BURTON BEFORE AND AFTER
Narrative: In 2017, I directed Burton Before and After, a short documentary about my best friend's gender-affirming transition. The film revisits a forgotten cache of home video footage shot 15 years prior, asking: How well do we remember the formative times in our lives and what fresh insights can materialize when we look backward through the lens of experience?
Awards: Social Impact Award at the Wandering Reel Traveling Film Festival (2020), Best Short Film at the North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (2019), Put Eyes on What’s Working Award at the Film Festival at Browns Point (2019), Audience Award for Best Short at Olympia Film Festival (2018), Portland Focus Award at Portland Film Festival (2018), Audience Award for Best Transgender Short Film at Seattle Queer Film Festival (2018), Audience Favorite at Cinema Diverse Palm Springs LGBTQ Film Festival (2018), Best Trans Documentary at the Trans Stellar Film Festival (2018).
Presentations at colleges and universities: The Evergreen State College (Professor Suree Towfighnia’s Mediaworks: Signifying Difference and Power on Screens course), Portland State University (Professor Miriam Abelson’s Transgender Studies course), Queering Social Justice Symposium (hosted by Portland State University), Trans Pictures: An Evening of Films Exploring Trans Lives at the Gene Siskel Film Center (hosted by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago).
Special presentations: Hollywood Theatre at Portland International Airport Fall 2019 program, Trans Summit 2018 (hosted by Outfest LA).
Educational distribution: Dark Hollow Films (2018-2019).
Film Festival Distribution: Leeds Queer Film Festival, Outfest Los Angeles, Q Films (Long Beach Q Film Festival), Reeling (The Chicago International LGBTQ Film Festival), Cinema Diverse (Palm Springs LGBTQ Film Festival), Oregon Independent Film Festival, Olympia Film Festival, Tampa Bay International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, BendFilm Festival, TWIST (Seattle Queer Film Festival), Trans Stellar Film Festival Detroit, Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival (Portland), Portland Film Festival, Q Fest: San Antonio LGBT International Film Festival, Corvallis Queer Film Festival, Ethnografilm (Paris), Portland International Film Festival, Translations (Seattle), Ashland Independent Film Festival, Palm Springs International ShortFest, North Carolina Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Wandering Reel Film Festival (Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Northern California), Film Festival at Browns Point (Tacoma).
View the film: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6795029