Pioneers of Queer Cinema Shorts

Spanning more than 45 years of LGBTQ+ history on film, this program of shorts includes three films by and about transgender people. Trevor is Peggy Rajski’s story of a theater-loving teenage boy who faces bullying from his peers and parents for being gay. The film is notable because, during its filming, the creators learned that there was no nationwide crisis hotline for LGBTQ+ youth. In 1998, The Trevor Project was created as a response to this void, and it remains a vital resource as discrimination and hate crimes against young people continue. Produced several years before the Stonewall uprisings, Behind Every Good Man is Nikolai Ursin’s intimate portrait of the daily life an African American transgender woman (although this descriptor was not commonplace at the time).

Created by filmmaker-activist Pat Rocco, Changes is an earnest and forthright interview with transgender subject Jimmy Michaels as they claim heteronormative spaces around Los Angeles for their own queer landscape. Created by trans woman artist and activist Zackary Drucker (producer of the series This is Me and consultant on the Amazon series Transparent), At Least You Know You Exist is a collaboration with LGBTQ+ elder and drag queen Flawless Sabrina about legacies of queerness and finding role models.

See the complete Pioneers of Queer Cinema lineup.

IMAGE CAPTION
Left to right: At Least You Know You Exist, courtesy of Zackary Drucker; Behind Every Good Man, courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive; Trevor, courtesy of Peggy Rajski.