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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Media Partner
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Jules Gill-Peterson, Chase Joynt, Angelica Ross, Jen Richards, Max Wolf Valerio, Silas Howard, Stephen Ira, Zackary Drucker
Canada/USA
2022
English
Gender or Sexual Discrimination
At SFU Woodward’s
At The Rio
Book Tickets
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La venue de l'avenir
Four cousins are tapped to investigate an abandoned house that is their joint inheritance. As they explore, they learn their story of their ancestor Adele (Suzanne Lindon) and her foray into Paris in the age of Impressionism.
Coffee House Folk + Inside Llewyn Davis
The Coens' catty portrait of the 60s Greenwich Village scene is the best movie about folk music, bar none. Before the movie, enjoy solo sets from four local singer-songwriters: Rodney DeCroo, Tim Readman, LJ Mounteney and Andy Hillhouse.
Where to Land
Hal Hartley's first new film in a decade is a melancholy farce about mortality and what we'll call "late middle-age". Bill Sage is a semi-retired filmmaker who isn't dying faster than the rest of us but who behaves like he might be.
Innocence
Lucile Hadžihalilović's first feature is a suggestive, subversive fairy tale set in a private school for young girls, the kind of film David Lynch might have made, if he'd been born a French woman in the early 1960s.
Sentimental Value
A once-revered director crashes back into his family’s lives, eager to recruit his daughter for a film role. When she declines, he finds a new muse in an eager but unpolished Hollywood star, sending his botched reconciliation spiraling into chaos.
The Ice Tower
In Lucile Hadžihalilović's spellbinding fantasy drama, an orphan (Clara Pacini) becomes enthralled by a movie star (Marion Cotillard) playing the Snow Queen in a fairy tale film adaptation. Winner of the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution.
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
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)