When Vera Drew made her ambitious debut film “The People’s Joker,” she didn’t know if anyone else in the world would understand her deeply personal superhero movie parody about transitioning.
The first time she met a trans person who connected with the film after a public screening was a “mindblowing” experience.
“There had been other trans directors, but something that was that fiercely independent and coming at it from this personal perspective of a trans coming out story – I didn’t really know if there was any sort of audience for that,” Drew tells Variety. “I kind of just thought I was making a movie for myself.”
Like many trans and nonbinary filmmakers making original, often genre-leaning films that resonate with queer audiences, Drew began connecting with other like-minded creatives after screening “The People’s Joker” at festivals like the Toronto International Film Festival and Fantastic Fest. Outside of online spaces, LGBTQ+ festivals like Outfest and Frameline have provided the necessary third spaces for this filmmaking community to grow.
From Jane Schoenbrun (“Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma”), Louise Weard (“Castration Movie”), Alice Maio Mackay (“The Serpent’s Skin”), Avalon Fast (“Camp”) to Drew (“The People’s Joker”), the past five years have brought this emerging group of trans and nonbinary artists into the spotlight. They often appear in each other’s projects and, for the most part, are all navigating the challenges of making art entirely outside the traditional studio system.
