Trailer Watch: Trans Artists Revisit Troubling History and Reclaim Their Stories in “Framing Agnes” Doc

Trailers

Trailer Watch: Trans Artists Revisit Troubling History and Reclaim Their Stories in “Framing Agnes” Doc

In “Framing Agnes,” “No Ordinary Man” co-director Chase Joynt stages reenactments with fellow trans artists to revisit studies conducted at the UCLA Gender Clinic in the 1950s. Deadline premiered a trailer for the Sundance award-winning documentary.

“I first encountered Agnes in graduate school. I read a case study about a young trans girl in the 1950s who lied her way into the UCLA Gender Clinic to get access to surgery,” one commentator recalls in the clip. But she recognized that the facts as presented were “a lie” and “not telling the real story.”

To find the truth of the study’s subjects, Joynt creates scenes in which he is a talk show host and trans performers such as Angelica Ross (“Pose”), Jen Richards (“Mrs. Fletcher”), and Zackary Drucker (“Transparent”) are UCLA study subjects being interviewed for broadcast. “For many people of our generation, the talk show was the place where many of us first encountered gender non-conforming subjects,” the director explains of his vision.

The re-enactments display how — at least by 2022 standards — problematic the study’s perspective and methods were. “How do you justify the lies?” Joynt’s talk show host asks Drucker’s Agnes, seemingly referring to her trans identity. “How do you justify your questions?” she responds.

Along with excavating a troubling part of trans history, “Framing Agnes” gives its participants the chance to share their truths on their own terms — something that the UCLA study subjects may have been denied. As Ross puts it, “We have heard the story told by the hunter — and not by the lion. And not by the lions who not only fought back but got away.”

“Framing Agnes” won the NEXT Audience Award at Sundance 2022, and Joynt received the NEXT Innovator Award. The filmmaker penned the project with Morgan M. Page.

“Framing Agnes” will screen as a special presentation at Hot Docs, which is holding a hybrid edition April 28-May 8.