Trans Filmmakers Build DIY Network Outside Hollywood
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- Vera Drew premiered her trans superhero parody "The People's Joker" entirely outside the studio system after festival screenings at TIFF and Fantastic Fest, telling Variety she initially thought she was "making a movie for myself" with no real audience.
- GLAAD's "Where We Are in Film" report found zero trans characters featured in 2025 releases from the top 10 U.S. distributors, a gap associate director of research Raina Deerwater ties to a lack of trans directors on big-budget films.
- Jane Schoenbrun's Mubi-distributed horror comedy "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma," starring Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder, began its theatrical run, making Schoenbrun the rare trans filmmaker working at the $10 million budget level — a position they describe with "guilt."
- Louise Weard's "Castration Movie" anthology has become an epicenter for the circle, with the third chapter featuring Avalon Fast and executive produced by Lilly Wachowski; Weard says she was drawn to the "ugly perspective" of a TERF character.
- Drew's next feature, horror comedy "Trandemic," received a $25,000 grant from the Duplass Brothers' inaugural Found Footage Feature Fund and has reportedly already attracted distributor interest.
- Schoenbrun actively mentors emerging filmmakers on set: Eva Victor shadowed on "I Saw the TV Glow" before directing "Sorry, Baby," while Alice Maio Mackay shadowed on "Camp Miasma" before making "The Serpent's Skin."
- Avalon Fast debuted with "Honeycomb" in 2022 for $5,000 made with friends; their recent "Camp" follows a young camp counselor whose summer takes a supernatural, witchy turn.
Why it matters: GLAAD's finding of zero trans characters in 2025 top-10 studio releases underscores why this DIY community exists at all: trans creators with personal stories have virtually no path into the major studio system, leaving Schoenbrun as essentially the only trans director working at the $10 million tier and forcing most of the field to self-fund, collaborate, and distribute outside Hollywood.
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