Michelle Mama’s production company, GAY AGENDA, was born out of frustration. As a director and producer, Mama spent years observing how queer content would be watered down by third parties—stories edited, nuances missed, and the authenticity of queer voices stripped away.
“I was hearing stories about queer creators who were really, really frustrated having to deal with people who didn’t understand them…but they all felt really comfortable with me,” Mama says.
That’s when the lightbulb went off for her—why not launch a production company where queer creators will feel safe, their voices will be preserved, and their stories will be told in the most authentic way possible?
Mama launched GAY AGENDA in 2023, and now has a slate of queer-led and queer-centered projects in development. Her latest, Antidiva: The Carole Pope Confessions, has been screening in theatres across Canada this month, and is coming to CBC Gem on July 24.
Antidiva is a long-awaited portrait of Canada’s elusive rock icon and queer trailblazer, Carole Pope. In Toronto’s underground 70s scene, as the frontwoman of the band Rough Trade, Pope reshaped rock n’ roll, fearlessly singing about sex and sexuality, and shattering expectations of what a woman could be on stage.
“My first introduction to Carole Pope was MuchMusic, and the video image of Carole, which was mysterious and sexy and queer and wild,” Mama says.
But no one had made a Carole Pope documentary before. No one had gotten inside her head. So it was Mama’s job to dive deeper, beyond the rockstar image, and figure out who Pope really was. The result is a film that doesn’t gloss over the realities of being an artist, and a woman, of an older age—at nearly 80 years old, Pope is still travelling and playing gigs to make a living.
Pope and Mama have toured across Canada, celebrating Antidiva’s release with many sold-out crowds, even in smaller cities. Pope’s true impact as an unapologetically queer artist is immeasurable. Not only for fans—but for other artists as well. The doc features interviews with the likes of k.d. lang, Peaches, and Jann Arden, who were all moved by Pope’s artistry.
“I’m really thrilled to be a queer person who’s lived long enough to see queerness become popular and part of pop culture, but I also think it’s really important to know our history,” Mama says. “People like Carole, who were out and queer and loud about it in the 70s, really paved the way…for the people to do what they’re doing today, like the Chappell Roans and the Reneé Rapps of the world.”
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For a phase of her career, Mama was, in her words, “the guy they called to do the queer thing”—from executive producing Canada’s Drag Race Season 3 and Canada vs. the World to spotlighting several queer artists in her time as showrunner for the arts documentary series In The Making. But long before she found her passion for telling queer stories, she was answering phones at a production company, and simply couldn’t resist the pull of the industry.
“Like all immigrant kids or brown kids like myself, I was supposed to be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer,” Mama says. “And then I was seduced by film and television and media.” Naturally curious, and coming from a family of storytellers, she was drawn to unscripted content from the jump—and soon became wrapped up in the world of food and home renovation shows.
“Years went by where I was doing competitive food shows—I don’t even cook,” Mama says. “I learned a lot, and it was like bootcamp, but it didn’t necessarily align with my passions.”
Since following those passions, Mama has been involved in some of the most thoughtful, eye-opening unscripted queer projects to come out of Canada in recent years, including executive producing the documentary Summer Qamp, about a summer camp in rural Alberta for queer youth, and directing the trans makeover series Shine True, which was shot with an all-queer crew.
Fluid: Life Beyond the Binary, created by Kensington Communications in association with GAY AGENDA, is an episode of The Nature of Things hosted by nonbinary comedian Mae Martin. In a piece for CBC, Mama shared that she prioritized hiring a queer crew, writing “When queer subject matter is examined through a non-queer lens, it can feel at a remove […] whereas an insider perspective can provide more context, depth and nuance.” This is something she carries on at GAY AGENDA, through mentorship and a commitment to nurturing the next generation of queer talent.
Starting a company called GAY AGENDA in 2023 was bold. In 2026, Mama’s unapologetically queer mission is straight-up radical. At a time when queer lives and rights are under attack, it’s more important than ever to keep telling queer stories. Mama hopes that her production company can provide that opportunity for Canadian creators, even in the midst of the crisis in the U.S.
“What’s happening right now with our neighbours to the south and their reluctance to deal with queer content as a result of the administration, I actually think that’s an opportunity for Canadian producers,” Mama says. “What Canada does better than anybody else is queer, weird, and funny. If we can hit those notes over and over again and export it to the world, nobody does it better.”
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Another niche Mama is hoping to fill is one that is often forgotten—stories of queer elders, like Carole Pope. “The queer community does have an outsized fascination with youth and beauty, and I think a lot of that has to do with the trauma of the AIDS crisis,” she says. “I often feel like a lot of stories of our queer elders and older people who have lived through so much get lost.”
GAY AGENDA’s upcoming Queer Elders project, currently in post-production, turns the spotlight to five working-class queer and trans seniors from across North America, while the series Late to Love, currently in development, explores the awakening of queerness later in life.
Those are only two of the GAY AGENDA’s upcoming projects—other works in progress include a scripted series with Bobbi Summers called Off-Trackers (a wacky queer comedy set in the Y2K era), and a documentary about iconic fashion and music journalist Jeanne Beker.
While she admits it’s a challenging time to finance projects, Mama shows no signs of slowing down, sharing with us her dreams of going international, expanding to co-pros and scripted shows. GAY AGENDA is just getting started, and even in the face of unrelenting attacks on their community, is choosing to embrace the queer, the weird, and the funny.
Antidiva: The Carole Pope Confessions, directed by Michelle Mama, is streaming on CBC Gem July 24.
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