Bebe Zahara Benet. Tyra Sanchez. It’s fair to say that because you win RuPaul’s Drag Race it does not mean you go on to have world fame. Well, Bianca Del Rio is not content with simply going on tour with the other queens. No ma’am, she is making own movie, entitled Hurricane Bianca no less. We spoke to director Matt Kugelman to find out more.

Matt, tell us about yourself.
I’m a midwestern transplant living in Manhattan. I moved to New York a week after finishing film school in Chicago to work in Michael Moore’s office during Fahrenheit 9/11. From there I bounced around and wound up working as a video editor for CBS News while writing Hurricane Bianca in between news updates!

Ah, yes. Hurricane Bianca. What’s it all about?
I like to call it a drag queen revenge comedy! It’s about a New York schoolteacher who moves to a small Texas town, is fired for being gay, and returns in disguise as a woman to get revenge on everyone that was so nasty to him. It’s a little Tootsie and a little Revenge of the Nerds. Or Mrs. Doubtfire for the Jackass generation! I was inspired by, and wrote it specifically for the brilliant Roy Haylock (Bianca Del Rio) to play the lead… and then we were blessed to have some of the other amazing cast members like Rachel Dratch, Alan Cumming, Margaret Cho and RuPaul as well as drag race favorites Willam and Shangela to join us for the ride!

How long has the film been in the making?
I had the idea for a really long time and we started crowdfunding to make it happen in 2013. We raised a pretty solid amount of money, although it was nowhere near what we needed. Then Roy decided to go on Drag Race, so we put the film on hold for a minute while he disappeared and filmed season six. As soon as they put the crown on his head, we were ready with a second fundraising campaign that raised over three times as much as the first one did!

You’re very good friends with Bianca. Did making a film together test your relationship?
Not really… I think that we trust each other quite a bit. Although she did almost kill me once. There’s a scene where Bianca falls into a giant puddle of mud near a lake. When we scouted the location during pre-production, we found a spot that seemed like it was going to work great! But three weeks later, we show up with Bianca and the crew and it smelled really funky… like a rotten Porta-potty. The sun was going down quickly so we only had minutes to get the shot and Bianca looked at me and quietly said ‘What do I have to do?’ So I pointed to the mud and said we needed her to lay down. The smell made her hesitant, but we got the shot and quickly got her out of there so she could shower. When she came back for the next scene she yelled ‘I’m going to MURDER YOU! They told me why it smelled so bad. That wasn’t mud…I was laying in DUCK SHIT!’

What made you want to get into filmmaking?
I always thought there was something magical and exciting about making movies. I used to sneak onto film sets whenever something came to Chicago. My grandfather was a fire chief, so in middle school, I would put on a fire jacket so that the security guards would leave me alone and I would just watch and observe! So after four generations of firefighters in my family, I broke tradition and went to film school!

Who are your influences?
Obviously I think Bianca is my number one muse. But besides her, I get a lot of inspiration from Tim Burton, Quentin Tarantino, John Waters and Angelica Huston movies. They are the gods that make up my filmmaking Mount Olympus!

It’s not easy pulling a creative project together from concept to completion. Looking back on the project, is there anything you would do differently?
I didn’t really have a grand master plan when I first started out, but looking back…I’m so happy with how it turned out, I don’t think I would really do anything differently. I was really careful with who I trusted with the project and we all took the production of this silly comedy very seriously! I mean in an ideal world, we’d have a little more time and a little more money, but I think part of the added pressure added some extra spontaneity!

Can we look forward to an out-takes reel?
Yes there’s a wonderful blooper reel on the DVD!

If you had any advice to give to budding filmmakers, what would it be?
Don’t make films that you think other people want to see. Make films that YOU want to see. Don’t listen to the naysayers. And never be afraid to ask for what you want. And be fun to work with!

Do you have any more projects coming up we should all know about?
I have a lot of ideas, but perhaps the most exciting right now is that we are planning a sequel! Hurricane Bianca 2: From Russia With Hate!

Finally, what’s your favourite Mariah Carey song?
Vision of Love. 90’s Mariah was my jam!

Hurricane Bianca is available On Demand and on DVD now.
www.hurricanebianca.com