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) 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: Trans Lives Matter! Justice for Islan Nettles (2013), 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) A Black and South Asian transgender man with roots in Trinidad and Tobago and Chicago, IL. 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 

Neelu Bhuman

(they/them) An award winning independent artist filmmaker exploring social and political themes as they play out in close relations. Nonbinary, born in South India. They are currently in research phase for their second feature length narrative fiction film and in early production and development on two feature length creative documentary films, one rooted in the South Indian state of Kerala and the second in three countries in Europe. Films include: Family In Frame (2010), FU377 (2014), Love Letter/Prēma Lēkha (2015), My Mom Is Worried Sick (2016), ṣadāqa (2016), More Love. Less Prepackaged Bullshit (2017), Transfinite (2019) website

Kat Blaque

(she/her) 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 Ariel Bleuz

(she/her) 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 and has since gone on to write, direct, and act in four short films—including Over Stigmatized, which has been screened in festivals across the United States. Films include: Transcending (2019) website

Alec Butler

(they/them) A Two-Spirit, Non-binary, Intersex activist and an award winning playwright, author and filmmaker. Of Indigenous (Mi'kmaq) and Settler (French/Irish) descent originally from Unama'ki (Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia). Films include: Audrey’s Beard (2001), Misadventures of Pussy Boy: First Love (2002), First Period (2003), and Sick (2003), Trans Cabaret (2009) distributor

Marco Chiong

(he/they) A nonbinary, LA-based director, production designer, editor, and cinematographer. Films include: 留 Preservation (2019), Now That We’ve Met (2019) website

Laverne Cox

(she/her) 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

(Plains Cree, Little Pine First Nation, she/her): A Two-Spirit genderfluid filmmaker, performance artist and writer. Since 1995 she has been making short experimental narrative videos and films about sexuality, madness, Queer identity and love. A Whitney Biennial 2019 artist. She is of Plains Cree and Scots descent, a member of Little Pine First Nation, and currently resides in Toronto, Canada. Films include: Boi Oh Boi (2012), Just Dandy (2013), 2 Spirit Introductory Special $19.99, The Longform Lesbian Census (2017), 2 Spirit Dreamcatcher Dot Com (2017), Thirza Cuthand Is an Indian Within the Meaning of the Indian Act (2017), Reclamation (2018), Devout + Out: Susan (2019), Woman Dress (2019) website distributor

Raven Davis

(Anishinaabe, they/them) An Indigenous, mixed race, 2-Spirit multidisciplinary artist, curator and activist from the Anishinaabek (Ojibwa) Nation in Manitoba. Born and raised in Tkaronto (Toronto) and currently splitting time working between K’jipuktuk (Halifax) and Tkaronto. Raven blends narratives of colonization, race, gender, erotica, their 2-Spirit identity and the Anishinaabemowin language and culture into a variety of contemporary art forms. Films include: Love Never Felt So Good (co-directed, 2014), Spooning (co-directoed, 2015), I Still Believe (2015), It’s Not Your Fault (2015) website

Vaginal Davis

(she/her) The internationally revered intersexed doyenne of intermedia arts and sciences. She takes public discourse to Dementia 13 levels as she spells out the queer and blatino experience in her own inemitable fashion creating new words out of thin air and crashing bull-in-a-Madame Mau China-Shop style over notions of propriety and reality. website bio

Je’Jae Cleopatra Daniels

(they/them & queen) 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 

James Diamond

A director, producer, writer, and a mentor in the fields of communications and multi-media. Films include: The Man from Venus (1999), Mars-Womb-Man (2006), Freak Control (2014), Jizz Envy (2014), Selfie (2014), Public P(arts) (2015). MediaQueer distributor

Demian DinéYazhi’ 

(Diné, they/them) A transdisciplinary artist who uses social interventions to interrupt colonial power structures. DinéYazhi’s practice includes curation, zine production, public interactions, as well as writing and poetry. Founder of Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment (R.I.S.E.), an activist initiative for education and preservation of Indigenous art and culture. They grew up in Gallup, New Mexico, and are currently based in Portland, Oregon. Films include: Indigenous Luvvv (2015).

Nikita Dragun

(she/her) Belgium-born Asian-Latinx YouTube beauty blogger with 2.75M subscribers. YouTube channel

Nicci Farrel

(she/her) 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

A trans Puerto Rican screenwriter and director currently located in Los Angeles. website

Daniel Flores

(Yaqui/Mexican, they/them) 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: Viva Diva. 

Yance Ford

(he/him) Black trans director and producer based in Jackson Heights, NY. From 2002 to 2012 Ford was Series Producer of POV where his work curating the acclaimed documentary garnered 16 Emmy Nominations. He was also the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an Academy Award. Films include: Strong Island (2017). website imdb

Monica Forrester

(she/her) Community Activist, 2Spirit trans black sista, Queer femme, Activist in areas of lgbtq2s and racialized communities, housing, sex work and poverty. Films include: Madame Lauraine's Transsexual Touch (2001). distributor 

Sydney Freeland

(Navajo/Diné, she/her) An Emmy-nominated transgender film and TV director. Films include: The Migration (2008), Hoverboard (2012), Drunktown's Finest (2014), Her Story (web series, 2016), Deirdra & Laney Rob a Train (2017). imdb interview

River Gallo

(they/them) 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).

Ahyoka Haas

(they/them) 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) A cinematographer, filmmaker, photographer and interactive multimedia designer. Graduate of OCADU.

Bretten Hannam

(L'nu, they/them) A Two-Spirit L’nu filmmaker living in Kespukwitk, Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia) where they were raised. Their films deal with themes of community, culture, and language with a focus on two-spirit and LGBTQ+ identity. Films include: New Skin (2008), Puppy (2010), Deep End (2011), North Mountain (2015), E'sekati (2017), a'sa'katikl awti'l (2018), Elmiteskualt (2019), Wildfire (2019). website

Miles Jai

Black nonbinary transfemme YouTube star (659K subscribers). YouTube channel

Seven King

African-American 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

Christopher Lee

(he/him, 1964-2012) A Chinese and Polish-American transgender activist, and award-winning filmmaker in the San Francisco Bay Area community. He was also the co-founder of Tranny Fest, now called the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival. Films include: Christopher's Chronicles (1996), Trappings of Transhood (1997), Alley of the Tranny Boys (1998), Sex Flesh in Blood (1999). bio

TS Madison

(she/her) Black trans YouTuber, musician, and porn entrepreneur. YouTube channel

Aiyyana Maracle

(she/her) A 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). Filmmaker, actress, and cultural worker. She is a mixed-race trans Latina from Mexico City and San Antonio, Texas. Films include: Waking Hour (2019).

Mizz June

(she/her) From the Lower East Side of Manhattan and the Bronx, Mizz June, the musical persona of NYC based Actor Julienne Brown, is a protégée of luminary public figures Octavia St. Laurent and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy. 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

Janet Mock

(she/her) The New York Times bestselling author of two memoirs, Redefining Realness (2014) and Surpassing Certainty (2017), a writer, director and producer on Ryan Murphy’s FX series Pose, for which she made history as the first trans woman of color to write and direct an episode of television with the landmark script, “Love Is the Message.” website imdb

Nyala Moon

A Black transgender screenwriter, aspiring actor, writer, and producer. Films include: Nova (2017), Two Trans Women (2018). backstage 

Isabel Sandoval

(she/her) A New York-based Filipina filmmaker and MacDowell Fellow in film. The Museum of Modern Art has cited her as a “rarity among the young generation of Filipino filmmakers” for her “muted, serene aesthetic.” She is the first transgender director to compete at the Venice and BFI London film festivals with the New York-set trans immigrant drama Lingua Franca. Films include: Señorita (Locarno '11), Apparition (Busan ‘12, MoMA), Lingua Franca (Venice ‘19). imdb

Kaspar Jivan Saxena

(he/him) An Indo-German 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) A Canadian trans artist of color whose body of work crosses the boundaries of music, literature, visual art, theatre, and film. Films include: Seeking Single White Male (2010), Ache in My Name (2011), What I Love About Being Queer (2012), Holy Mother My Mother (2014), I Want to Kill Myself (2017), Reviving the Roost (2019). website

Fallon Simard

(Anishinaabe, Couchiching First Nation, he/him) An 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

Ahya Simone

(she/her) 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

(Métis, she/her) A 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: An Adventure in Tucking with Jeanne B. (1993), Gendertroublemakers (1993), Dysfunctional (1997), 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) 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) Chinese-American trans filmmaker, artist, and performer. 2012 Whitney Biennial artist and winner of 2018 MacArthur Foundation Award. Director of Zurich's Schauspielhaus. Films include: Shape of a Right Statement (2008), Wildness (2012), Tied & True (2012), Mishima in Mexico (2012), For how we perceived a life (Take 3) (2012), You're Dead to Me (2013), A day in the life of bliss (2014-), Duilian (2016). interview distributor

Rain Valdez

(she/her) An out and proud transgender 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: Juiced (2014), If Trans Women Flirted Like Cis Men (2016), What It's Like to Tell Someone You're Transgender (2016), Switch (2016), Ryans (2017), Hexed (2017), Lit Girl (2019), Razor Tongue (web series, 2019). website

Chris Vargas

(he/him) 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

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