On next week’s Film Comment Podcast, we’re doing something special: we’re convening a roundtable on Trans Cinema. 

Four expert panelists—filmmakers Isabel Sandoval and Jessica Dunn Rovinelli, and critics Willow Catelyn Maclay and Caden Mark Gardner—will join us for a deep-dive discussion on the new voices, aesthetics, and contours of transgender cinema and the ways in which it’s transforming the film landscape. 

What would you like our guests to talk about on the podcast? Send us your questions using this form by noon ET on Thursday, April 15 and we’ll pose them to our panel during the recording!

So Pretty (Jessica Dunn Rovinelli, 2019) / Courtesy of 100 Year Films

Panelists

Recognized by MoMA as a “rarity among the young generation of Filipino filmmakers,” Isabel Sandoval has directed three narrative features, including Lingua Franca, nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2021 Independent Spirit Awards. Her first two features, Señorita and Apparition, are currently streaming on The Criterion Channel. She recently directed the short Shangri-La for MIU MIU Women’s Tales. She is currently working on her fourth feature, Tropical Gothic, which won a development prize at the 2021 Berlinale Co-Production Market.

Jessica Dunn Rovinelli is a film director, editor, colorist and critic based in New York. She is the director of two award-winning feature films and several shorts that have played at the Berlinale, IndieLisboa, BAM Cinemafest, and other festivals. Rovinelli is also a recipient of grants from the Centre national des arts plastiques (Paris), New York Foundation for the Arts, and Film Independent. In 2019, she was selected as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film.

Willow Catelyn Maclay is a freelance film critic. She is co-author of the upcoming book Corpses, Fools and Monsters: An Examination of Transgender Cinema and has written for outlets such as Little White Lies, Roger Ebert, MUBI Notebook and Vulture.

Caden Mark Gardner is a freelance trans film critic. He has written for the Criterion Collection, Reverse Shot, Film Comment, and Los Angeles Review of Books among others.  He will be co-authoring the forthcoming book Corpses, Fools, and Monsters: An Examination of Transgender Cinema with Willow Maclay.

The Trans Cinema roundtable will be available on the Film Comment Podcast on Tuesday, April 20. Subscribe on Soundcloud, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, or elsewhere now to ensure you can listen to the episode as soon as it drops!