By Kailey Aiken
TAMPA, Fla. –– Drag queens tower over the buzzing crowd in platform heels, sporting bright colors, bold patterns, and sparkling jewels. With their bright lipstick, razor-sharp eyeliner, and dramatic arching brows, they strut through the club, gracing the stage with performances ranging from upbeat, energetic dances to sappy Whitney Houston ballads.
This was the scene two years ago at the Drag2Talle fundraiser at City Side Lounge, an LGBTQ+ bar in South Tampa. The event raised money to help drag performers travel to Tallahassee, where they protested legislation threatening their livelihoods.
One of the hundreds of supporters navigating the jam-packed bar was filmmaker, Samantha Luque, armed with her camera. The idea for her docuseries, Beyond Borders, had just been born.
Moved by the drag queens’ impassioned speeches about the struggles their community was facing, Luque felt compelled to tell their story. She was struck by their devotion and energy.
“I kept thinking to myself, someone has to hear this,” said Luque. “Someone needs to understand. These are true stories that are happening. These are people, everyday people, whose lives are getting erased in front of them.”
Luque, a Tampa-based filmmaker, uses filmmaking and storytelling to amplify underrepresented voices both on-screen and behind the camera. Her work is rooted in her commitment to diversity, inclusion, and authenticity.
Luque’s journey as a filmmaker began long before Beyond Borders. As a little girl, she fell in love with film. She was drawn to TV shows like I Love Lucy and inspired by legends in the industry like actress Rita Moreno and comedy star Tina Fey.
“I wanted to create content that could make people laugh, cry, be angry, or simply raise awareness,” said Luque.
Despite her family’s lack of support for a career in the entertainment industry, Luque pursued it, driven by her love for the job.
She landed her first job as a filmmaker to shoot a documentary about Bill Ulrich, an older man who decided to change the trajectory of his life after witnessing a double rainbow. The film portrayed his transformation from a money-driven man to someone dedicated to giving back. He began pursuing charity work and founded a nonprofit aiming to make the world a better place.
The documentary, Rainbowland, was shown at over 60 film festivals. It began to shape the sort of narratives Luque would continue to deliver: human and emotion-based.
Luque forged ahead in the filmmaking industry but found the entertainment world cold and unwelcoming. The absence of women and minorities in production roles was impossible to ignore, and she grew tired of jumping through endless hoops just to catch the attention of major companies.
Instead of trying to fit the mold of big production companies, Luque built her own: SLlama Productions. As her own boss, Luque chose the stories she wanted to tell and the people she wanted to work with. She wouldn’t have to sacrifice her values and could give a platform to people with similar backgrounds as herself.
With creative control finally in her hands, Luque undertook one of SLlama Productions’ largest projects, Beyond Borders. Through this series, she set out to tell the stories of transgender and drag queen communities in Florida, highlighting the real-world impact of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
“All these different legislations that are getting passed are affecting real people,” said Luque. “When you can put a face to the problem, then it becomes more humane.”
The five-episode docuseries spotlights different LGBTQ+ individuals, each sharing their unique story through emotional interviews and powerful footage.
“The interviews were heavy,” said Luque. “So it was really important for me to connect with [the people in the docuseries] on a deep, personal level.”
Each interview lasted hours before editing, demanding a great deal of vulnerability and trust in Luque to deliver their stories authentically. She was determined for the series to shed light on the hardships this community faced and raise awareness about the issues at hand.
And it did help. After releasing Beyond Borders, Luque received DMs, phone calls, and in-person “thank you’s” from those moved by the docuseries.
“One man emailed me all the way from Colombia, and he literally poured his heart out,” said Luque.
He explained that after watching the series, he felt he could better understand his trans son and felt a stronger connection with him. He realized that he wasn’t alone, that there was this whole community that he could relate to.
“If I could affect one person like that, that’s my whole thing, just one person — that’s everything to me,” said Luque.
Since releasing Beyond Borders in the spring of 2024, she has continued to focus on creating meaningful, human-centered stories that are close to her heart.
Currently, she is working on a documentary that portrays Alzheimer’s disease in a more lighthearted way. Having experienced her own grandmother’s battle with the disease, she hopes to capture a grandparent-grandchild relationship that isn’t defined by solely sadness and loss.
“Of course [Alzheimer’s] impacted our relationship … but it’s not all bad,” Luque said of her relationship with her grandmother.
She recounted visiting her grandmother once while wearing ripped jeans. Her grandmother, concerned about the holes, chased her around with a sewing kit trying to fix them up for her, making her laugh.
“Let’s bring awareness to the disease,” she said. “Let’s find a way to prevent it. Why not do that through film?”
As SLlama Productions continues to grow, Luque wants to continue pushing boundaries and forming connections with audiences through her films. Her mission hasn’t wavered since she first picked up her camera: to support minority groups and create content that she’s passionate about. While the industry is slowly diversifying, Luque believes it’s still not enough. In her seven years of filmmaking, she has only had the chance to work with two women in production.
“It still needs more of a push,” Luque said. “Not just people on the screen, but also behind the scenes.”
Luque wants to continue to bring in more people of diverse backgrounds into every part of the filmmaking process.
For Luque, it all comes back to translating important stories onto the screen.
“Filmmaking is huge because I’m a storyteller at the end of the day,” said Luque. “So if I’m able to understand who you are and how we can relay it to an audience … I want to help you tell your story.”
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Photo courtesy of SLlama Productions.