House Of Gloss follows Opal and Lana as they turn a flat, a wig, and a playlist into a home full of love and life.
BY ROISIN TEELING, IMAGE BY HOUSE OF GLOSS
What is home? Is it the place that raised you, or the place where you can finally exhale and be most yourself?
Mark Lyken’s 2024 documentary House of Gloss comes to True Story on 10 April. In a way, it raises these questions, but most importantly, it lives through its subjects, Opal and Lana.
It follows a young trans femme couple at the heart of Dundee’s queer community, Opal a drag performer and Lana a DJ. Their relationship allows queerness to exist without overexplaining it or sensationalising. Queer lives are so often framed through conflict or crisis, so there’s something striking about just watching them be.
At their home in Dundee, Opal and Lana share a flat that feels like four walls of love. Lana’s creativity saturates the space and art becomes both expression and armour for the pair, as a way to process the exhaustion of existing in a society that often misunderstands queer lives.
I found myself drawn most to the domestic scenes, revelling in the simplicity of washing dishes. Mundane gestures carry immense weight when both have experienced family rejection. Home for them emerges in a mutual care and there’s no sense of roles to perform or rules to follow.
This feels especially urgent. In December 2025, Girlguiding announced that trans girls must leave the organisation by 6 September 2026, following the UK Supreme Court ruling last year. The message it sends to trans young people is that belonging can be conditional, something granted and withdrawn by institutions. If traditional spaces like schools or even families can withhold acceptance for queer people, then home becomes something that must be made elsewhere.
There’s a moment in the film where this is made very clear. Opal is walking to a venue in full drag. The camera glides across reactions and it’s the emotional residue of choosing to express yourself in a world that watches, judges, and often condemns.
When Opal gets to the club, Lana is DJing and the atmosphere feels so different. The pulse of electronic music mirrors the racing heartbeat of being seen and then being othered. Sweat beads on skin and judgement seems to melt off with it.
Lyken adopts what he calls a “non-sensationalised” approach, deliberately resisting the demonisation of trans people so often perpetuated in media. Speaking at the Central Scotland Documentary Festival in 2024, he explained that conversations with Lana shaped the film’s ethos, in that it should offer a counter-narrative where trans people are simply existing.
Rather than arguing outright, House of Gloss is an enjoyable watch as it uses proximity, bringing you into a living room, onto a dancefloor, and close enough to feel like you’re simply there with them.
House of Gloss is on True Story now.
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