''Framing Agnes'' is a 2022 Canadian

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

, directed by

Chase Joynt Chase Joynt is a Canadian filmmaker, writer, video artist, actor, and professor. He attracted acclaim as co-director with Aisling Chin-Yee of the documentary film ''No Ordinary Man (film), No Ordinary Man'' (2020),Pat Mullen"Canada at Cannes: Docum ...

. An examination of

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

histories, the film centres on Joynt and a cast of transgender actors reenacting various case studies from Harold Garfinkel's work with transgender clients at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

Synopsis

The film explores the concept of the trans icon. It uses a hybrid format, combining scholarly analysis with clips based on archived interviews, filmed with transgender actors.

Background

The film is an expansion of Joynt's short film of the same title, which premiered in 2019.

Cast

The cast includes Angelica Ross,

Zackary Drucker Zackary Drucker (born 1983) is an American multimedia artist, cultural producer, LGBT social movements, LGBT activist, actress, and television producer. She is an Emmy Awards, Emmy-nominated producer for the docu-series ''This Is Me'' (2015), a co ...

, Jen Richards,

Max Wolf Valerio Max Wolf Valerio (born February 16, 1957, in Heidelberg, West Germany) is an American poet, memoir writer, essayist and actor. He has lived for many years in San Francisco, California. Valerio described his transition and experiences as a trans ...

Silas Howard Silas Howard is an American film and television director, writer, and actor. His first feature film ''By Hook or by Crook'' (2001) co-directed with Harry Dodge is a seminal trans masc feature. Howard earned an MFA in directing at UCLA and is ...

, and Stephen Ira.

Release and reception

The film premiered at the

2022 Sundance Film Festival The 2022 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 20 to 30, 2022. Due to COVID-19 pandemic in Utah, COVID-19 pandemic protocol, it was initially intended to be an in-person/virtual hybrid festival, but on January 5, 2022, it was announced ...

, where Joynt won both the Audience Award and the Innovator Prize in the NEXT program. In a critical review in '' Paste'', Shayna Maci Warner wrote, "As a cinematic experience, the film feels pulled in several directions, formally incomplete and jagged." IndieWire's review was similarly mixed, commenting negatively on the high proportion of academic content in the documentary, making it "feel more a history class than a story." The film was longlisted for the

Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award The Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award is an annual Canadian award, presented by the Directors Guild of Canada The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC; ) is a Canadian labour union representing more than 5,500 professionals from 48 different occupat ...

, and shortlisted for the

DGC Allan King Award for Best Documentary Film The DGC Allan King Award for Best Documentary Film is an annual Canadian award, presented by the Directors Guild of Canada to honour the year's best direction in documentary films in Canada. The award was renamed in 2010 to honour influential Canadi ...

at the 2022

Directors Guild of Canada The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC; ) is a Canadian labour union representing more than 5,500 professionals from 48 different occupations in the Canadian film and television industry. Founded in 1962, the DGC represents directors, editors, assist ...

awards.

References

External links

* * {{GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary 2022 films 2022 documentary films 2022 independent films 2022 LGBTQ-related films Transgender-related documentary films Canadian films based on actual events Sundance Film Festival award–winning films LGBTQ-related films based on actual events 2020s English-language films 2020s Canadian films Canadian LGBTQ-related documentary films English-language documentary films English-language independent films