do transgender kids. They need to
see positive role models, too. They need to
see that sometimes there is a happy ending.
A.B.: Yeah. And that we exist and that
we’re out there. We’re just regular
people, too. Every story doesn’t have to
be this romanticized version of (a gay,
transgender or drag lifestyle).
I wanted to show the whole aspect of
us. Just a regular human being — the
A.B.: Nothing is really that simple.
After you transition, you feel better in
certain ways, and in other ways,
problems you hadn’t anticipated come
up. It’s probably a little bit of both.
I was just researching transgender
people who have changed gender, had
surgery and are having regrets and
wishing th e y ... they changed their mind,
you know? That topic hasn’t been
covered that much, but it is very
interesting.
S.Z.: As an artist, when inspiration is
waning, when you feel creatively sapped,
what do you do? How do you stay fresh?
A.B.: I tend to stay on the lookout at
all times.
Sometimes I find, if I get really
healthy and I exercise a lot, ideas will
start popping in. But then sometimes
I’m really angry and in a state of dread
and I’ll start getting ideas. It’s just about
being open for when they show up.
Interaction and genuine human
connection and people - especially the
weird ones, the ones who rock the boat
- (they also inspire me).
And music! If I hear good music, it
will give me ideas.
S.Z.: What’s some of the music that you
like to listen to?
A.B.: I get a lot of ideas from kind of
ambient music like Aphex Twin and
darker strains like Kronos Quartet.
Also, Acid Mothers Temple, which is
this Japanese psychedelic band. I used
one of their songs in the movie. It was
really awesome that they let me use
their song!
S.Z.: Why do you think there are so few
women in filmmaking?
A.B.: Everything is male-dominated, it
seems. I guess (filmmaking) is a harsh
business ...
It doesn’t make any sense because
you have such a great perspective and
lens to tell stories through. I love a lot of
women filmmakers’ (work), like Miranda
July, Sofia Coppola and — that’s only two
I can think of.
Why do you think (there so few
women in filmmaking)?
S.Z.: Gosh. You caught me offguard. I
wonder if women are seen more as “chirps”
or “baubbles, ” meant to draw attention to
their bodies and their beauty. It seems
difficult for some folks to see women as
something more than beautiful.
Or maybe it’s because — it’s proven that
people take direction better from men than
they do from women. This is so bizarre to
me.
A.B.: It’s probably because the film
industry comes from a thoroughly male-
dominated history. I heard that in the
early days of film, women were always
the editors. I don’t know if that’s true.
People thought if there was an overall
“more nurturing” point of view to the
sto ry ...
S.Z.: How do you know when your
story’s finished, when to walk away?
A.B.: I like to take a long time with it.
It’s just a feeling. When I can’t see
anything else I want to change,
everything else is totally in place and
nothing is sticking out. It’s a feeling; I’m
ready to let it go.
With this film, I could have gone a bit
longer, but it was hard because Jinkx got
so busy traveling everywhere. I didn’t get
to work with her as much as I had
wanted to towards the end.
Throughout the whole process, he
(Hoffer) never told me what to shoot or
how to shoot or what to cut out or what
to add. He just let me work. He showed
up and was who he is.
It was really casual and spontaneous.
Nothing was planned or scripted. It was
just me and my camera.
Because it was never planned to be
this feature-length film, I didn’t have this
concrete narrative in mind, so I was
grabbing random moments. In the end, I
connected the original short films to
make the feature into a whirlwind, a
collage of moments that are happening
in a person’s life.