Being BeBe

Being BeBe (2021) was directed by Emily Branham. It's a documentary about Nea Marshall Kudi, whose professional name is BeBe Zahara Benet.

BeBe is a brilliant drag queen performer. She was the first winner of RuPaul's Drag Race. Unfortunately, in this context, she's from Cameroon, where drag queens are sentenced to five years in prison for performing.

She now lives in Minneapolis, where she performs frequently. However, she is so talented and ambitious that she produces drag queen entertainments in other cities. Despite her talent, she still faces economic challenges every day. (It's great to win RuPaul's Drag Race, but it doesn't pay the bills.)

I enjoyed this documentary because you could learn about BeBe herself. She's a fascinating person, and a movie about her is worth seeing.

We saw Being BeBe virtually at ImageOut, Rochester's excellent LGBT Film Festival. The movie has a pretty good IMDb rating of 7.2. I thought it was better than that, and rated it 8.

Emily Branham and her amazing team have created an electrifying and delightful film that sparkles with all the flashy sequins, death defying stilettos, and mind-bending transformations one might expect from the drag world. But it also has something rare and precious, something we don't see enough of in the media and entertainment world these days: heart.

This beautiful chronicle takes us beyond the spotlight, the curtain, the glam, the lashes and hair, into a tight shot of the humanity at the epicenter of it all. A deep dive into the quest of an artist: the sweat, the determination, the mastery, the heartbreak, the triumph. The continuing fight of the soul to find its voice in a world where so many voices are either ignored or silenced.

An important story that masterfully teaches as it entertains, Being Bebe reminds us that beneath our many faces and masks we all share the same beating heart. An absolute delight that will linger in your consciousness long after the closing credits.