We’re thrilled to announce that STARZ Network is currently airing Workhorse Queen on TV and on their streaming platform. View on STARZ here. Breaking Glass Pictures has additionally released the film for DVD & rental on Amazon Prime, AppleTV, Roku, Vudu, and other VOD platforms. Rental & DVD links 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 queer performance culture. 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.
Creative Team
Angela Washko, Director/Writer
Angela Washko is a media artist working across narrative forms. A recent recipient of the Creative Capital Award, Impact Award at Indiecade and the Franklin Furnace Performance Fund, Washko’s practice has been highlighted in The New Yorker, Frieze Magazine, Time Magazine, The Guardian, ArtForum, The Los Angeles Times, Art in America, The New York Times and more. Her projects have been presented internationally at venues including Museum of the Moving Image, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Milan Design Triennale, and the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Angela Washko is an Associate Professor of Art at Carnegie Mellon University.
Sunita Prasad, Supervising Editor
Sunita Prasad is a New York City based filmmaker and video artist. Her work as a video artist has been exhibited internationally at venues such as the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Centre Clark in Montreal, and Homesession in Barcelona. Her film editing work has screened theatrically and in major festivals internationally including the Tribeca Film Festival, LA Film Fest, and DOC NYC, in addition to being showcased on PBS, Arte, Vice, and Logo. Sunita’s past editing credits include critically acclaimed feature documentary 93Queen, And Still I Rise: Black America Since MLK, and the Emmy-nominated and Telly Gold award-winning Going to War. Most recently, she edited the feature documentary Women in Blue to be released later this year.
Jota Mun, Editor
Jota Mun (they/them) is an editor and filmmaker living in Brooklyn. They are especially moved to tell stories centered around social justice. Jota’s work includes Who Killed Malcolm X? (editor) a six-part Netflix series, Hope & Fury: MLK, the Movement and the Media (associate editor) an NBC feature, Kids Behind Bars: A Soledad O’Brien Special Report, an hour long doc for Al Jazeera America (additional editor), and Stanley Nelson’s Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (first assistant editor) which premiered at Sundance.
Jesse Stiles, Composer
Jesse Stiles is an electronic composer, performer, installation artist, and software designer. Stiles’ work has been featured at internationally recognized institutions including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Lincoln Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Park Avenue Armory. Stiles has appeared as a soloist multiple times at Carnegie Hall. Starting in 2010, Stiles served as the Music Supervisor for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Working with the company he produced and performed in more than 200 concerts featuring John Cage, David Tudor, Brian Eno, Radiohead, Sigur Ros, and John Paul Jones. Stiles has worked as a sound designer and composer on award-winning films, museum exhibitions, and video games.
Sonia Gonzalez-Martinez, Additional Editing
Sonia Gonzalez-Martinez is a documentary editor based in New York City. Sonia has edited several films for the Independent Lens series: Soul Food Junkies, Spies of Mississippi and Decade of Fire. Other credits include Rise: The Promise of My Brother’s Keeper for The Discovery Channel and OWN; and Reconstruction: America After the Civil War, Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s series, which won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award. Sonia recently edited La Madrina: The Savage Life of Lorine Padilla, about a beloved South Bronx matriarch. Sonia has also edited a wide range of short documentaries for clients such as The New Yorker Magazine, Tribeca Digital Studios and Refinery29.
Scott Andrew, Visual Effects
Scott Andrew is a multimedia queer oriented video, installation, and performance artist. He is a co-founder of The Institute for New Feeling and has exhibited at MoMA’s PopRally (NYC), Ballroom Marfa (Marfa, TX), the Hammer Museum (LA), and the J. Paul Getty Museum (LA), among others. Andrew co-curates TQ Live! a yearly LGBTQIA variety series at the Andy Warhol Museum, and Fail Safe, a supportive space for the presentation of performative works-in-progress. Andrew is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.
Supported by:
Screenings & Awards
Workhorse Queen is coming to your television!
We’re thrilled to announce that STARZ Network is currently airing Workhorse Queen on TV and on their streaming platform. View on STARZ here. Breaking Glass Pictures has additionally released the film for DVD & rental on Amazon Prime, AppleTV, Roku, Vudu, and other VOD platforms. Rental & DVD links here!
