The Story of "I Love You, AllWays"

New Orleans is one of the cabaret, burlesque and drag capitals of the world and at its center lies The AllWays Lounge, the queer and dear home for the city's community of performance artists. This place, like most other performance venues around the world, was forced to close indefinitely in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. With New Orleans still in hard lockdown, the club's staff and the colorful cast of drag queens and burlesque dancers show their resolve and creativity in keeping The AllWays Lounge from closing its doors for good.

Inspired by old-style burlesque & Vaudeville peep show booths, Zalia, the club's owner, dreams up The AllWays Lounge's Peep Show: a weekly show where AllWays performers get to work their magic safely behind the glass of one of the club’s windows for one or two patrons at a time. While The Peep Show keeps morale up among the AllWays staff and queer community of performers, it only amounts to “grocery money,” as Zalia puts it. With mounting debt to the club's landlord looming, the only thing that will keep the AllWays Lounge open is the ability to host live shows and performances again.

By the spring of 2021, the Covid-19 vaccines finally arrive in New Orleans and it feels like there is hope for the AllWays Lounge to fully reopen. By the summertime, live shows are finally happening again and everyone begins to feel cautiously optimistic that life will soon return to normal. But with the arrival of new variants of the coronavirus and the worst hurricane New Orleans has endured since Katrina, everyone at The AllWays Lounge begins to face the reality that their lives may never be "normal" again. 

Where We Are/What We Need

While most of the "documentary-style" footage has already been filmed over the past year, we still need funds to pay for beautiful, cinematic interview shoots with the main subjects of the film. We also need funds to cover post-production costs like an original score, sound design, color correction, artwork and more. Each of these tasks requires a specialist and we want to hire the best of the best. Your contributiions to these last few shoots and post-production elements are a necessity in making 'I Love You, AllWays' come to life! Check the Wishlist tab of this page to see a breakdown of the funds we are raising for this film. 

Artistic Statement:

In deciding to make this film the first thing that came to mind is doubt. I don’t think that’s uncommon for many filmmakers and artists in general, either. I knew "I Love You, AllWays" would be a film that couldn’t be told without mentioning the Covid-19 pandemic so I kept wondering: “Will the world need or want another film about Covid-19 once all of this is said and done? Will people want to be reminded of such a dark period in so many people’s lives?”

Once I began shooting however, doubt was replaced with hope, excitement, and that super special nameless feeling a documentary filmmaker gets when they know they have the opportunity to make a piece of art that is truly meaningful. In filming at The AllWays Lounge with its wonderful staff and the many other colorful characters that inhabit such a magical space—I realized this film isn’t about a pandemic at all. It’s a film that’s about what all good films are about: people. And the people in "I Love You, AllWays" are something special.

It goes without saying that New Orleans is one of the most vibrant and interesting cities in the world. With its drag queens, cabaret dancers, burlesque performers, The AllWays Lounge is a microcosm of that magic. And seeing this community grapple with the struggles of keeping that magic alive has been the greatest privilege of my life as an artist thus far. 

This pandemic is something everyone all over the world has struggled through in some from or another. So in “zooming in” on The AllWays Lounge I knew that what would unfold on screen would ultimately be something universally relatable for all who watch. Because when this film is finally finished I know it won’t serve as some reminder of a dark period in our lives, but as a monument of something we all persevered through and emerged from better—together.

Accountability: Why am I the person making this film? 

The AllWays Lounge was actually a significant part of my first feature documentary To Decadence With Love! This is how I became very well-acquainted with the space and the staff there. Zalia, the owner, even attended the world premiere of my first film at the New Orleans Film Festival and I have since grown to be part of the wonderful community of queer artists at The AllWays Lounge. I actually be marched in the 2023 Southern Decadence parade (first time in a parade, too) with Zalia and other AllWays Lounge staff—which was a full circle moment considering my first film featured Southern Decadence. 

Throughout 2020 and 2021 I also spent many afternoons and nights at The AllWays Lounge with various members of the New Orleans drag and burlesque communities filming their acts for them so they could profit from virtual/online drag shows and performances. I was and still am grateful I could use my work to do a small part in helping The AllWays Lounge and its community of performers get through such tough times. 

Lastly, I feel suited to tell this story and am very connected to it because in many ways it's a story about grief and loss of self expression. As an artist myself, I cannot imagine losing the ability to express myself through my filmmaking the way the performers in this film were inhibited from expressing themselves on stage. As Angie Z says in the film “my life is my art…without my art I don’t have anything.” It would be difficult for me to recall a statement that has ever resonated with me more. I admire the subjects of this film so immensely for what they have endured and believe their stories must be preserved through this film.

-Stuart Sox