In case you missed it, I co-wrote a book with Willow Catelyn Maclay called Corpses, Fools, and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema. This has been a project that was years in the making, something that was in some ways manifested through friendly conversations over social media and texting but then gained steam when we began our Body Talk series in 2018. Today, July 9, 2024, it is officially out in the world as a published book.
It has been over six years since our first Body Talk and the book taking form evolved from our original dialogues. To present a few examples, we have discovered older works previously unavailable, and we have each remarked on the rise of trans authored cinema as we also worked through going deeper than the select placeholder titles of what stood in as trans representation of films that would be programmed for Pride month. I am proud of the work we did, and Willow and I are both thrilled that people can now go out and buy it or take it out of their local library.
I feel like I will exhaust myself in trying to go over the many instances and expressions of thanks to people, both living and dead, who have supported us as critics and our vision for the book along the way. We have an acknowledgments section in our book that is sufficient for now. But there are still so many people we have each come across in this process whether they were programmers, cinephiles, academics, or artists who have challenged and broadened the scope of what this book became and also what we push forward of what is the future of ‘trans cinema’ as a true sub-genre in our book’s final chapter.
We have events starting this week at Museum of Moving Image with a four-film program with three of the films playing that Saturday, July 13 with Ma Vie En Rose, Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, and Lingua Franca. City of Lost Souls will play the following Saturday, July 20.
The next week I will be at Vidiots in Los Angeles to do a crossover event with Skylight Books for another screening of Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean on Thursday, July 18. On Friday, July 19, I will be with my sister from another mister, Liz Purchell (who will also be in LA a special screening of UCLA for her excellent film Ask Any Buddy on Saturday, July 20) at WHAMMY! Analog Media for a secret screening that is definitely an open secret but let’s just say it is doubtful the rights holders to this film will ever put it on their streaming service. Sunday, July 21st at Los Angeles Filmforum will have a special program that Willow and I curated called Gender Troublemakers that will feature the great trans short of the same name along with Cary Cronenwett’s excellent film Maggots and Men and Angelo Madsen Minax’s excellent short Bigger on the Inside.
These events will be me by myself due to Willow’s immigration situation but she will be doing taped introductions for both the Moving Image and Vidiots screenings.
However, we have virtual events with Olympia Public Library/Film Society on July 13 and Charis Books and More on July 24, the former has Liz Purchell moderating our talk and the latter will be done by the wonderful Millie DeChirico.
Additionally, Willow will be able to do physical events with Canada and that is what we are doing with the Paradise Theatre in Toronto on Sunday, July 28 with a special screening of Ginger Snaps.
We have other stuff in the works, and we will make sure to update that on socials and post on here for yet another digital paper trail of that.
Please buy our book if you have not already and if you have, spread the word! And if you are in the area for our physical events, go and/or spread the word on that. If you are not in the area, well, we do have the Charis Books virtual talk, but also, definitely bully any friends you may know who lives in the area to go! Tell them I encouraged it.
Thank you all again for reading. This has been a surreal experience and may just continue to be that way for us for a while.
Congrats!!
Very many congrats, Caden and Willow!