Gendernauts: A Journey Through Shifting Identities | dir. Monika Treut | Germany 1999 | 87’
In the doc that sparked a thousand Maxes, Monika Treut’s pre-millennial investigation into the gender transgressors of late 90s San Francisco is an excitingly influential and radical work to see from the vantage point of our current moment. An exercise in early visibility, the film profiles people who were pioneers of self-determination, and living adjacent to the visible dyke and SM communities still active in the late 90s. They allow Treut to platform a then new aesthetic, the influence of which can be seen on all of your Instagrams in 2021.
Starring dynamic academic theorists Sandy Stone and Susan Stryker, early intersex activist Hida Viloria, self-made man Max Valerio and joy-filled sexologist and adult performer Annie Sprinkle, among others engaging with San Francisco’s trans subculture of the time, the documentary sees academic and artist Sandy Stone introduce this ‘new world’ to Treut’s fascinated and seductive camera.
A vital time-capsule of trans aesthetics, iconography, community, and ideology.
short before the feature:
No Historical Precedent | dir. Mae Dupré | USA 2021 | 9'
An experimental documentary about Wendy Carlos, the visionary musician whose scores for The Shining and A Clockwork Orange pioneered electronic music, interspersed with testimonials on the importance of trans and genderqueer representation in media.
CW: Outdated language about gender, sex, sexuality. Depictions of injections, piercing, etc.