The Queen of Pandora’s Box Film Premiere

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Whitney Winter

Mike speaks during Q&A session alongside the rest of the cast and crew members of The Queen of Pandora’s Box.

Hailey Walsh, News Writer

Mike White premiered his new LGBTQ friendly short film on January 13th at The Majestic Theater. This film, titled “The Queen of Pandora’s Box,” follows a group of drag queens getting ready for a show while drama and serious topics arise.
White created “The Queen of Pandora’s Box” to help spread awareness of the historical struggles of the gay community. He knew he wanted the film to be really representative as it was written about LGBTQ members.
“Midwest and rural students don’t always get exposed to the themes that were is this film,” White said.
WSC student Stephanie Palma attended the premiere.
“”Pandora’s Box” and the Q&A after were amazing… the drag queens educated us a lot about their community,” Palma said.
White said that it seemed, “Really well received.”
As well as being well received, turnout was great. White was pleasantly surprised when 75 guests showed up.
“Turnout was great considering right now there’s so much COVID… as premiers go, it was larger than expected,” White said.
With such a successful premiere, one wouldn’t know that the entirety of “The Queen of Pandora’s Box” was shot with a faulty connector. White said all the footage came back bad, and it took six weeks to correct.
White said he spent, “Hours and hours and hours fixing every piece of footage.”
White wasn’t the only one putting hours into his films. White gives credit to Marc Fustfus for being the executive producer in all of his film projects, and to Shelby Hagerdon for cowriting “The Queen of Pandora’s Box” and starring in another one of his short films, “The Ghost in Her.”
For “The Queen of Pandora’s Box”, this is only the beginning. The film will be going on tour to LGBTQ events such as USD Pride and South Dakota Pride.

Photos by Whitney Winter

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  • Cast members of The Queen of Pandora’s Box on site for the premiere of the film. Left to right: Tia Pet, who played J’adore, Martina Shakers, who played Pandora, Chanelle Shakers, who played Scarlet, and Johnathan Cornish, who played Andrew.

  • Cast members of The Queen of Pandora’s Box on site for the premiere of the film. Left to right: Tia Pet, who played J’adore, Martina Shakers, who played Pandora, Chanelle Shakers, who played Scarlet, and Johnathan Cornish, who played Andrew.

  • Cast and crew members of The Queen of Pandora’s box pose on the red carpet before the premiere of the film.

  • Cast and crew members before the premiere of The Queen of Pandora’s Box.

  • Cast members of The Queen of Pandora’s Box on site for the premiere of the film. Left to right: Tia Pet, who played J’adore, Martina Shakers, who played Pandora, Chanelle Shakers, who played Scarlet, and Johnathan Cornish, who played Andrew.

  • Chanelle Shaker played Scarlet in The Queen of Pandora’s Box.

  • Chanelle Shaker played Scarlet in The Queen of Pandora’s Box.

  • Chanelle Shaker played Scarlet in The Queen of Pandora’s Box.

  • Martina Shakers played Pandora in The Queen of Pandora’s Box.

  • Martina Shakers played Pandora in The Queen of Pandora’s Box.

  • Martina Shakers played Pandora in The Queen of Pandora’s Box.

  • Left to right: Martina Shakers, played Pandora, Mike White, and Shelby Hagerdon. They all wrote The Queen of Pandora’s Box.

  • Mike White and Shelby Hagerdon, who produced and wrote The Queen of Pandora’s Box.

  • Mike White and Shelby Hagerdon, who produced and wrote The Queen of Pandora’s Box.

  • Mike White and Shelby Hagerdon, who produced and wrote The Queen of Pandora’s Box.

  • Left to right: Ally Boyd, Mike White, and Shelby Hagerdon. Together the three of them directed The Queen of Pandora’s Box.

  • Ally Boyd and Shelby Hagerdon on the red carpet before the premiere of The Queen of Pandora’s Box.

  • Mike White speaks to the audience after the premiere of The Queen of Pandora’s Box during a Q&A session hosted by Laura Spieler, the Editor in Chief of The Wayne Stater.

  • Chanelle Shakers, who played Scarlet in the film speaks during the Q&A session after the film premiered.

  • Cast and crew sit in the front of the movie theatre during the Q&A session.

  • Mike White speaking during the Q&A session.

  • Left to right: Mike White, Shelby Hagerdon, and Marc Fustos.

  • Left to right: Marc Fustos, Ally Body, and Tia Pet.

  • Cast and crew of The Queen of Pandora’s Box laugh during the Q&A session.

  • Mike White and Shelby Hagerdon, producers, directors, and writers of The Queen of Pandora’s Box, speak about the production of the film during the Q&A session.

  • Martina Shakers, Pandora in the film, speaks during the Q&A session after the premiere of The Queen of Pandora’s Box.

  • Chanelle Shakers speaks during Q&A session after film premiere.

  • Laura Spieler, Editor in Chief of The Wayne Stater, hosts the Q&A session after the premiere of The Queen of Pandora’s Box.

  • Shelby Hagerdon speaks about the behind the scenes of the making of the film, along side Mike White, left of Hagerdon, Marc Fustos, right of Hagerdon, and Ally Body, far right of Hagerdon.

  • Mike speaks during Q&A session alongside the rest of the cast and crew members of The Queen of Pandora’s Box.

  • Writers of The Queen of Pandora’s Box, left to right: Martina Shakers, Mike White, and Shelby Hagerdon.

  • Left to right: Marc Fustos, executive director, White White, producer, director, and writer, and Shelby, producer, director, and writer.

  • Crew members of The Queen of Pandora’s Box on the red carpet before the premiere of the film.

  • Laura Spieler, Editor in Chief of The Wayne Stater, hosts the Q&A session after the premiere of The Queen of Pandora’s Box. Alongside her is Mike White and Shelby Hagerdon.

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