Behind the Lashes: Birmingham’s drag scene explored in new film

Filmmaker and videographer Nicola Prestage has created and released a short film, Behind the Lashes which explores Birmingham’s vivid drag scene. The film – which features interviews with some of the city’s best-known drag performers including Twiggy, Dahliah Rivers, and Divine Miss M – was commissioned by Core Theatre, Solihull to launch their film festival, Short Is Beautiful. The film was first shown on opening night of the festival and from today has now been released for wider viewing.

Nicola was approached by Core Theatre – who wanted to expand their showing of queer films and queer artists with a small budget, and asked to create anything she wanted for opening night. With a short turn-around to meet the deadline, Nicola knew that she wanted to focus on Birmingham’s drag scene because, as she explains to Scene magazine: “that’s where I know and love, and that’s where I’ve seen most of the drag performances myself growing up.”

“I absolutely knew I wanted to make films about my personal themes, which are love and acceptance.”

To find her interviewees, Nicola spoke to the people who know the scene best, including club and bar owners, in search of experienced drag performers with stories to tell. The film is “not only about drag queens and their lives but also about the discrimination that’s happening at the moment, as we all know that LGBTQ+ hate crime is rising.”

Nicola prides herself on building a rapport quickly in her film work and explains that she gives herself plenty of time during set-up to talk about herself, and share personal information that is close to her heart. By doing so, it “gives us an open space to be able to be honest with each other.”

“I also go into a lot of research about the person I’m filming so I’ll look at them on social media; I’ll see what makes them happy, what makes them sad, go into quite a lot of background before I interview them and then I’m just very polite with my questions.

“They’re all written down ready to go, and then because of my ADHD, my mind’s quite quick at finding links so I can go into details with more pertinent and deeper questions. I always start gently, talking about the kind of things that I know they want to talk about and then as the interview goes on and they trust me a little bit more, we then go into a bit more detail.

“It’s all about making them feel utterly relaxed and giving them an open safe space to speak.”

Nicola Prestage is a fully self-taught filmmaker who began Tiger Features – her production company – in 2011. She debuted working with SHOUT! festival, and during her career she has made commercial films for large brands as well as her main passion, LGBTQ+ films. She has also worked with the NHS on a film exploring homophobia that was used as training material. She has also produced short dramas and has recently been nominated for a Royal Television Society Award for her county lines film, Which Side of The Tracks.

“I absolutely knew I wanted to make films about my personal themes, which are love and acceptance,” Nicola explains to Scene magazine.

Behind the Lashes is “A short documentary that gives audiences an intimate look behind the lashes of a few of Birmingham’s most famous drag performers.” It is the first look at what Nicola Prestage hopes will become a full-length film that will delve even deeper into the lives of drag performers, share their stories, and explore the colourful diversity of Birmingham’s drag kings, queens, and things. Watch the short film online now.