Film Screenings / Programs / Series
THE CINEMA OF GENDER TRANSGRESSION: TRANS FILM
September 20 – September 27
“The Cinema of Gender Transgression: Trans Film” is an extensive, ongoing series exploring the ways in which cinema has intersected with the experiences, struggles, and ideas of transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming lives and communities. Organized with the participation of a variety of guest curators, the series showcases contemporary films and videos that explore concepts related to gender transgression as well as films that have had historical resonance within and beyond these communities.
Transgender and gender-nonconforming issues hold a more prominent place in the national conversation today than ever before, though gender transgression and the experiences of these individuals have always existed. This series aims to call attention to those films that dared to question gender norms in periods when even to broach the topic was considered controversial, and to provide a platform for the contemporary socio-political concerns of trans filmmakers and artists challenging the gender binary today.
This chapter features a special appearance by Susan Stryker, award-winning author, editor of the massive, two-volume “Transgender Studies Reader,” and the filmmaker/historian behind CHRISTINE IN THE CUTTING ROOM, the cinematic and performative event that will launch the September installment. Among the other works featured this fall, TRANNY FAG follows Linn da Quebrada, an electrifying performer and Black trans woman, who offers a voice of resistance and reclamation to queer people of color from Brazil’s favelas. Challenging the genre of documentary, SWARM SEASON is a speculative, meditative, and entrancing film about human and animal survival in the probable age of space colonization; and I REMEMBER THE CROWS, filmed in a single all-night session, consists of an extended interview with the filmmaker’s friend and collaborator Julia Katharine, a Japanese-Brazilian trans actress and filmmaker.
“The Cinema of Gender Transgression” is curated in collaboration with Joey Carducci and D’Angelo Madsen Minax. Throughout the series, guest curators contribute programs as well; this time renowned writer and theorist Jack Halberstam will be joining us in person again to present and contextualize Robert Aldrich’s THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE. And we are thrilled to announce that Jules Rosskam will also return to present the long-awaited screening of his latest film, PATERNAL RITES, guest curated by award-winning author and activist Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore.
Special thanks to Rodrigo Carneiro (Carneiro Verde Filmes), Sandro Fiorin (FiGa Films), Jack Halberstam, Oliver Sage, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, and all the filmmakers.
Special support provided by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Support has also been provided by The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation.
