Lost Queens

Chile, 1996. Rodrigo is eighteen and performs as a drag queen at a nightclub. When police storm the club in a raid filmed by television cameras, he is among those arrested, and once he is released a single fear takes over: that his parents will catch the evening news and learn the truth before he can face them himself. Directed by Ignacio Juricic Merillán and known in Spanish as Locas perdidas, this 28-minute short draws on the police raids on Chilean drag clubs in the 1990s and stars Andrew Bargsted, Roxana Campos and Rodrigo Pérez. Following Rodrigo as he returns to a household busy with its own preparations, the film is an intimate, tense drama about shame, family and the cost of being seen before you are ready. Lost Queens was selected for the Cinéfondation competition at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Second Prize.