Archive Talks: Trans Cinema: Making Communities, Identities, and Worlds
Sun 11/15 • 7PM PST
Billy Wilder Theater
In person: Pre-screening talk by Laura Horak, author, Trans Cinema: Making Communities, Identities, and Worlds. Post-screening Q&A.
Guest speaker
Archive Talks pairs leading historians and scholars with screenings of the moving image media that is the focus of their writing and research. Each program will begin with a special talk by the invited scholar that will introduce audiences to new insights, interpretations and contexts for the films and media being screened.
This screening will be preceded by a book signing of Trans Cinema: Making Communities, Identities, and Worlds with author Laura Horak beginning at 6 p.m. in the lobby.
The Archive first worked with archivist and scholar Laura Horak in 2022 when it presented a series of films unearthed by Horak and her collaborators, Maggie Hennefeld and Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi. Their archival project Cinema’s First Nasty Women celebrated the work of silent comedians who brought an anarchic brand of gender non-conformity to slapstick. Alongside that work, Horak is also the director of the Transgender Media Lab at Carleton University, which created the Transgender Media Portal(opens in a new tab), a database of trans+* creators, including links to where their work can be seen. Suffice it to say, increasing the visibility and access to the media she studies is an essential element of Horak’s ongoing research project. With her latest book, Trans Cinema: Making Communities, Identities, and Worlds, Horak dives deep into the history, practice and aesthetics of trans artists in the United States and Canada in the 21st century while positioning them within the larger history of trans media production and representation. The Archive is pleased to welcome Horak back to the Billy Wilder Theater for a brief talk about her work followed by a selection of works by trans artists and an on-stage conversation.
Screening details and special guests to be announced soon!
Part of the Archive’s Legacy Project Screening Series.
Support for the screening is provided by the Robert Gore Rifkind Foundation Queer Screening Endowment and The Andrew J. Kuehn Jr. Foundation.