Imagine if John Waters gave us a film with a little bit of To Wong Foo, a touch of Steel Magnolias, and the heart of Little Miss Sunshine all bundled as a loose adaptation of Cinderella. Pageant Material, a new film from Director Jonothon Mitchell (Adult Swim's Dear Jono), aims to be that film.

This coming-of-age southern dramedy tells the story of a seventeen year old boy named Rodney (Hart Morse) in rural Alabama who dreams of escaping his small southern hometown in pursuit of following in his mother’s footsteps as an award-winning pageant queen. Despite struggling to come to terms with his mother’s death and an onslaught of bullying and abuse from his step-father, step-brothers, and classmates, Rodney calls upon his best friend Monique (Marianne Johnson) and a unique cast of southern characters to help him take the crown in an upcoming teen drag pageant in Atlanta, GA. In addition to film leads Hart Morse and Marianne Johnson, the cast includes Catherine Dyer (Stranger Things), Evah Destruction, and 10-year-old drag artist and award-winning LGBTQ activist Desmond Napoles. Pageant Material aims to explore topics such as growing up gay, the struggle to create your own identity, and small-town life. While many films about LGBT identity set in the deep South focus solely on the opposition, the film hopes to take a different approach and focus on painting the South in a tolerant light, despite a lack of resources. Through its reflection of life as a gay teen in the south, the film hopes to provide real-world support to an organization known as The Dru Project. Half of the profits earned by the completed film will benefit their mission of providing support for education on issues facing LGBTQIA community members, assisting in the development of Gay-Straight Alliance programs in schools, providing support and consultation for parents of LGBTQIA youth, and advocating for greater access to mental health services, and develop future leaders in the LGBTQIA community. For more information, please visit the official site: http://pageantmaterialfilm.com