In 2014, TIME Magazine decreed a “transgender tipping point” in terms of legal rights, visibility, and representation. Yet misrepresentation, discrimination, and violence against transgender people is increasing at an alarming rate. In conjunction with the Trans Possibilities Intensive, join visionary filmmakers Tourmaline (Happy Birthday, Marsha!) and Sam Feder (Disclosure) in an exclusive conversation with Sundance Institute’s Outreach & Inclusion and Indigenous Programs Coordinator, Moi Santos, for a discussion on their filmmaking processes and praxes, the state of transgender representation and cultural production, and the power of storytelling as an agent of cultural change.


About the Sundance Outreach & Inclusion Program

Inclusion is one of the core values driving Sundance Institute’s work. The Outreach & Inclusion Program encompasses our initiatives across all programs within our organization to deepen engagement with and support of storytellers and audiences across ethnicities, genders, abilities, sexual orientations, and geographic regions. In doing so, we work to increase the diversity of projects submitted for consideration to all Institute programs—including labs, intensives, grants, and the Sundance Film Festival—and to inspire emerging artists to tell their stories.

Moderator
Moi Santos is the Manager for the Equity, Impact, and Belonging Program at Sundance Institute. In this role, Moi works across all Sundance Institute Artist Programs to deepen engagement with, and support of, storytellers and audiences across ethnicities, genders, abilities, sexual orientations, and geographic regions. She also designs, oversees, supports and executes diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. She is the Founder of the Trans Possibilities Intensive, a robust initiative which provides a supportive environment for transgender artists of color to work on their projects, sharpen their craft, develop community and challenge the obstacles that continue to exclude transgender artists of color. She holds a degree in Ethnic Studies with a concentration in visual culture and gender studies from the University of California, Berkeley -- where she graduated magna cum laude. more...
Panelist
Tourmaline is an artist, filmmaker, cultural producer, writer, and activist whose practice highlights the experiences of Black, queer, and trans communities and their capacity to impact the world. By expanding the legacy of forgotten figures into our present moment and highlighting their minor yet impactful creative acts, she shifts our understanding of broader cultural histories and encourages a reconsideration of mainstream contemporary narratives. Tourmaline’s work is an invitation, asking us to fundamentally reshape our beliefs about what is possible, in order to line up with our desires. Tourmaline (b. 1983) lives and works in New York and received her BA from Columbia University. She recently had her first solo exhibition, Pleasure Garden, at Chapter NY, New York (2020-2021). Her work has been presented across the world including at The Bronx Museum of the Arts (2021); the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn (2016, 2019, 2021); the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2019); MoMA PS1, Long Island City (2019); The High Line, New York (2019); The Kitchen, New York (2018); BFI Flare, London (2018); Portland Art Museum, Portland (2018), BAM Cinematek, Brooklyn (2018); The New Museum, New York (2017); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2017); MOCA, Los Angeles (2017); the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2017); and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago (2017). Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and the Tate, London. Tourmaline will be included in the upcoming 7th Athens Biennale 2021 ECLIPSE. more...
Panelist
Sam Feder is a Peabody Award nominated film director. Cited by Indiewire as one of the “exciting trans filmmakers shaking up Hollywood”, Sam’s films explore the intersection of visibility and politics along the lines of race, class, and gender. Sam’s filmmaking practice models inclusion and equity in the industry. Sam’s films have been programmed by Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, CPH:DOX, MOMA PS-1, The British Film Institute, The Hammer Museum, and in hundreds of film festivals around the world. more...

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