After a highly successful screening tour of Poland with its last film, Shifting Visions chooses Rhode Island International Film Fest to premier the much-awaited film, TransJourney.
While the United Nations is “mapping the legal environment for Transgender people,” and the book Trans Bodies, Trans Selves is poised to echo the generational impact of Our Bodies, Our Selves for transgender America, more people are identifying as transgender than ever before. Amid this global conversation, the Providence based indie film company, Shifting Visions, follows Sandra on her cross-country journey to share in the life of her former son, now her “new” daughter Annabelle. The Brainchild of co-director and documentarian Alexia Kosmider, TransJourney soon becomes more than any one person’s journey. It’s an interplay of lives bridging the uncertain terrain of identity from different stages of growth, Annabelle from the fresh promise of self-expression, Sandra from a place that honors her deepest bonds. And permeating all, the centered connectedness of Annabelle’s transgender older friend, Shannon, suggests that sometimes growth is not about traveling out but about settling in. TransJourney will make its debut at the Rhode Island International Film Festival, a leading juried competition showcase for international indie films and their work.The screening date is on Saturday, August 9th at 7:00 p.m. at RISD’s Mecalf Auditorium. [pullquote]It’s an interplay of lives bridging the uncertain terrain of identity from different stages of growth, Annabelle from the fresh promise of self-expression, Sandra from a place that honors her deepest bonds. And permeating all, the centered connectedness of Annabelle’s transgender older friend, Shannon, suggests that sometimes growth is not about traveling out but about settling in. [/pullquote]
Intimately filmed by co-director and international digital media artist Blue Wade, with a light, meditative brush, TransJourney dwells less on the seeds of change and more on the flowers of acceptance and self-expression. In TransJourney, as in much of Kosmider’s work, the drive for connection and love outweighs gender definitions and histories.
Director/Producer Kosmider often injects her lens straight into the heady vein of emotional support among women in marginalized places – whether it be the young women of roller derby (Not Your Mama’s Roller Derby) or aging lesbians seeking a graceful third act (Sappho’s Fire). If Kosmider has a signature, it’s capturing those oft-discarded details that point to the essences of things.
With new co-director Blue Wade and fellow documentarian Michael Welty directing photography, Kosmider has put together a tight, exceptional team for perhaps her broadest canvass to date. Much-awaited by activist Kate Bornstein, Rhode Island’s PFLAG, Seattle’s Ingersoll Gender Center, and a host of individuals from the trans-identified community, TransJourney takes us on those unsung back roads leading from openness to growth, acceptance to expression, and community to support.
For more information, contact: Alexia@shiftingvisions.com or visit www.shiftingvisions.com.
[From a News Release]
