Archive Talks: Trans Cinema: Making Communities, Identities, and Worlds
Event box
Visit the UCLA Film & Television Archive website to learn more about upcoming screenings and events.
Free admission. No advance reservations. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis. The box office opens one hour before the event.
In person: Pre-screening talk by Laura Horak, author, Trans Cinema: Making Communities, Identities, and Worlds. Post-screening Q&A.
Archive Talks pairs leading historians and scholars with screenings of the moving image media that is the focus of their writing and research. Each program will begin with a special talk by the invited scholar that will introduce audiences to new insights, interpretations and contexts for the films and media being screened.
This screening will be preceded by a book signing of Trans Cinema: Making Communities, Identities, and Worlds with author Laura Horak beginning at 6 p.m. in the lobby.
The Archive first worked with archivist and scholar Laura Horak in 2022 when we presented a series of films unearthed by Horak and her collaborators, Maggie Hennefeld and Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi. Their archival project Cinema’s First Nasty Women celebrated the work of silent comedians who brought an anarchic brand of gender non-conformity to slapstick. Alongside that work, Horak is also the director of the Transgender Media Lab at Carleton University, which created the Transgender Media Portal(opens in a new tab), a database of trans creators, including links to where their work can be seen. Suffice it to say, increasing the visibility and access to the media she studies is an essential element of Horak’s ongoing research project. With her latest book, Trans Cinema: Making Communities, Identities, and Worlds, Horak dives deep into the history, practice and aesthetics of trans artists in the United States and Canada in the 21st century while positioning them within the larger history of trans media production and representation. The Archive is pleased to welcome Horak back to the Billy Wilder Theater for a brief talk about her work followed by a selection of works by trans artists and an on-stage conversation, with more special guests to be announced soon!
Part of the Archive’s Legacy Project Screening Series.
Support for the screening is provided by the Robert Gore Rifkind Foundation Queer Screening Endowment and The Andrew J. Kuehn Jr. Foundation.
Screening 1 of 10
A Thousand Cuts
Year: 2018
Country: Canada
Runtime: 18 min.
Digital. Color.
Director B. G-Osborne’s three-channel experimental film juxtaposes scenes of trans representation from popular film and television, exposing the emotions of popular trans representation — fascination, fear, sexualization, disgust.
DCP. Director: B. G-Osborne.
Screening 2 of 10
Behind Every Good Man
Year: 1967
Country: U.S.
Runtime: 9 min.
16mm. B&W.
A Black trans woman talks about what she wants from life as she shops, flirts and gets ready for a date in this groundbreaking UCLA student film.
Director: Nikolai Ursin.
Preservation funding provided by the National Film Preservation Foundation. Preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive as part of the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project. Laboratory services by Audio Mechanics, Film Technology, Inc. Special thanks to Stephen Parr, Norman Yonemoto.
Screening 3 of 10
For Nonna Anna
Year: 2017
Country: Canada
Runtime: 13 min.
Digital. Color.
Director Luis De Filippis explores the quiet relationship between a Canadian Italian trans girl in her early 20s and her Italian grandmother.
DCP. Director: Luis De Filippis.
Screening 4 of 10
Her Story, season 1, episode 3
Year: 2015–2016
Country: U.S.
Runtime: 10 min.
Digital. Color.
In this Emmy-nominated web series, the classic romantic comedy structure meets a trans version of The L Word.
DCP. Director: Sydney Freeland.
Screening 5 of 10
Just Dandy
Year: 2013
Country: Canada
Runtime: 8 min.
Digital. Color.
Theo Jean Cuthand (Plains Cree) wrestles honestly with the contradictions of desire and the conundrum of wanting someone you know is bad for you in a colonial context.
DCP. Director: Theo Jean Cuthand.
Screening 6 of 10
I Still Believe
Year: 2015
Country: Canada
Runtime: 3 min.
Digital. Color.
Stop-motion animation that explores the joy of first love and grief of breaking up in this short film by Raven Davis (Anishinaabe).
DCP. Director: Raven Davis.
Screening 7 of 10
Honor Black Trans Womxn!
Year: 2019
Country: U.S.
Runtime: 6 min.
Digital. Color.
This experimental documentary presents Black trans women and their communities fighting back against the violence they face.
DCP. Director: Seyi Adebanjo.
Screening 8 of 10
Feeling Reserved: Alexus’ Story
Year: 2011
Country: Canada
Runtime: 6 min.
Digital. Color.
Directed by Jess MacCormack and Alexus Young (Métis), this short experimental animated video documentary illuminates Young’s experience of a “starlight tour” in Saskatoon.
DCP. Directors: Jess MacCormack, Alexus Young.
Screening 9 of 10
We’ve Been Around: Lucy
Year: 2016
Country: U.S.
Runtime: 6 min.
Digital. Color.
Director Rhys Ernst’s documentary tells the story of a Black trans caterer and madame from the early 20th century.
DCP. Director: Rhys Ernst.
Screening 10 of 10
Atlantic Is a Sea of Bones
Year: 2017
Country: U.S.
Runtime: 7 min.
Digital. Color.
Director Tourmaline summons a haunting visitation with the spirits of Black trans ancestors via music, light, dancing and mystical scenarios.
DCP. Director: Tourmaline.