TRANSGENDER FILM CENTER UNVEILS INAUGURAL CAREER LAB COHORT

The Transgender Film Center, a nonprofit advancing the work of transgender film creators, today announced the eight participants selected for its inaugural Career Development Lab at TFC. The lab is supported by Netflix’s Fund for Creative Equity, which builds new opportunities for underrepresented communities in entertainment. 

The lab, a first-of-its-kind career accelerator exclusively for trans creators working in film and television, is a 12-week intensive that will provide its inaugural class unique insights, instruction and guidance from working industry professionals through on-site seminars, virtual workshops and behind-the-scenes experiences. 

“Our mission is to bring more trans-made stories to the world, and we designed the lab to address the root of the opportunity, by helping more transgender creators find career success in TV and film,” said Sav Rodgers, TFC’s executive director.

Participants were selected from hundreds of initial applications using a rubric that considered criteria including potential, readiness, need and values. The process first narrowed submitted applicants to finalists by evaluating work samples, career histories and personal essays. The TFC selection committee interviewed each finalist live, and then deliberated to identify the eight chosen participants.

“I would describe our discussion as passionate and very purpose-driven,” Rodgers said. “We had so many terrific candidates and only eight positions, so we were intensely aware of making choices directly based on our criteria and guidelines, and I’m excited by the diverse talent we’ve brought together.”    

The selected participants are, with bios below: 

• Amanda Cruz Gonzalez (they/them) 

• Elliott Feliciano (he/they) 

• Alexandra Grey (she/her)

• Sir Lex Kennedy (he/they/sir)

• Sepi Mashiahof (she/they) 

• Xoài Pham (she/her)

• Ingrid Raphaël (they/them)

• Georden West (they/them) 

Each participant will receive travel support, accommodations for on-site experiences, and a $10,000 honorarium to offset time away from earning during the lab. They will also participate in hands-on experiences, including a behind-the-scenes look at a world-leading festival in collaboration with the Tribeca Festival. 

Graduates of the lab will apply their new insights to a written career next-steps plan, supported by new industry contacts, their expanded peer network and lab resources. 

Follow the lab’s participants and their progress throughout the program on TFC’s Instagram, @transfilmcenter.

2024 TRANSGENDER FILM CENTER CAREER DEVELOPMENT LAB PARTICIPANTS

Amanda Cruz Gonzalez (they/them) is a queer, first generation Mexican-American, film producer. Their most recent productions include an array of narrative films, commercial projects, and documentaries. Having worked with Netflix, Paramount, and Premiere Entertainment they have expertise in film financing, sales, development, and producing. They are currently working as a freelance Creative Producer in both narrative and documentary. Amanda's ultimate goal is to continue amplifying the voices of BIPOC & LGBTQ+ community members through compelling stories, collaborations, and progressive business ventures.

Elliott Feliciano (he/they) is a trans Puerto Rican writer and director currently located in Los Angeles. He was born and raised in East Chicago, Indiana. While studying Creative Writing at the University of Central Florida, he developed a passion for telling Latinx and queer stories. He wrote and directed the short film To Be With You, which was an official selection at the 2019 Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival and the 2020 Bentonville Film Festival. Elliott has worked as a Set PA on the Netflix documentary Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen, as a Writers’ PA on Starz’s Vida, FX’s Pose and American Horror Story, and as a Staff Writer on the CW’s Tom Swift. His goal is to create and develop more inclusive stories with LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and female centered characters.

Alexandra Grey (she/her) is a writer, director, actress, and producer from Chicago, Illinois. Raised in seven foster homes, she was determined not to be a stereotype and always follow her dreams of making it in show business. After high-school, she relocated to California where she began studying Drama at California State University Northridge and soon after began a career in television. She played minor trans characters on  medical and drama shows before stepping behind the camera and writing, directing, and producing short films. As a proud trans woman of color, Alexandra continues to use her voice to elevate the LGBTQIA across media and entertainment.

Sir Lex Kennedy (he/they/sir) is a vegan, queer, black trans masculine media content creator who loves film, music, gardening and the beach and believes “ball is life”. Lex studied Comparative Women's Studies and Film at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, before being forced to leave and finish his studies at the Los Angeles City College in their film program. As an artist and activist, Sir Lex strives to bring marginalized stories to the center of popular culture through comedy series and documentaries. Sir Lex has directed multiple short films featured in film festivals like Campus MovieFest, Newfest, Fusion and Outfest, through their inaugural OutSet program and across the world, winning numerous awards. Sir Lex completed a Sound Fellowship in the Fall of 2019 for ‘DISCLOSURE’, a documentary currently streaming on Netflix. Lex has worked as a Producer for Tribune Creative West/KTLA5 in Los Angeles, and currently works as the Audience Engagement Producer for ABC7/Disney in Glendale. Over the summer of 2020 he Produced and Assistant Directed on the short, ‘edible’. He is currently producing the pilot to his series RETROS!

Sepi Mashiahof (she/they) is a transfemme Iranian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and musician. After a dissociative adolescence in Los Angeles and a hazy detour studying Literature at UCSC, she truly came of age in the underground arts and music community in Oakland, CA, where she co-founded the Scream Queens Radio program, served as Executive Director of Bay Area Girls Rock Camp, and was a member of the industrial no wave band SBSM. She has made two short films: "Love You Forever" and "Smooth" alongside a plethora of music videos for artists like Divide and Dissolve, The Bedroom Witch, and Beast Nest. The horror genre is her primary focus, and a generative space for her to tell nuanced and captivating stories about trans and queer life. Within her worlds, we find fairies causing queer bodies to actualize by rotting like fruit, aloof trans girls force-feminizing bigoted men, and intergenerational queer memories disrupting reality. Sepi is a Film Fatales Fellow, an SFTFF Dream Commission recipient, and was recently the director’s assistant on Jane Schoenbrun’s upcoming A24 horror film “I Saw The TV Glow.”

Xoài Pham (she/her) is a Vietnamese trans woman descended from warriors, healers, and shamans. She is a multidisciplinary artist and cultural strategist. Her work cultivates a collective imagination, where difference is celebrated and vulnerability is power. She has written poetry, fiction, cultural criticism, and is now venturing in screenwriting. Her work has been published most notably in POETRY, Esquire, Elle, and more. For the last decade, she’s devoted her storytelling to social change organizations working on issues, including health equity, immigration policy, and violence against transgender people through directing multimedia campaigns that span film, art curation, animation, and more. Her short documentary, The Songs of Water, is currently in post-production.

Ingrid Raphaël (they/them) is a transdisciplinary artist, documentary and experimental film director, educator and programmer. They are in development for their first feature speculative Black-ecology genre film exploring a future in Philly without internet or technology. Its proof of concept has received support from the Center for Afrofuturist Studies and Independence Public Media Foundation, and the Trans Film Center. They co-founded the nomadic NO EVIL EYE CINEMA and co-design its programming which includes its alternative satelite film school FILM FUTURA. They are the co-director of the, Field of Vision commissioned, award-winning short doc They Won't Call It Murder; and have directed experimental short films like Ode to Cbus, Ohio and Movingbodyofwork screened at Anthology Film Archives and CineSpeak. Interested in archives, temporality, and community media, they've developed a myriad of film and art curriculums at Black Quantum Futurism, Film Futura, Eyebeam, Pwrplnt, Mono No Aware, CineSpeak, Bronx Museum of the Arts, PhillyCam and more.

Georden West (they/them) is a multimedia artist finding archival silence's speculative openings. They challenge traditional notions of preservation and offer a fresh perspective on the entanglement of queer histories. West’s PATRON SAINT won gold at the 46th Student Academy Awards, and their debut feature, PLAYLAND, world premiered at 2023 IFFR and premiered in North America at the Tribeca Festival. PLAYLAND participated in 2022 Gotham Week (formerly IFP) US features in post-production and the American Film Festival Poland's US in Progress program. PLAYLAND is slated for 2024 theatrical release with Juno Films. From 2021-22, West was an Academy Gold Women's Fellowship finalist, Fine Arts Work Center Visual Arts Fellow, Zurich Film Festival Academy member, and one of Filmmaker Magazine's “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”

Read the exclusive announcement in The Hollywood Reporter.

Read more in the Netflix Newsroom.

Announcing the 2023 TFC Career Development Lab

Netflix and the Transgender Film Center are teaming up to launch a new fellowship aimed at supporting promising transgender and nonbinary creators.

The Career Development Lab is a new 12-week intensive project through TFC and funded by Netflix’s Fund for Creative Equity. The fellowship, which aims to accelerate the careers of its participants, will support eight filmmakers in film and television for its inaugural class.

“While transgender creators are beginning to make headway in pursuing their storytelling careers, there is still a powerful need to both enable access and prepare trans filmmakers to succeed in the industry,” Sav Rodgers, Transgender Film Center executive director, said in a statement. “We are so excited about the Career Development Lab because we believe its rubber-meets-the-road insights and partnerships with industry players will help participants break into careers in film and television.” 

Read more in The Hollywood Reporter, reporting by Abbey White.

Trans Day of Visibility 2023

Today we proudly mark #TransDayofVisibility and celebrate transgender people as an equal, integral part of the human experience – throughout history, now, and forever after.

Unfortunately, today’s trans experience in the U.S. is under deadly assault. Public calls for erasure. Vicious violence. Hate speech. And hundreds of bills designed to steal fundamental rights.

How do we move forward? One essential path to progress is making and seeing trans stories. That’s where we come in. The #TransgenderFilmCenter exists to help trans creators produce and share their films around the globe.

For the creators, telling their stories is processing their experience, gaining confidence – catharsis that helps them become their true selves. For audiences, more trans-led movies means a richer world of films, characters and voices.

Together, that means a safer, more inclusive world for everyone.

To every trans person, and everyone who loves a trans person, please know: we see you. How hard it can be right now. How strong you are in the face of it. That you’re inherently wondrous and valuable just by your existence. That your perspective makes your community brighter. That you’ll never back down.

To honor and love you, neither will we.

Transgender Film Center is a proud partner of mama.film's 2022 Sundance Film Festival Satellite Screen Programming

Sundance Institute Announces Satellite Screen Partners for the 2022 Sundance Film Festival 

mama.film named as one of Seven Satellite Screens

[Park City, UT] — The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the 2022 Sundance Film Festival Satellite Screen partners, 7 independently owned arthouse cinemas across the United States that have been selected, and each will connect the Festival and its artists directly with local audiences. This year the Festival will take place not only in-person in its home state of Utah and online, but across seven other different states — California, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington — at its partner theaters. The 2022 Sundance Film Festival takes place January 20 – 30. 

The selected Satellite Screen theaters are:

• Amherst Cinema in Amherst, Massachusetts

• a/perture cinema in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

• Indie Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee

• mama.film in Lawrence, Kansas

• Media Arts Center of San Diego / Digital Gym in San Diego, California

• Northwest Film Forum in Seattle, Washington

• SNF Parkway Theatre, home of the Maryland Film Festival in Baltimore, Maryland

Each Satellite Screen will show a specially-curated selection from the Festival’s official program during the Festival’s closing weekend, Friday, January 28, through Sunday, January 30, 2022. The selections will speak to the breadth and diversity of the multifaceted official program, which will be announced later this year. Ticket details and on-sale dates are available through each individual theater’s box office.

“Regional cinemas are a crucial part of independent film and are vital centers of discovery, conversation, and convening in their communities. We are looking forward to partnering with each of them to do what we all love: watch and talk about films together,” said Gina Duncan, Producing Director, Sundance Institute.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with the Sundance Institute again to bring festival selections to Kansas,” said mama.film CEO & mother/founder Lela Meadow-Conner. “In 2021 we had the opportunity to bring Sundance Film Festival Films to Wichita and in 2022, we’re road tripping to Lawrence to screen films at the historic Liberty Hall, and we look forward to celebrating independent film with this community.”

“We’re also taking this opportunity to facilitate a convening of Kansas & Kansas City-region’s film communities – connecting filmmakers, festival organizers, programmers & curators, film students, and women in film with education and networking throughout the course of the weekend,” she said. Principal program partners include Free State Festival, Department of Film & Media Studies at the University of Kansas, Wichita State University School of Digital Arts & Shocker Studios, Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission & National Endowment for the Arts, Explore Lawrence, Kansas City Film Office, Film Festival Alliance, Transgender Film Center, Women in Entertainment and Lawrence Arts Center. 

Launched at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, Satellite Screens are a partnership between Sundance Institute and regional cinemas and arts organizations that brings the Festival experience to communities across the country. Satellite Screens was designed with the intention of connecting audiences with independent films and filmmakers and engaging with artist communities across the country. 

Sundance Film Festival requires all participants to be fully vaccinated to participate in the Festival in-person in Utah and to wear masks when inside any venues. Each Satellite Screen theater partner will be following these protocols as well as their own additional COVID-19 health policies. 

The Festival will be taking place in Utah (Park City, Salt Lake City, and the Sundance Resort), as well as online. For more information, please follow the Festival news at Festival.Sundance.org and for information about mama.film visit mama.film/sundance. 

Announcing: WarnerMedia Access Early Career Bootcamp

WARNERMEDIA CULTIVATES EARLY TALENT PIPELINE PROGRAM WITH BOOTCAMP FOR UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES ASPIRING TO HAVE A CAREER IN ENTERTAINMENT

In Partnership with RespectAbility, IllumiNative, Transgender Film Center, and Muslim Public Affairs Council

WarnerMedia, announces the launch of the WarnerMedia Access Early Career Bootcamp, a weeklong intensive workshop introducing the cohort to Hollywood careers. The Early Career Bootcamp is the latest talent pipeline initiative enhancing a slate of existing fellowships, demonstrating its commitment to cultivating the next generation of content creators and executives, and expanding access to historically marginalized creatives, and this particular program focuses on the MENA, Indigenous, disabled, and transgender communities.

The bootcamp will take place from September 27, 2021, through October 1, 2021, with a cohort of 40 participants, 10 each from four partner organizations, RespectAbility, IllumiNative, Transgender Film Center, and Muslim Public Affairs Council. Participants will receive a comprehensive snapshot of entertainment industry careers, from network development to post-production, through several roundtable discussions with up-and-coming talent and junior executives. Facilitators will lead conversations on how to break into the industry and offer tangible tools to jump-start their careers.

“We are increasing exposure, access, resources, and opportunity for people who too often face socio-economic barriers that prevent them from even considering a career in the entertainment industry,” said Karen Horne, Senior Vice President, Equity and Inclusion, WarnerMedia. “Our goal is to reach this untapped demographic and amplify their unique voices early in order to cultivate a steady flow of content creators that will eventually feed the professional pipeline, from writers to future executives.”

“WarnerMedia Access Early Career Bootcamp is a dream come true for the emerging talent in these four underrepresented communities,” said Sue Obeidi, Director, Muslim Public Affairs Council Hollywood Bureau. “The opportunity that has been given to future content creators and executives, who historically don’t have access due to circumstances beyond their control, is a game-changer and will soon prove instrumental in changing the fabric and makeup of the entertainment industry for the better. MPAC’s Hollywood Bureau and its cohort are honored to be part of the initiative.”

Through this workshop, students who are keenly interested in television and motion pictures can gain a deeper understanding of the entertainment business and learn about the various pathways to get a foot in the door. The immersive program expands WarnerMedia’s commitment to advance representation in the industry by supporting diverse creatives and authentic storytelling that resonates with its global audiences.

Transgender Film Center at Sundance 2021

Our panel at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival is now LIVE!

Thanks to Sundance's Beyond Film Programming and Satellite Screens partnership with mama.film, the Transgender Film Center has been given a platform to participate in this year’s festival.

TRANSforming Your Crew is a conversation centered on hiring practices for trans people working in the entertainment industry. Our Founder and Executive Director Sav Rodgers moderated a conversation with Savannah Ward, a TFC Board Member and Staff Writer on Freeform’s Cruel Summer, and Alex Schmider, Producer of Changing the Game and the Associate Director of Transgender Representation at GLAAD. Our panel focuses on how to best support trans crew members, how to hire us, and what needs to change in the entertainment industry.

You can watch it any time during the Sundance Film Festival without a pass.

Click here to watch our panel.