In 2017, photographer Laura Patricia Alvarez returned to their hometown of Monterrey, Mexico and started working on the Imperio de llusiones (Illusions Empire) photography series. Portraying Monterrey’s drag and LGBTQIA+ communities has allowed them to deal with personal issues related to the construction of their own identity while asking new questions about the dynamics that shape a collective queer identity. In 2016, Brazilian historian Isabel Machado moved to Monterrey. Two years later she started an oral history project to record the life stories of drag and travesti artists. They knew of each other’s works but only met officially (virtually) in January 2020, when Isabel was living in the US. Their collaboration, “Co-documenting an Illusions Empire,” started as an (unsuccessful) grant application. For this video, shot and directed by Laura in 2020 during the COVID pandemic, they selected audio excerpts of the oral history interviews conducted with the artists out of drag and invited the queens to “lip-synch their lives.” It was revisited in 2024 and was screened publicly for the first time at Reel Out Charlotte. It features some of Monterrey’s most iconic performers: Mama Bree - @soymamabree, Paty Piñata - @patypinata, Eia Noel - @eianoel, Lilith Bardo - @lilith_bardo, and Silvana Proietti - @ silvanathewitch.

A short documentary that uses actor/author/artist/creator/chef Eugene Walter's own radio broadcasts as narration, and takes a peek at the simple ingredients that make up the Gulf Coast and its signature cuisine, gumbo. The film shows how their staggered repetition builds something wholly unique and intricately beautiful. Directed by Isabel Machado and Gideon Carson Kennedy Edited by Marcus Rosentrater Music by Scott Joplin Graphics, Music and Color Grading by Daniel WIldberger