On 29 March, NYU Washington, DC and The Video Consortium, a creative community of the world’s leading video journalists and nonfiction filmmakers, will host an evening of LGBTQ+ film and discussion with filmmakers. This event is sponsored by the NYU DC LGBTQ Intersections student group.
Video plays an integral role in the present, and will, undoubtedly, dominate and shape the future. More films than ever before are being made, produced and distributed in intriguing, ever-evolving ways. And yet, during a time when societal unease and shifting mores permeate the zeitgeist, truthful stories that inspire, evoke empathy, and awaken are an increasingly necessary tool to connect, human to human, and to unite people across the globe.
The Video Consortium was born out of a desire to bring together those who craft these stories. As creators, they help each other strengthen the work they make through collaborating, exchanging knowledge, and communing.
MUXES: In the traditional indigenous Zapoteca culture, muxes – children identified as male at birth, but who choose at a young age to be raised as female – are embraced as part of the community.
I Like Girls: In this animated film, four women share their funny, intimate, often fumbling tales of their first loves. For them, discovering that they’re attracted to other women comes hand-in-hand with a deeper understanding of their personal identity and a joyful new self-awareness.
At War and In Love: For transgender service members in the U.S. Military, they are often forced to present as the gender they were assigned at birth, under threat of losing their job. We follow the love story of two soldiers in this is a documentary short, which has now become a feature length documentary, TransMilitary. In March 2018, it premiered at SXSW and received the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Check It (Excerpt): Excerpt from the Check It feature documentary, following the members of the LGBTQ+ gang, Check It, in D.C. These teenagers have been cast out by their families, and are subject to homelessness, poverty, violence, rape, and discrimination. This excerpt explores the undying friendship that exists between these kids – a bond that is tested every day as they fight to stand up for who they are in a community relentlessly trying to beat them down. Now, they have made the incredible leap from the streets to the fashion industry – with an Anacostia store front that creates a safe space for members and alternate income by designing their own clothing.
