Tramps, Troublemakers, and Trailblazers: Trans Filmmakers

Tramps, Troublemakers, and Trailblazers: Trans Filmmakers

11 Episodes

Boundary-breaking filmmakers reclaim their stories with these richly varied looks at the trans experience. Long misrepresented on-screen through disreputable and actively harmful images, trans characters have come into focus thanks to a pioneering generation of trans directors determined to capture their lives with nuance and hard-won insight. Curated by Caden Mark Gardner and Willow Catelyn Maclay, authors of the book “Corpses, Fools, and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema,” these revealing counterhistories of cultural trailblazers (RUPERT REMEMBERS, NO ORDINARY MAN), intersectional portraits of everyday survival (DRUNKTOWN’S FINEST, LINGUA FRANCA), and bold explorations of identity in the online age (WE’RE ALL GOING TO THE WORLD’S FAIR, CASTRATION MOVIE ANTHOLOGY I. TRAPS) show that there is no single, common trans film image but rather a kaleidoscope of voices, forms, and lived realities.

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Tramps, Troublemakers, and Trailblazers: Trans Filmmakers

11 Episodes

  • We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
    1:25:56
    We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
    Episode 1

    We’re All Going to the World’s Fair

    Episode 1

    Directed by Jane Schoenbrun • 2021 • United States
    Starring Anna Cobb, Michael J. Rogers, May Leitz

    “I want to go to the World’s Fair.” Isolated teen Casey (Anna Cobb) repeats this cryptic mantra three times into the eerie glow of her laptop screen, initiating herself into the viral World’s Fair...

  • Castration Movie Anthology i. Traps
    4:34:42
    Castration Movie Anthology i. Traps
    Episode 2

    Castration Movie Anthology i. Traps

    Episode 2

    Directed by Louise Weard • 2024 • Canada
    Starring Louise Weard, Aoife Josie Clements, Magda Baker

    CASTRATION MOVIE is a fearlessly raw, darkly comic multipart postmodern epic by Louise Weard. ANTHOLOGY I. TRAPS contains two chapters. In the first, INCEL SUPERMAN, a production assistant named Tur...

  • Lingua Franca
    1:34:24
    Lingua Franca
    Episode 3

    Lingua Franca

    Episode 3

    Directed by Isabel Sandoval • 2019 • Philippines, United States
    Starring Isabel Sandoval, Lynn Cohen, Eamon Farren

    This poignant human drama from acclaimed writer-director-star Isabel Sandoval follows Olivia (Sandoval), an undocumented Filipina trans woman, after she has secured a job as a live-...

  • No Ordinary Man
    1:24:25
    No Ordinary Man
    Episode 4

    No Ordinary Man

    Episode 4

    Directed by Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt • 2020 • Canada
    Starring Billy Tipton, Susan Stryker, Kate Bornstein

    American jazz musician Billy Tipton developed a reputable touring and recording career in the mid-twentieth century, along with his band the Billy Tipton Trio. After his death in the...

  • Dog Movie
    56:17
    Dog Movie
    Episode 5

    Dog Movie

    Episode 5

    Directed by Henry Hanson • 2023 • United States
    Starring Jessi Gaston, Marten Katze, Milo Talwani

    A passive-aggressive tenderqueer couple (Marten Katze and Jessi Gaston) send their household into a quiet tailspin when they adopt an elderly dog who shares the same name as the unemployed couch sur...

  • Maggots and Men
    54:45
    Maggots and Men
    Episode 6

    Maggots and Men

    Episode 6

    Directed by Cary Cronenwett • 2009 • United States
    Starring Stormy Henry Knight, Travis Clough, Scout Festa

    This experimental historical narrative set in a mythologized version of revolutionary Russia reimagines the story of the 1921 uprising of the Kronstadt sailors and features the largest cas...

  • So Pretty
    1:23:50
    So Pretty
    Episode 7

    So Pretty

    Episode 7

    Directed by Jessica Dunn Rovinelli • 2019 • United States, France
    Starring Edem Dela-Seshie, Thomas Love, Rachika S

    This radical act of meta-adaptation transposes an unfinished novel by gay German writer Ronald M. Schernikau from 1980s West Berlin to 2018 Brooklyn. Centered on the intertwining l...

  • Gender Troublemakers
    26:33
    Gender Troublemakers
    Episode 8

    Gender Troublemakers

    Episode 8

    Directed by Mirha-Soleil Ross and Xanthra Phillippa Mackay • 1993 • Canada
    Starring Mirha-Soleil Ross, Xanthra Phillippa Mackay

    What happens when two Transdykes get sick of non-transsexuals’ uninformed representation of their sexualities and their lives? They grab their 8 mm home-video camera, t...

  • Rupert Remembers
    23:54
    Rupert Remembers
    Episode 9

    Rupert Remembers

    Episode 9

    Directed by Xanthra Phillippa Mackay • 2000 • Canada

    Trans elder Rupert Raj reflects on his personal memories of trans spaces and activism in the Toronto of the 1970s and ’80s.

  • Drunktown’s Finest
    1:32:42
    Drunktown’s Finest
    Episode 10

    Drunktown’s Finest

    Episode 10

    Directed by Sydney Freeland • 2014 • United States
    Starring Jeremiah Bitsui, Carmen Moore, Morningstar Angeline

    The feature debut from Sydney Freeland is a refreshingly complex, insightful portrayal of the contemporary Native American experience from three different perspectives. Adopted by whit...

  • Queens of Drama
    1:55:42
    Queens of Drama
    Episode 11

    Queens of Drama

    Episode 11

    Directed by Alexis Langlois • 2024 • France, Belgium
    Starring Louiza Aura, Gio Ventura, Alma Jodorowsky

    An outrageous, glittercore lesbian musical satire inspired by the pop frenzy of the early 2000s, QUEENS OF DRAMA charts the rise and fall of new star Mimi Madamour (Louiza Aura) and her turbul...

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