Avant-Drag! review – queer artists light up the streets of Athens with joy and resistance

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Drag is a tool of self-expression and of protest in this kaleidoscopic portrait of the city’s vibrant underground art The queer defiance of Fil Ieropoulos’s kaleidoscopic documentary manifests not only through its subject, but also through its form. Centring on a group of drag performers and gender-nonconforming artists in Athens, this shape-shifting film celebrates a vibrant underground scene that thrives in a homophobic system, rife with state-sanctioned discrimination and violence. Introduced through an episodic structure, figures from the community light up the screen with their artistry and activism as they carve out a safe haven of their own. In each of the vignettes, we get a glimpse of both the joy and the peril of navigating the city as a queer person. Decked out in extravagant costumes and makeup inspired by Leigh Bowery, Kangela Tromokratisch struts in towering high heels, while her drag performances, with their vaudevillian feel, parody heteronormative ideals of motherhoo...
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Christopher Reeve’s kids on love, loss and his life-changing accident: ‘He celebrated every single thing we did’

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Twenty years after their father died, his children are ready to tell his extraordinary story – from playing Superman to protesting against Pinochet, transforming disability rights and being a beloved parent and friend

It’s eerie being in a room with the Reeve siblings. All three are dead ringers for their father, Christopher. Matthew, 44, resembles Reeve as Clark Kent. Alexandra, 40, shares his angular beauty. The youngest, Will, 32, looks like him as Superman. They are almost as tall as their 6ft 4in father: Will is 6ft 3in, Alexandra 6ft and Matthew 6ft 2in. As for their jobs, Matthew makes films, Alexandra is a legislation lawyer based in Washington DC and Will is a TV sports journalist. Their father was a sport-obsessed actor-turned-director who campaigned to change the law on a number of fronts, most notably regarding disabled people.

“Strong genes!” Alexandra says, smiling at the other two. It’s not just that, I say. Your careers seem to reflect your father’s. Another smile. “It’s so strange,” Alexandra says. “We think about it all the time. We have split his passions between the three of us.”

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