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Talkhouse

Chase Joynt is a non-fiction filmmaker and writer whose latest film, <a href="https://www.thefilmcollaborative.org/films/stateoffirsts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">State of Firsts</a>, about Rep. Sarah McBride, is playing in theaters across the US from June 26. His documentary features The Nest (with Julietta Singh) and State of Firsts both premiered in 2025, at Hot Docs and Tribeca, respectively. His documentary feature Framing Agnes was named a Best Movie of the Year by The New Yorker after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the NEXT Innovator Award and the NEXT Audience Award. The film has played more than 100 festivals internationally and is distributed by Kino Lorber. With Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase co-directed No Ordinary Man, which was presented at Cannes Docs, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and was hailed by The New Yorker as “a genre unto itself” and Indiewire as “the future of trans cinema.” For the CW, Chase directed episodes of Two Sentence Horror Stories which are now streaming on Netflix; his episode Elliot from Season 2 won a Telly Award for directing. He is the co-author of three non-fiction books, including the Lambda Literary Award Finalist You Only Live Twice with Mike Hoolboom and Boys Don’t Cry with Morgan M Page. His latest book, Vantage Points, was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust of Canada Prize for Nonfiction and named a Best Book of the Year by CBC Books, The Walrus and Autostraddle. (Photo by Amos Mac.)

Chase Joynt

Film

A Trans Lens, a Cinema of Defiance

Ash Mayfair&#8216;s new feature, <a href="https://www.filmmovementplus.com/videos/skin-of-youth-trailer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Skin of Youth</a>, an all-consuming love story between a transgender singer and a dog-cage fighter set in 1990s Saigon, Vietnam, is out now on Film Movement Plus from June 26. She was born in Vietnam and educated in the UK and the US. Ash received a BA from Oxford University for English Literature, trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London for theatre directing and received an MFA in filmmaking at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Her first feature, The Third Wife, was released by Film Movement in 2019 and is now available through leading digital platforms and Film Movement Plus. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the NETPAC Jury Award, and also won awards at the San Sebastian, Milano, Chicago, Minsk, Kolkata and Cairo film festivals.

Ash Mayfair

Transgender / Transcendence

Alex Schmider is an award-winning producer who also serves as Senior Director of Entertainment at GLAAD, known for helping shape authentic LGBTQ+ storytelling through acclaimed film, TV and documentary projects including Disclosure (Netflix), Changing the Game (Hulu), Stay on Board: The Leo Baker Story (Netflix), Framing Agnes (Kino Lorber) and Chasing Chasing Amy (Level 33 Entertainment). Schmider was honored as part of this year’s <a href="https://www.out.com/out100/2025/educators/alex-schmider" target="_blank" rel="noopener">OUT100</a> as he continues to push representation in film and TV forward by amplifying LGBTQ+ stories. His latest project, KICK, is at DOC NYC this year as part of the festival’s PRO Pitch Day on November 13th. Alex was recently named one of DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40.

Alex Schmider

Why Sports Documentaries Will Always Matter – To Culture, and To Me

Lizzie Borden is an independent writer-director of films such as Born in Flames (1983) and Working Girls (1986). Born in Flames was re-released in a 35mm restoration print by the Anthology Film Archives in 2016 and shown worldwide, including the London and Edinburgh Film Festivals, MOMA and BAM. Working Girls has been restored by the Criterion Collection and written about extensively. Whorephobia, her anthology of stories written by strippers with interviews by them, published by Seven Stories Press, including pieces by Kathy Acker, Cookie Mueller, Chris Kraus, Antonia Crane, Lily Burana, Reese Piper and 18 additional writers, was published in December 2022. Her new film, Rialto – set in 1953, about a woman running a movie theater and attacked by the Legion of Decency for showing foreign films, but hiding a dark secret – is in pre-production. She also works as a script consultant and teach screenwriting.

Lizzie Borden

Three Great Things: Lizzie Borden

Al Menne is a singer-songwriter who fronts the Seattle band Great Grandpa. Great Grandpa’s latest record, Patience, Moonbeam, is out now on Run For Cover. 
(Photo Credit: Rachel Bennett)

Al Menne

Music

The New Great Grandpa Record Gives Annie Truscott Goosebumps

trans