In theaters since Wednesday, “Three nights a week” tells the love at first sight between a photographer and a drag queen.
Three nights a week by Florent Gouëlou
With Pablo Pauly, Romain Eck, Hafsia Herzi
What is it about ? Baptiste, 29, is in a relationship with Samia, when he meets Cookie Kunty, a young drag queen from the Parisian nightlife. Driven by the idea of a photo project with her, he immerses himself in a universe he knows nothing about, and discovers Quentin, the young man behind the drag queen.
Director and drag queen
Distribution Pyramid
It was during his studies at La Fémis that Florent Gouëlou discovered the drag queen Cookie Kunty on stage. He was then writing his graduation film, the short film Un homme mon fils, a road movie on male representations and the cultural gaps between a father and his son.
He had planned to play it with his father before finally writing himself a drag queen character, then becoming one in life. Florent Gouëlou thus becomes Javel Habibi la nuit, a sunny and committed drag queen, who regularly performs on the stage of the Flèche d’Or in Paris.
CookieKunty
Distribution Pyramid
Cookie Kunty is not a character created for the film but a real drag queen who performs everywhere in France. After his short film Un homme mon fils, director Florent Gouëlou continued to explore the world of drag, each time offering a role to Cookie Kunty.
In Beauty Boys, she played a sort of initiating godmother, while in First Love, she was staged in a love situation. Three nights a week aims to focus on the life of the young man behind the drag queen. The director films there for the first time Romain Eck (Cookie) in “civilian”.
A romance in the world of drag
Yukunkun Productions
Three nights a week approaches the world of drag from the angle of a love story. “It seemed to me that the best way to invite the spectator to discover this world would be to do so through a loving character with whom he could identify. Baptiste immerses himself in the world of drag moved by his desire, and his wonder for Cookie”explains the director.
It was also a question of showing the place occupied by drag in Quentin’s life, at the risk of threatening his relationship with Baptiste: “Cookie allows the encounter between the two boys, but also ends up preventing it. It was important for me that what stood in the way for Baptiste was not the fact that Quentin was a man. too much room in their respective lives to allow their relationship.”
real drag queens
Distribution Pyramid
Florent Gouëlou entrusted the roles of drag queens to real queens, who did their own makeup and brought their personal touch to their looks on set. “Whether for ethical reasons or for purely artistic questions, it seemed essential to my producer Nelson Ghrenasia and it is up to me to entrust these roles to those first concerned. It is an issue of representations; it seemed important to me that the drag community could participate in telling its own stories”says the director.
It’s not just limited to casting, some members of the technical team are also part of the drag community. A total of 40 artists from the French drag scene took part in the film. Gouëlou himself has reserved a cameo in drag, in the guise of his alter ego Javel Habibi, who encourages Baptiste to pursue the photo during the semi-final.
Show an invisible Paris
Distribution Pyramid
The director wanted to escape the cliché of the Parisian postcard by recreating an invisible Paris. In particular, he wanted to show disadvantaged populations who attend screenings: “The sex workers of Belleville, the transgender women of Place Clichy, the Emergencies of Lariboisière at night. Over the course of a year, I had the opportunity to film the screenings organized by the Aremedia association, for my documentary Hors les murs It was a way to honor them […]”.
The film is also dedicated “To caregivers, to those who work for living together, and to artists of the drag scene”.