Queer Futures
The QUEER FUTURES series centers joy and connection to radically imagine future visions of queer life. Four short films explore gender-affirming healthcare, fat beauty and liberation, nonbinary ballroom culture, and the anonymous connections of a decades-old LGBTQ hotline.
Transcending the rigidity and oppressions of the current moment, these films locate, build, and inhabit speculative worlds that offer new ways of being – in the present and the future. Just as queer lives subvert normative expectations of behavior, identity, and expression, these directors expand the boundaries of nonfiction forms to present new ways of seeing the queer experience lived out loud.
Chicken & Egg Films Presents,
A Multitude Films Production,
In Association with JustFilms | Ford Foundation and InMaat Productions,
Executive Produced by J Wortham.
Episodes
This punk rock fairytale doubles as a portrait of Shoog McDaniel — a fat, queer, and disabled photographer working in and around northern Florida’s vast network of freshwater springs, the state’s source of precious drinking water. For over a decade, Shoog’s photographs have transformed the way fat people view themselves and how a fat-phobic society views fat bodies. Bringing Shoog’s photography to life, the film immerses audiences in a world of fat beauty and liberation, one in which marginalized bodies — including bodies of water — are sacred.
How to Carry Water
Sasha Wortzel
Director, she/they
Raised in South Florida and based in New York City, Sasha’s films have screened at the MOMA DocFortnight, True/False, BAMcinemaFest, Wexner Center for the Arts, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Berlinale, among others. Solo exhibitions include Dreams of Unknown Islands at Cooley Memorial Art Gallery with Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, OR (2022) and Oolite Arts, Miami Beach, FL (2021). Their work has been exhibited in group exhibitions at the New Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and The Kitchen, New York; and SALTS, Birsfelden. Wortzel has been supported by the Sundance Institute, Ford Foundation, Field of Vision, and Doc Society. Wortzel’s film THIS IS AN ADDRESS (2020) is distributed by Field of Vision. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARSHA! (2018; co-director Tourmaline) won special mention at Outfest and is distributed by Frameline. Wortzel’s work is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Studio Museum of Harlem, Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, and Miami Dade County Art in Public Places.
Blending personal interviews with dramatized genre recreations, THE SCRIPT explores the troubled relationship between trans communities and medical providers in healthcare settings. With a playful approach toward experimentation, the film offers a vision of how physicians and trans patients can meet one another on equal footing.
The Script
Brit Fryer
Director, he/him
Brit is an award-winning queer and trans filmmaker based in Brooklyn. His film, CARO COMES OUT, premiered on HBOMax after winning the 2021 Knight Made in MIA Award at the Miami International Film Festival.His other films include ACROSS, BEYOND, AND OVER, I-57, and TRANS·IENCE. He also works as a producer, most recently of Lydia Cornett’s BUG FARM and Crystal Kayiza’s REST STOP, which was an official selection of the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. He is grateful to have shown at Indie Grits, NewFest, Outfest, Inside Out, MIX NYC, Blackstar Film Festival, and more. Brit and his work have been supported by the Sundance Ignite Fellowship, Creative Culture, Chicken and Egg, GLAAD's Equity in Media and Entertainment Initiative, and HBO / Gotham's Documentary Development Initiative.
Noah Schamus
Director, they/them
Noah is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker of documentary and narrative films. Their short films have been presented at film festivals including BFI Flare, Outfest, Inside Out, NewFest, Indie Memphis, Maryland Film Festival, Provincetown Film Festival, and New Orleans Film Festival (where their short film, “Chemistry of Mood” garnered an Honorable Mention for Best Performance by Naian Gonzalez Norvind). “Across, Beyond, and Over,” co-directed with Brit Fryer, was featured on NoBudge and is a Vimeo Staff Pick. They are currently in post-production on their first narrative feature film, “Summer Solstice” which was the recipient of the Panavision New Filmmaker Program grant, was included in the 2021 Outfest Screenwriting Lab as a Notable Writer, and was selected to take part in Us in Progress at the American Film Festival in November 2022. They hold an MFA from Columbia University in Screenwriting and Directing.
MnM is an exuberant portrait of chosen sisters Mermaid and Milan, two emerging runway divas in the drag ballroom community. Celebrating their joy, siblinghood, and unapologetic personas, the film explores the power and beauty of being nonbinary in a community that prizes gender ‘realness.’
MnM
Twiggy Pucci Garçon
Director, she/they
Twiggy is an activist, creative director, event producer, culture curator, performance artist, and runway trainer. They have collaborated with Gucci, Coach, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, GLAAD, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Reebok, and more. Twiggy has worked at True Colors United for nearly a decade, protecting rights for young people experiencing homelessness. They are the Overall Overseer for the Legendary International House of Comme des Garçon, the Chief Ambassador for the Center for Black Equity, and Co-Founder of All Tea, No Shade Productions alongside New York Times Bestselling author George M. Johnson. Twiggy was a featured subject in HBO’s THE OUT LIST (2013), was the co-writer and subject of Sara Jordenö’s award-winning documentary KIKI (Sundance 2016), and served as consultant and runway choreographer on Ryan Murphy’s Emmy-nominated FX series, POSE.
THE CALLERS combines intimate documentary testimony with imagined creative scenes to tell the anonymous stories of those who have called England's oldest LGBTQ+ phone helpline since it opened in 1974. Callers seek guidance on everything from where to find the nearest leather bar to how to come out, navigate an open relationship, impress a new lover or mend a broken heart. Together with the listening volunteers who answer the phones, they imagine the outcome they dream of.
The Callers
Lindsey Dryden
Director, she/her
Lindsey is an Emmy-winning filmmaker from the UK and based in Austin, TX. She directed the feature documentary Lost and Sound (2012, SXSW) which was nominated Best Female-Directed Film at Sheffield Doc/Fest, and directed documentary shorts including The Callers (2024, Queer Futures), Jackie Kay: One Person, Two Names (2017, Tate Queer British Art), and Close Your Eyes and Look At Me (2009, True/False). Lindsey produced Sundance Special Jury Award-winning Unrest (2017, PBS/Netflix) and Emmy-winning Trans In America (2019, them), and Executive Produced Ahead of the Curve (2020, Starz/Netflix). She is a 2024 Concordia Fellow, a 2022 Sundance Institute Documentary Producers Lab Fellow, and has been mentored by BAFTAxBFI Flare and Andrew Haigh. Lindsey is a member of AMPAS, BAFTA and QueerDoc, and a proud co-founder of FWD-Doc (Filmmakers with Disabilities), advancing documentary filmmakers in the D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent community.
Series
J Wortham
Executive Producer, they/them
Viridiana Lieberman
Editor, she/her
Grace Mendenhall
Editor, she/her
Producers
Colleen Cassingham
Jess Devaney
Consulting Producers
Jeff Seelbach
Rivkah Beth Medow
Jennifer Rainin
Executive Producers
Jenni Wolfson
Anya Rous
Production Coordinators
Morgan Hulquist
Sarah Yi Fineman
Julia Tinneny
Co-Executive Producer
Sweta Vohra
