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TUCKED

TUCKED follows a drag performer navigating the brutal intersection of performance, identity, and economic survival. Set against the underground drag scene of Oakland, the film blurs the line between horror and reality — asking who gets to survive, and at what price.
Drag is labor. It is creative, emotional, and physical work that is chronically undervalued. TUCKED sits in the discomfort of that tension, using horror as its lens because the fear is already real. The monsters are economic. The dread is structural.
A love letter to the Bay Area's drag community and a reckoning with what we ask artists to sacrifice.

  • MeMe Cherry
    Director
  • MeMe Cherry
    Writer
  • MeMe Cherry
    Producer
  • Mama Celeste
    Producer
  • Sailor Galaviz
    Producer
  • Mudd the Two Spirit
    Producer
  • Évian
    Key Cast
  • Barbie Bloodgloss
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    9 minutes 40 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 16, 2026
  • Production Budget:
    8,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Marina Del Rey Festival
    Beverly Hills
    United States
Director Biography - MeMe Cherry

MeMeCherry (Mariana) is a Bay Area-based filmmaker, producer, podcast host & photographer whose work centers community and joy. TUCKED is her debut short film and the first film production from MeMeCherry Productions, the creative company she founded to develop original work rooted in the Bay Area's underground arts scene.

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Director Statement

TUCKED began as a question I couldn't stop asking: what happens to the performer when the audience goes home?

Drag is labor. It is creative, emotional, and physical work — and like so much labor in this country, it is chronically undervalued.

I wanted to make a film that sits in the discomfort of that tension. Horror felt like the right genre because the fear is already real. The monsters are economic. The dread is structural. The film is a love letter to the Bay Area's drag community and a reckoning with what we ask artists to sacrifice.

My hope is that audiences leave unsettled — by forcing them to look inward and ask: "What is my role in the capitalist machine that requires artists to sometimes go mad to survive?"

The resulting terror should be the recognition of their own complicity in "what we've normalized in the light", making the true "monsters" the economic and structural dread that dictate the price of the drag performer's identity and survival.