Transcript edited for length and clarity.
Clay Wallace, WUKY
Good morning! You're listening to 91.3 WUKY, your Lexington NPR station. I'm Clay Wallace, and today I'm speaking with Nik Lee about the premiere of her new film, Queer Jobs. Thank you for chatting with me today, Nik.
Nik Lee, Documentarian
No problem.
Clay
So, I know you from Moorhead State University. We both majored in the Convergent Media program there; we both graduated in 2023. In the time since, you have returned to your hometown of Whitesburg. You have begun producing documentaries, and you've also worked here with Appalshop, which you've been doing for two years now.
The most recent film that you've produced is Queer Jobs, which looks at queer people in rural Appalachia who are taking on different roles, different positions to survive. What can you tell me about what making this film was like for you?
Nik
It was pretty difficult. I had a one-man crew. It was just me - and I did have some help with the drone because, oh my God, I don't know how to fly a drone. But it was really difficult because I had a lot of hopes for the project and a lot of big ideas. It meant a lot to me, I think more than my other projects have, so it was difficult to kind of picture and map out.
Clay
Your film follows two subjects, two queer people living in Appalachia and the jobs that they do. What can you tell me about what you learned from them?
Nik
I learned that every queer person has a dream. Every person has a dream. I think that everyone's dream is different and everyone's sense of home is different. Home doesn't always mean where you were born or where you grew up. Home can be in a different place, and home can be the dream that you want to get to.
A lot of people think that queer people in red states should leave and go to a blue state. And one of the people in my film, Samantha, she says that that is a very privileged idea. We can't all afford to pack up and leave, you know. Not all of us want to.
Clay
Something that I've seen a lot as we've had such a crazy economy these past couple of years - people point as "the economy" as its own issue, separate from other issues. We see the polls where people say "My highest concern is the economy." Sometimes, this feels like it is separate in these conversations from queer life or even from rural life. These are often things that we don't talk about in the same breath.
What was it like to connect queer life to the economy and to rural life and tell a story that touches on all of those things?
Nik
Somebody told me that it was a non-story, queer people working odd jobs; you know, regular people work odd jobs too! But I think there's a level of difficulty for queer people, especially queer people that don't present as cishet - or cisgender, heterosexual - I think there's a level of difficulty there, especially in this economy you're trying to just work to survive month to month. I'm still working month to month - I don't have any savings or anything and I think that's the case for a lot of people now.
But, yeah. I think there's a different level of difficulty for a variety of reasons, queer people working jobs in this economy. I do think there's a story there, or else I wouldn't have pursued it.
Clay
So in this story, we do talk a lot about "odd jobs." How do you define what an odd job is?
Nik
I did ask each participant what they thought an odd job was, but I think of it as a job outside of what is in the norm of the economy. Here: service jobs, the coal industry - and healthcare is becoming kind of the replacement for the coal industry, in my opinion, here. So, I tend to look for people that didn't work in the healthcare industry and didn't work in the coal industry for this film. I do plan to pursue maybe a second film or a series of queer jobs but, for this particular film, I wanted to focus on service or minimum wage jobs in Appalachia.
Clay
You are a genderqueer person who has returned to your hometown here in Whitesburg after you graduated from Morehead State. How does that relate to the story that you were trying to tell here? Your experience with jobs, your experience of home?
Nik
When I was growing up here, before I came out, I had this idea that I would have to leave home to be openly queer and to live life how I wanted to live. But as I grew up, I started to see more queer people in my community just living their lives and not caring what people thought, and I think this place is more welcoming than people give it credit. I think that me wanting to stay here would also encourage younger queer people to also stay here, because that was the case for me.
Clay
Did you learn anything that you didn't already know in the process of creating this film?
Nik
I learned new perspectives of what it's like - particularly, from Samantha - what it's like to work an open-facing very public job and then also living authentically as yourself and how much strength that takes. I was really inspired by both of the people in my film, and Samantha...The difficulties that she's went through and all the criticism she faces on a daily basis - I found a new perspective with that and I look up to her a lot.
She will be coming to the screening and she was like "I'm gonna make sure to wear my little nameplate that has the rainbows on it" and I teared up. She just is not afraid to live how she wants to live.
Clay
Is there a particular scene or moment in the film that struck you as really powerful or interesting?
Nik
Yeah. There's this part where Samantha is like, "Trans people make up 99% of the news cycle," And she's like, "I think I can get that to 100 if I really tried." That's my favorite part of the whole film.
Clay
Well, we'll do our part.
Nik
Yeah, we'll do our part. We'll try our best.
Clay
You're listening to a conversation with Nik Lee about their most recent film, Queer Jobs. Thank you for your time today, Nick.
Nik
Thank you.