Filmmaker D. Smith's raw, provocative, and funny documentary, Kokomo City, that centres the stories of four captivating Black transgender women, in their own words, won both the NEXT Innovator Award and NEXT Audience Award when it world premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival. It went on to win the Audience Award in the Panorama... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Kristen Lovell & Zackary Drucker reclaim the history of New York’s transgender sex workers with Sundance award-winning The Stroll
Following its award-winning world premiere at Sundance in January, directors Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s outstanding feature The Stroll went on to open London's prestigious LGBTQ+ film festival BFI Flare, and last week the filmmakers were recognized with the John Schlesinger Award for Best Director of a Documentary at the Provincetown International Film Festival. Rich,... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Mariette Pathy Allen on five decades of photographing trans, nonbinary & gender nonconforming people
Mariette Pathy Allen has been photographing, interviewing, and advocating on behalf of transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people for five decades, following a chance meeting with a group of cross-dressers in the late 1970s in New Orleans. Through her artistic practice, she has been a pioneering force in gender consciousness, contributing to cultural and academic... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Next In Fashion season 2 designer James Ford “I want people to dress gender equal”
Creative director and founder of Rowena Social Club based in Los Feliz, California, James Ford describes himself as a "gender equal" fashion designer, telling The Queer Review, "I want people to have equal access to masculine silhouettes and feminine silhouettes, regardless of who they are". His belief in the power and fun of fashion stems... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Coyote Park on their debut solo photography show at Leslie-Lohman “these are images I really needed as medicine”
This weekend saw the opening of Two-Spirit, Indigenous (Yurok) Korean-American transgender multi-disciplinary artist Coyote Park's (he/they) stunning debut solo photography show—I Love You Like Mirrors Do—at New York's Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, running until Sunday, July 16th, 2023. I Love You Like Mirrors Do explores Coyote Park’s deep bonds—between loved ones, lands of origin, diasporas, and queer,... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Shakina creates a “superhighway of empathy for trans kids & their families” with upcoming episode of Quantum Leap
Actress and activist, Shakina, made television history on NBC’s Connecting as the first trans person to play a series regular on a network comedy. She had a memorable role in Amazon's GLAAD Award-winning Transparent Musicale Finale, which she helped write and produce, as well as playing the scene-stealing trans truther Lola on Hulu’s Difficult People.... Continue Reading →
Graphic Novel Review: Galaxy – The Prettiest Star by Jadzia Axelrod & Jess Taylor ★★★1/2
GLAAD- nominated graphic novel, Galaxy: The Prettiest Star by writer Jadzia Axelrod, artist Jess Taylor, and letterer Ariana Maher, uses the world of superheroes and science fiction as a trans allegory that is bright and full of hope. Taylor Barzelay isn’t like the other kids in school. He feels trapped in a body that’s alien... Continue Reading →
Mardi Gras Film Festival 2023 Review: Trans Glamoré ★★★
Two mid-length documentaries about Australian trans women will receive their world premieres at Queer Screen’s 30th Mardi Gras Film Festival under the banner of Trans Women Champions: Trans Glamoré and The Accidental Archivist. Filmmaker Lachlan Bradbury's Trans Glamoré (a recipient of the Queer Screen Completion Fund), is a look at Sydney's eponymous trans cabaret night.... Continue Reading →
Sundance 2023 Film Review: Kokomo City ★★★★
When two-time Grammy nominated songwriter-producer D. Smith, who has appeared on both the Atlanta and Hollywood versions of the reality series Love & Hip Hop, had an idea for a film centering Black transgender sex workers and examining their place within the Black community, she approached several filmmaker friends with the concept. They all turned... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Alexandra Billings channels Julie Andrews in epic sci-fi series The Peripheral “Mary Poppins, who knew?!”
When actress, singer, author, teacher and activist Alexandra Billings last spoke with The Queer Review in early 2020, she was making history on Broadway in Wicked as the first trans actor to portray Madame Morrible. It was a role that she returned to once theatreland reopened last year. Now, she's lighting up our screens in... Continue Reading →