What a Drag follows Selena Ho-Mez, a relative newcomer to Ottawa’s drag scene, as she makes the transformation from average college student to sexy showgirl. The short documentary, directed and produced by John Petti, also features the more established Krystal Caring, who offers her take on the realities of being a trans woman:
“Unfortunately, for transsexuals in this world it’s really hard in an everyday atmosphere, dealing with straight people, to move forward. Can you show up at a 9-to-5 office job every day? I don’t know if that’s always possible. I think sometimes you have to realize that some of these people, by circumstance, they’re accepted in the gay communities,” Caring says in What a Drag. “They may not believe they’re gay or feel they are gay, but they are accepted, so they kind of latch on to doing drag so they can be the woman they want to be. And some of them move forward and get the breast implants and take the hormones. For me, I look at that as you’re not a drag queen any longer. You’re now moving towards something more; you want to be something else.”