Sales and Distribution
Kino Lorber (USA)
Mongrel Media (Canada)
Film Collaborative (Festivals)
Blue Ant Media (International)

FRAMING AGNES

a film by CHASE JOYNT
starring ANGELICA ROSS ZACKARY DRUCKER JEN RICHARDS
2022 · 75m · Creative Documentary · Trans, Queer, and Female-led

After discovering case files from a 1950s gender clinic, a cast of trans actors turn a talk show inside out to confront the legacy of a young trans woman forced to choose between honesty and access.

Sundance (NEXT Innovator Award, Audience Award: NEXT)
Bergen (Golden Owl) | Ashland (Best of the Fest) | XPOSED (Audience Award)
Hot Docs | Cleveland | Melbourne | Edinburgh | Seattle | Provincetown

LEVEL GROUND presents
in association with FAE PICTURES
with the participation of TELEFILM CANADA and THE TALENT FUND
CANADA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS HOT DOCS TED ROGERS FUND XTR INTO THE NOISE
UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA YORK UNIVERSITY

DIRECTOR: Chase Joynt
WRITERS: Chase Joynt & Morgan M Page
PRODUCERS: Shant Joshi and Chase Joynt
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Samantha Curley and Morgan M Page
FEATURING: Jules Gill-Peterson, Angelica Ross, Jen Richards, Zackary Drucker, Max Wolf Valerio, Silas Howard, Stephen Ira
FUNDERS: Telefilm Canada, Canada Council for the Arts, XTR, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Fund, University of Victoria, Inside Out RE:Focus Fund
DISTRIBUTION: Kino Lorber (USA), Mongrel Media (Canada), Blue Ant (International Broadcast), The Film Collaborative (International Theatrical and Festivals), UTA (Worldwide Sales)

SYNOPSIS
In 1958, a young trans woman named Agnes entered a study about sex disorders at UCLA to get the gender-affirming care she needed, by any means necessary. Her story was long considered to be exceptional until never-before-seen case files of other patients were found in 2017. Directed by Chase Joynt (NO ORDINARY MAN) and featuring an all-star cast of transgender artists and actors, FRAMING AGNES uses re-enactment and genre-blurring storytelling techniques to breathe new life into previously unknown people who redefined gender in the midcentury.

DIRECTOR BIO
Chase Joynt is a director and writer whose films have won awards internationally. With Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase co-directed No Ordinary Man, a feature-length documentary about jazz musician Billy Tipton. Since premiering at TIFF in 2020, No Ordinary Man has been hailed by The New Yorker as “a genre unto itself” and Indiewire as “the future of trans cinema.”

DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Presenting one person’s story, rather than a story about a group, is a common storytelling method in medical and media histories of trans people. For example, the 1993 murder of Brandon Teena – as depicted in Kimberley Pierce’s Boys Don’t Cry (1999) – remains a touchpoint of both news media and Hollywood attention. Similarly, Christine Jorgensen’s interviews on early talk shows in the 1950s are still referenced as the singular turning point in televised trans history. In these stories, trans people are positioned in isolation – untethered from community and family – and therefore ever-vulnerable to harm and exploitation. In reality, trans communities have been navigating and world-building together behind the scenes since before “trans” was a thing. Isolation was, in fact, a narrative produced and patrolled by medicine and the media. Representation of trans and gender nonconforming communities has changed dramatically in the last decade. Framing Agnes emerges as an incisive opportunity to both acknowledge social change and remember the formative, often flawed makings of history. Our project is emboldened by a team of artists motivated to blur the lines between fiction and nonfiction, past and present, in pursuit of a more expansive and nuanced future. 

THEATRICAL RUN: LATEST DATES

The Roxy – New York, NY – 1/14/23 (one night only)
Gateway Cinema – Columbus OH – 1/13/23 - 1/19/23
Hippodrome – Gainesville, FL – 1/13/23 - 1/22/23
Northwest Film Forum – Seattle, WA – 1/18, 19, 28, 29
Gene Siskel Film Center – Chicago, IL – opens 1/27/2022
The Lark – Larkspur, CA – opens 1/27/23
Minor Theater – Arcata, CA – 01/29/23 (one night only)
Guild Cinema – Albuquerque. NM – 01/31/22 - 02/02/23
Brattle Cinema – Cambridge, MA – 02/03/23 - 02/06/22
Suns Cinema – Washington, DC – 2/8/23 - 2/9/23
Myrna Loy Center – Helena, MT – 2/9/2023 (one night only)
Dietrich Cinema – Tunkhannock, PA – 2/20, 2/24, 2/27, 3/6
Images – Williamstown, MA – 3/6/2023 (one night only)
Beverly – Las Vegas, NV – opens 3/27
Queens Public Library – New York, NY – 5/31/2023 - 6/4/2023

AWARDS

  • Sundance Film Festival - NEXT Innovator Award, Audience Award: NEXT

  • Bergen International Film Festival - Golden Owl Award

  • Ashland Independent Film Festival - Best of the Fest

  • XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin - Audience Award: Feature

  • Wicked Queer: Boston LGBTQ+ Film Festival - Documentary Jury Award

  • Festival MIX Milano - Sky Documentary Award

  • Bates Film Festival - Audience Award: Documentary Feature

  • Queer North Film Festival Ontario - Jury Prize: Best Canadian Film

  • Thin Line Film Festival - Special Recognition Award: Social Impact

FEATURED PRESENTATIONS AND NOMINATIONS

  • OUTshine Film Festival Miami - Runner Up - Jury Award: Best Documentary Feature Film

  • Out Film CT - Centerpiece

  • Queertactics Film Festival - Opening Gala

  • Queer North Film Festival Ontario - Opening Night

  • All Genders, Lifestyles, and Identities Film Festival Pride Mini-Fest - Closing Night

  • FIN Atlantic Film Festival - Special Presentation

  • Queer Lisboa: Lisbon Gay and Lesbian Film Festival - Nomination - Competition for Best Documentary

  • Calgary International Film Festival - Nomination - DGC Canadian Documentary Competition

FESTIVAL SELECTIONS

  • Hot Docs | Cleveland | Melbourne | Edinburgh | Seattle | Provincetown

  • BFI Flare | Outfest LA | NewFest Pride | Frameline | Inside Out

  • Vancouver | FIN Atlantic | Windsor | Barrie | Oakville | Forest City

  • Vinokino | Gasparilla | Stockfish Reykjavik | Cinema Columbus | Alexander Valley | deadCenter | Cindependent | Over-the-Rhine | Americana Film Festival (Barcelona)

  • Utopia/Dystopia Berlin | Fragments Festival (UK) | ASU Human Rights | Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film | Faroe Islands Minority

  • Tampa Bay Queer | OUTwatch Sebastopol | Pink Apple Zurich | TRANSlations Seattle | Reel Out Charlotte Pride | Zagreb Pride | KASHISH Mumbai Queer | Leeds Queer | Prairie Pride | Queer Utrecht | Kansai Queer | Queer Lisboa | Out on Film Atlanta | Oslo/Fusion | Rakvere LGBT | Cinema Queer Stockholm | Everybody's Perfect: Geneva Queer | Queer Munich | Hamburg Queer | MIX Copenhagen | Perlen Queer Hannover | LesGaiCineMad Madrid | Brussels Pink Screen | Melbourne Queer | OUT-Film Kenya | Merlinka Belgrade | Mardi Gras Sydney | Rainbow Reels Tokyo | Festival Écrans Mixtes

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

  • Cinemas: Kriterion Amsterdam | Zeiterion Theatre | Denver Film Society | National Film & Sound Archive of Australia | Moving Image at Cactus Club

  • Academic: UCLA Archive Preview | IASPIS Stockholm | UC San Diego | Technische Universität Dresden | Center for Interdisciplinary Women's and Gender Studies Berlin

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The area known as Tovaangar (the Los Angeles basin and So. Channel Islands) has been caretaken by the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples. We pay our respects to the Honuukvetam (Ancestors), ‘Ahiihirom (Elders) and ‘Eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging.
The area known as Tkaronto has been caretaken by the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Huron-Wendat, and the Métis. It is now home to many Indigenous Peoples such as the current Treaty 13 holders, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is subject to the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement to share and care for the Great Lakes region.