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Framing Agnes film image, director Chase Joynt

Framing Agnes

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Exhuming transcripts from a 1950s UCLA study on transgender individuals, Chase Joynt and his cast employ re-enactments, reinvention, and personal reflections to examine the trans stories that are told and how—and by whom—they are authored.

Every bit as conceptually daring as VIFF 2020’s No Ordinary Man (which Joynt co-directed), Framing Agnes sees the director assume the role of vintage talk show host and administers clinical interrogations of the titular Agnes (Zackary Drucker) and dozens of other individuals (played by influential figures like Angelica Ross and Jen Richards) who transitioned in the mid-20th century. Further blurring fact and fiction, Joynt and his collaborators counterpoint their lived experiences with those of the women they’re portraying, while academic Jules Gill-Peterson offers historical context.

The result is an all-too-rare film that is in constant dialogue with itself. Both a historical excavation and bold deconstruction, Framing Agnes exists in a liminal space. And in sparking essential discourse about these trailblazers, it aspires to lay the groundwork for further social change.

 

Audience Award & NEXT Innovator Award, Sundance 2022

 

Q&A Oct 1 & Oct 3

 

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Director
Cast

Jules Gill-Peterson, Chase Joynt, Angelica Ross, Jen Richards, Max Wolf Valerio, Silas Howard, Stephen Ira, Zackary Drucker

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada/USA

Year

2022

Language

English

Links
Content Warning

Gender or Sexual Discrimination

18+

At SFU Woodward’s

19+

At The Rio

75 min
Award Winners Documentary Human Rights & Social Justice LGBTQIA2S+

Book Tickets

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Credits

Producer

Samantha Curley, Shant Joshi, Chase Joynt

Screenwriter

Chase Joynt, Morgan M Page

Cinematography

Aubree Bernier-Clarke

Editor

Brooke Stern Sebold, Cecilio Escobar

Production Design

Becca Blackwood

Original Music

Casey Mecija

Director

Chase Joynt headshot, Framing Agnes director

Chase Joynt

Director and writer Chase Joynt’s feature-length documentary No Ordinary Man (2020, co-directed with Aisling Chin-Yee) about jazz musician Billy Tipton won nine awards on the international festival circuit, including being named to TIFF Canada’s Top Ten. Joynt’s first book, You Only Live Twice (co-authored with Mike Hoolboom), was a 2017 Lambda Literary Award Finalist. Joynt also directed episodes of Two Sentence Horror Stories for The CW, which are now streaming on Netflix. With Samantha Curley, Chase runs Level Ground Productions, a production company in Los Angeles.

Filmography: No Ordinary Man (2020)