Short documentary “It’s Okay” looks at Drag Story Hour from the perspective of children – NBC Los Angeles

The new short documentary “It’s Okay” explores the experiences of two young brothers at a Drag Story Hour event in North Carolina, one of more than a dozen states that have considered restricting drag performances in front of minors in recent years.

“It’s Okay,” a collaboration between MSNBC and The New Yorker Documentary, follows Leo, 9, and Matteo, 4, as they perform “Shelita Says” — a version of “Simon Says” — with local drag performer Shelita Bonet Hoyle in Charlotte and watch her read “The Family Book.” The 11-minute documentary will premiere Sunday at 9:45 p.m. ET on MSNBC.

David France, the Oscar-nominated director of “How to Survive a Plague,” said he decided to take on the project after witnessing a protest outside a Drag Story Hour in Queens, New York, in late 2022.

“I was shocked by the vitriol and hatred and the presence of Proud Boys in uniform and declaring Nazis who were there to denounce drag queens, gays in general and Drag Story Hour as an organization of ‘groomers,’ as they call it, and ‘pedophiles,'” France told NBC News. “And it seemed shocking to me that people think that way.” France said that like many other protesters, he realized he had never been to a Drag Story Hour, a national program in which drag performers read children’s books to children, and then watched as states began to impose restrictions on drag. Two states, Montana and Tennessee, have banned drag performances in front of minors, although a federal judge blocked the law from taking effect in Montana last year. A federal appeals court allowed the Tennessee law to take effect last month, overturning a lower court ruling that declared it unconstitutional.

According to the Movement Advancement Project, a think tank for the LGBTQ movement, four other states have passed laws that could be used to restrict drag.

Supporters of the laws point to an increasing number of viral videos being shared on social media showing children performing drag, which they say are sexually explicit.

GLAAD, a national LGBTQ rights media organization, found that there were more than 160 protests and significant threats at drag events between early 2022 and April 2023, with some events targeted by armed protesters.

France said he felt the people left out of the national conversation about Drag Story Hour were the children who attended it. That’s why he wanted to chronicle a child’s experience at one of the events, and he knew tensions surrounding drag events were particularly high in North Carolina, where 10 drag events were the target of protests and threats, according to GLAAD’s report. That’s the second highest number in the country after Texas, which had 20 events.

“We were very keen to know what the children experienced, and we ignored everything else,” France said. “We didn’t want to interview them. We didn’t want to hear their analysis of what happened. We wanted to get close enough to them that we could experience their journey through the reading as they experienced it.”

France said the team behind “It’s Okay” built special camera mounts so they could film very low, and they spent a few days with Leo and Matteo’s family so they could get used to the camera. They also built a “mic vest” for Leo that recorded his heartbeat and breathing patterns, some of which can be heard in the film.

“We wanted to hear and feel his discomfort when he had it, his joy when he had it, his curiosity,” France said. “We really dug deep into his experience, and I think he showed us all of that, and he did it in a real, sincere way.”

France said his team initially thought it was just Leo’s experience, but then his little brother Matteo “reacted so clearly to the actress Shelita.”

“He was as excited as only kids can be,” France said. “He was blown away by this huge drag queen who came into the room with rhinestones, big glasses and a huge wig, and we knew immediately that we had to capture the reactions of both of them.”

France said they also recorded audio at 21 different locations in the room where Drag Story Hour took place because they wanted to capture more subtle sounds during the reading.

“It felt like a kind of sacred space, in part because it’s so controversial,” France said of making the film. “The storms around gender and gender identity and drag and queerness in general are still growing. I wanted to address that somehow, but not through counterarguments. I wanted to address it through this intimate journalism. If Leo had turned down the reading, that would have been our film. If his brother had been indifferent to the drag queen or the story, that would have been our film. In the end, I hope he has a kind of neutrality that can engage with those arguments in a productive way.”

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