6 days ago2 min read

"Darcelle: On Life, Love and Dying" Filmmaker: Sarah Shively

A versatile creative with skills in acting, writing, directing and producing

With crossover skills from stage acting to filmmaking, Sarah Shively is a versatile creative with skills in writing, directing and producing. After completing a Masters of Arts in Multimedia Journalism at University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication Spring 2022, Shively launched The Story Project of Measure 110. This engaged journalism project offers balance and accuracy largely missing from the hyped media coverage of this first-in-the-nation ballot measure addressing the addiction crisis. The first film began its festival run in 2024 and the second film is in post production.

DARCELLE: ON LIFE, LOVE, AND DYING, was a joint student production Shively developed with Christena Dowsett about Oregon’s treasured senior drag queen and business owner, Darcelle XV. Darcelle’s passing in 2023 spurred interest in the film which has screened at more than a dozen festivals and received over 16k views via the Oregonian’s YouTube posting.

THE STORY PROJECT OF MEASURE 110, PART ONE: PEERS, premiered via the 2024 Seattle Film Festival’s online platform. Also screening at the festival was DARCELLE. PEERS won Best Director of a Documentary Short Film, 2024 and DARCELLE won Best LGBTQ Documentary Short Film.

PEERS has since won an Honorable Mention from the International Social Change Film Festival and was a finalist at the Oregon Documentary Film Festival. It screened at Klamath Independent Film Festival in September and the City of Angels Women’s Film Festival and Friday Harbor Documentary Film Festival in October.

Her capstone project, MOVING INTO ADULTHOOD, won five festival awards including Best Director of a Documentary Short Film also from the Seattle Film Festival in 2022. Another student project, MUGSHOTS IN THE DIGITAL AGE, won Best Northern Student Documentary Film from the 2023 Klamath Independent Film Festival.

Shively was a 2005 MacDowell Colony Fellow for screenwriting. She wrote, directed and produced her first short film, CONTEMPLATING EMILY in 2003 and 2004. The short narrative film premiered at Outfest in LA in 2006 and ended its festival run at The Marché du Cannes, Cannes Film Festival 2007.

Darcelle, at the age of 91, was the Guinness World Record holder for the oldest working drag queen. On stage, Darcelle was harolded as a prominent figure in the Portland, Oregon LGBTQ+ scene, but at home, Walter Cole was just like anyone else who loves, laughs, and cries. In this short film, friends and family reflect with Darcelle on a long and accomplished life as the end draws near. The film was completed two years before Darcelle died in spring 2023.

Interview with Sarah Shively