BIPOC Trans Filmmakers
This is a list in progress of Black, Indigenous, and person-of-color (POC) trans filmmakers based in Canada and the United States. We encourage educators and activists to watch and share these important films! These filmmakers and many more will eventually be available to search and browse in our database.
Email us if you would like to be on the list, take yourself off the list, or if you have corrections.
Seyi Adebanjo
(they/them) Seyi Adebanjo is a Queer gender-non-conforming Nigerian MFA artist, who raises awareness around social issues through digital video, multimedia photography, ritual & writing workshops. On the faculty of New York University. Films include but not limited to: Oya: Something Happened on the Way to West Africa! (2015), I AM! We Are Here! (2018), Honor Black Trans Womxn! (US, Seyi Abebanjo, 2019, 6 min.) website distributor
Sydney Baloue
(he/him) Sydney Baloue is a Black and South Asian transgender man with roots in Trinidad and Tobago and Chicago, IL. Films Include:He is a writer and co-executive producer on HBOMax's competition reality series, Legendary. His writing has been featured in The New York Times, Vice, and them. A proud member of the House of Xtravaganza, he is currently working on a book on the history and evolution of New York City's Ballroom Scene, and is represented by APA agency. website
Mala Badi
(they/them) Mala Badi is a non-binary trans activist, Moroccan, artist, and refugee in Amsterdam. They are the founder of Marokkueer ZAWYA a queer diaspora organization. Films Include: Spaces of Exile (2021) IG
Neelu Bhuman
(they/them) Neelu Bhuman is a Nonbinary, filmmaker born in South India.Their work explores social and political themes as they play out in close relations. Films include but not limited to: ṣadāqa (2016), More Love. Less Prepackaged Bullshit (2017), Transfinite (2019) website
Kat Blaque
(she/her) Kat Blaque is a Black trans animator, illustrator and YouTuber from Southern California who has been openly blogging about her life for the past 10+ years. YouTube channel
Giselle Ari Bleuz
(she/her) Giselle Ari Bleuz is a Black woman of trans experience and a writer, actress, filmmaker and media educator. She began her filmmaking work as a youth producer with the Global Action Project’s SupaFriends social justice media-arts leadership program. Films Include: Over Stigmatized (2018) and Transcending (2019) website
Alec Butler
(they/them) Alec Butler is a Two-Spirit, Non-binary, Intersex activist, author and filmmaker. They are also Indigenous (Mi'kmaq) and Settler (French/Irish) descent originally from Unama'ki (Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia). Films include but not limited to: First Period (2003), and Sick (2003), Trans Cabaret (2009) distributor
Daniella Carter
(she/her) Daniella Carter is a Black trans woman who is the head curator of Daniella Guestbook and The Sistah Love Project and a filmmaker. Films include: TRANS COMMUNITY RESPONDS TO COVID-19 (2020). IG
Marco Chiong
(he/they) Marco Chiong is a nonbinary, LA-based director, production designer, editor, and cinematographer. Films include: 留 Preservation (2019), Now That We’ve Met (2019) website
Skyler Cooper
(he/him) Skyler Cooper is a Black trans man actor, activists, and filmmaker. Films include Hero Mars (2013) as well as an upcoming film Worth of Survival that is currently being worked on. website
Ley Comas
(they/them) Ley Comas is a non-binary Latinx of trans experience, director, filmmaker, producer, sound mixer. Films Include: Ni Aquí/Ni Allá (2021), Bollywood NYC (2022), Sound Editor on Tape (2020) and Enclosure (2019) IG IMDb
Laverne Cox
(she/her) Laverne Cox is a Black trans woman and Emmy-nominated actress, documentary film producer and equal rights advocate. Films include: The T Word (2014), Free CeCe! (2016), Disclosure (2020). website
Thirza Cuthand
(she/her) Thirza Cuthand is a Two-Spirit gender fluid filmmaker, performance artist and writer. She is of Plains Cree and Scots descent, a member of Little Pine First Nation, and currently resides in Toronto, Canada. Films include but not limited to: Reclamation (2018), Devout + Out: Susan (2019), Woman Dress (2019) website distributor
D’Lo
(he/they) D'Lo is a queer transgender Tamil-Sri Lankan-American actor, writer, comic. His work ranges from theatre, stand up, tv/film, plays, essays and poetry. Films Include but not limited to: Web series Private Dick (2017), D’FaQTo Life, and To T, or not To T Website IG
Ava Davis
(she/her) Ava Davis is a Black trans actress, writer, and filmmaker. Also known as the Duchess of Grant Park, she is a Sundance Institute Fellow. Films Include but not limited to: Feast (2018), The Parts That Stay (2020), and The Duchess of Grant Park. IMDb Website
Raven Davis
(they/them) Raven Davis is an Indigenous Anishinaabe, mixed race, Two-Spirit multidisciplinary artist, curator and activist from the Anishinaabek (Ojibwa) Nation in Manitoba. They blend narratives of colonization, race, gender, erotica, their Two-Spirit identity and the Anishinaabemowin language and culture into a variety of contemporary art forms. Films include but not limited to: Spooning (co-directed, 2015), I Still Believe (2015), It’s Not Your Fault (2015) website
Vaginal Davis
(she/her) Vaginal Davis is an intersex, drag performer, actor, and director. Disrupting the cultural assimilation of gay-oriented and corporate-friendly drag, she positions herself at an uncomfortable tangent to the conservative politics of gay culture, mining its contradictory impulses to interrupt the entrenchment of its assimilatory strategies.Films Include but not limited to: The White to Be Angry (1999), The Other Newest One (2001), Frau unter Einfluss (2001) website bio
Je’Jae Cleopatra Daniels
(they/them & queen) Je'Jae Cleopatra Daniels is a multidisciplinary artist, writer & media maker. They are a nonbinary-femme of color living in NYC. Their work focuses on the intersections of queerness, American's public perceptions. Films include: Mx.Enigma (2016), Bubbly & Them (?). website
Demian DinéYazhi’
(they/them) Demian Dinéyazhi' is a non-binary, Indigenous transdisciplinary artist who uses social interventions to interrupt colonial power structures.They are the founder of Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment (R.I.S.E.), an activist initiative for education and preservation of Indigenous art and culture Films include: Indigenous Luvvv (2015). IG
Raven Two Feathers
(he/they) Raven Two Feathers is a Two Spirit, Cherokee/Seneca/Cayuga/Comanche, Filmmaker, and Producer. Films includes: Drive to Top Surgery (2019) and hā / shəliʔ (2021). Website
Nicci Farrel
(she/her) Nice Farrel is a Two-Spirit director of Land Beyond Tomorrow (1993), an experimental interpretation of a vision she received after a two year battle with chemotherapy, radiation and a near-death experience from a bone marrow transplant. -Frameline 1994 Program
Elliott Feliciano
(he/him) Elliot Feliciano is a trans Puerto Rican screenwriter and director currently located in Los Angeles. Films Include: To Be With You (2019), Dracula and Igor (2019). website
Daniel Flores
(they/them) Daniel Flores is a Yaqui/Mexican Resides in Los Angeles, CA. Recently they wrapped production on their latest short film ‘Viva Diva’. The film was supported by a grant from the Sundance Institute Native American and Indigenous Program. Films include: Part of Me (2013), Viva Diva (2017). IMDB
Yance Ford
(he/him) Yance Ford is a Black trans director and producer based in Jackson Heights, NY. From 2002 to 2012 Ford was Series Producer of POV his work curating the documentary. Films include: Strong Island (2017), Trial by Media (2020), Pride (2021). website imdb
Monica Forrester
(she/her) Monica Forrester is a trans woman of color, community activist. Films include: Madame Lauraine's Transsexual Touch (2001). distributor
StormMiguel Florez
(he/him) StormMiguel Florez is a trans, queer Xicane filmmaker, actor and lifelong musician. Films Include: Ive Been To Manhattan (2012), A Murder of Porgs (2017), The Whistle (2019) Website IMDb
Sydney Freeland
(she/her) Sydney Freeland is a Navajo transgender filmmaker and director. Works Include: Drunktown's Finest (2014), and Deidra & Laney Rob a Train (2017), Reservation Dogs (2021) IMDb
River Gallo
(they/them) River Gallo is a Salvadoran-American filmmaker, actor, writer, model and intersex activist with interACT. Their work explores the dynamics of personal and confessionary storytelling, and media's healing abilities through re-envisioning minority narratives. Films include: Ponyboi (2019). Website ImDB IG
Ahyoka Haas
(they/them) Ahyoka Haas is a non-binary comedian and screenwriter of Cherokee and German descent. They are a 2019 graduate of Harold Ramis Film School and alumna of The Second City Chicago. Films include: Haaspital (2020) and Over It (2020). website imdb
Davina Hader
(she/her) Davina Hader is an intersex cinematographer, filmmaker, photographer and interactive multimedia designer. Graduate of OCADU. Films Include: Hushed (2018), I Am Who I Am (2019), QueerEdge (2019). Imdb
Bretten Hannam
(they/them) Bretten Hannam is a A Two-Spirit L’nu filmmaker living in Kespukwitk, Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia). Their films deal with themes of community, culture, and language with a focus on two-spirit and LGBTQ+ identity. Films include but not limited to: a'sa'katikl awti'l (2018), Elmiteskualt (2019), Wildfire (2019). website
ND (Indie) Johnson
(She/They) ND (Indie) Johnson is a Black, gender nonconforming, trans femme, director. Films Include: Sweetness (2021)
Mizz June
(she/her) Mizz June is a Black trans woman actor and singer. She was the first out Black Transwoman to be a guest cast member on a daytime soap opera (“All My Children”). Films include: War Call (2018). website
Miles Jai
(he/she/they) Miles Jai is a Black nonbinary transfemme YouTube star (659K subscribers). YouTube channel
Sir Lex Kennedy
(he/they) Sir Lex Kennedy is a Black trans man, filmmaker, and director. Films Include: The Boi Doc (2020), Edible (2020), DISCLOSURE (2020), Retros in production. IMDb, Portfolio
Sin Wai Kin
(they/them) Sin Wai Kin is a non-binary, mixed race artist. Based in London. They use drag as a way of deconstructing and challenging misogyny and racism in and outside of the queer community. Films include: A Dream of Wholeness in Parts (2021). Bio
Seven King
(he/him) Seven King is an Afro-Latino trans man director, writer, screenwriter, motivational speaker, film producer, documentarian, and advocate born and raised in Bronx, New York. Films include: Eden's Garden (web series, 2015), Rebirth of Paris (2015). interview ImDB
Carmen LoBue
(they/them) Carmen LoBue is a Queer Non-Binary Afro-Pilipinx American Filmmakernary. Works Include: Cheer Up Charlie (2019), Play Will You…Hold My Hair Back? (2020), O, Ryan (2019), Pink & Blue (2021) Website
Christopher Lee
(he/him) Christopher Lee is a Chinese and Polish-American transgender activist. He was also the co-founder of Tranny Fest, now called the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival. Films include: Trappings of Transhood (1997), Alley of the Tranny Boys (1998), Sex Flesh in Blood (1999). bio
Kiley May
(She/they) Kiley May is a part of the Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) nation, and belongs to the Turtle Clan, director, Two-Spirit Transgender, writer, author. Creator of Transamorous Trilogy and cofounder of Braided Sisters Productions. Works: Discretion (2021) and Disclosure (2021). Linktree IG
TS Madison
(she/her) TS Madison is a Black trans YouTuber, musician, and porn entrepreneur. YouTube channel
Aiyyana Maracle
(she/her) Aiyyana Maracle is a trans multi-disciplinary artist, scholar, educator, story-crafter and storyteller. Born on the Six Nations territory on the Grand River near Ohsweken in southern Ontario, Aiyyana grew up in Rochester and Buffalo, New York. Spending time in Vancouver, Toronto, Chippewa territory, and Montreal, in 2010 she returned to the Six Nations reservation. bio
Nava Mau
(she/her). Nava Mau is a Filmmaker, actress, and cultural worker. She is a mixed-race trans Latina from Mexico City and San Antonio, Texas. Films include: Waking Hour (2019).
Janet Mock
(she/her) Janet Mock is a Black trans director, writer and author. Films Include: TV Series Pose (2019) website imdb
Nyala Moon
(she/her) Nyala Moon is a Black transgender screenwriter, aspiring actor, writer, and producer. Films include: Nova (2017), Two Trans Women (2018). backstage
Leahann “Lafemmebear” Mitchell
(she/her) Leahann "Lafemmebear" Mitchell is a black trans woman, musician, music producer, and sound engineer. Works Include: EP Blaq: The Story of Me (2019), ShutUp! (2019), Fuck (2019),EP My Blaq Feels (2021), Website IG
Pidgeon Pagonis
(they/them) Pidgeon Pagonis is a non-binary Mexican intersex educational speaker and filmaker. They post videos on youtube and starred in a movie called A Normal Girl (2019). Films Include: The Son I Never Had: Growing Up Intersex (2017), Co-Produced A Normal Girl (2019) Website Yotube
Isabel Sandoval
(she/her) Isabel Sandoval is a New York-based trans Filipina filmmaker and MacDowell Fellow in film. Films include: Señorita (2011), Apparition (2012), Lingua Franca (2019). imdb
Kaspar Jivan Saxena
(he/him) Kaspar Jivan Saxena is an Indo-German trans Canadian filmmaker who has worked as an independent producer and director of 10 documentary and animated films. Films include: The Avocado Vegetarian Turtle (1988), Wallflower (1989), New View, New Eyes (1993). website distributor
Vivek Shraya
(she/her) Vivek Shraya is a Canadian trans artist of color whose body of work crosses the boundaries of music, literature, visual art, theatre, and film. Films include but not limited to: Holy Mother My Mother (2014), I Want to Kill Myself (2017), Reviving the Roost (2019). website
Fallon Simard
(he/him) Fallon Simard is a Two-Spirit, Non-Binary Anishinaabe artist and filmmaker from Couchiching First Nation, in Treaty #3 Territory. His work examines state violence perpetrated on to Indigenous bodies within a context of colonialism. His work looks at intersections of land, extraction, mental health, and violence. Films include: Terra Nullius 2000 (2016), Mercury Poisoning (2016), Connected to Air (2016), Land Becomes Ghost (2016), Womb (2016), Carbon Tax (2017). website review
D. Smith
(she/her) D. Smith is a Black trans producer and director. She has produced for LilWayne, Andre 3k, Fantasia, Billy Porter, Ciara, Estelle and more. Her new documentary called KOKOMO City is coming out soon which focuses on the black trans experience. IG
Jess X Snow
(they/them) Jess X Snow is a non-binary writer/director, public artist, children’s book author, and arts educator who creates genre-defying queer Asian immigrant stories. Based in New York. Some of their works include: author and illustrator of We Always Had Wings (Make Me a World / Randomhouse, Coming 2023), illustrated The Ocean Calls (2020), and writer/director of Little Sky (2021). Website
Ahya Simone
(she/her) Ahya Simone is a Detroit-based multidisciplinary artist, performer, filmmaker and harpist. She is creator, co-writer, and director of the fictional web series, Femme Queen Chronicles, a story of four Black trans women in Detroit. She uses film and sound to explore ideas around identity, vulnerability, language, and existence. website.
Mirha Soleil-Ross
(she/her) Mirha Soleil-Ross is a Métis transsexual videographer, performance artist, sex worker and activist. Co-founder of one of the first trans film festivals, Counting Past 2: Performance-Film-Video-Spoken Word With Transsexual Nerve!, in 1997 and the Toronto zine Gendertrash from Hell. Films include but not limited to: Tremblement de chair (2001), Madame Lauraine's Transsexual Touch (2001), Yapping Out Loud: Contagious Thoughts from an Unrepentant Whore (2002). bio distributor
Tourmaline
(she/her) Tourmaline is a Black trans artist, filmmaker, and activist. Co-editor of Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility (2017). Tourmaline makes film and installed video that highlights the capacity of black queer/trans social life to impact the world while living what is simultaneously an invisible—and hypervisible—existence. Films include: The Personal Things (2016), Atlantic is a Sea of Bones (2017), Happy Birthday, Marsha! (2018). website
Wu Tsang
(she/her) Wu Tsang is a Chinese-American trans filmmaker, artist, and performer. Director of Zurich's Schauspielhaus. Films include but not limited to: You're Dead to Me (2013), A day in the life of bliss (2014-), Duilian (2016). interview distributor
Rain Valdez
(she/her) Rain Valdez is a transgender Filipina actress and filmmaker. She got her start in playing ‘Coco’ in season 2 of TV Land’s Lopez and doubling in Amazon's Transparent as Miss Van Nuys on screen and a producer behind the scenes. Films include but not limited to: Hexed (2017), Lit Girl (2019), Razor Tongue (web series, 2019). website
Chris Vargas
(he/him) Chris Vargas is a video maker & interdisciplinary artist currently based in Bellingham, WA whose work deploys humor and performance in conjunction with mainstream idioms to explore the complex ways that queer and trans people negotiate spaces for themselves within historical & institutional memory and popular culture. Films include: Homotopia (2006), Falling in Love...With Chris and Greg (web series, 2008-2013), Have You Ever Seen a Transsexual Before? (2010), Extraordinary Pregnancies (2010), ONE for all... (2012), Valencia: Chapter 20 (2013), Criminal Queers (2015). website
Julie Vu
(she/her) Asian-Canadian trans woman YouTube beauty and lifestyle vlogger with 547K subscribers. YouTube channel
Campbell X
(he/him) Black transgender director, actor and writer in Britain. Works Include: The Owls (2010), Stud Life (2012), Different for Girls (2017) IMDb
Alexus Young
(Métis, she/her) A two-spirited woman working on themes of colonialism, police brutality, First Nations identity, in essay and animation. interview bio
Kortney Ryan Ziegler
(he/him) A Black trans Oakland-based entrepreneur, scholar, and artist using tech, design & media for social good. Founder of Appolition and Trans*H4CK. Films include: Still Black: A Portrait of Black Transmen (2008). website
This page is edited and updated by Brooke Modestita and Jada Gannon-Day. Click the links to read their bios and get to know our team!
