I first heard about Jamie Diaz from my Producer and cinematographer, Andrew Fredericks, who had discovered the fundamentals of her story and handed them on to me – Jamie is a trans lady incarcerated in a males’s jail in Texas and a prolific artist.
He despatched me to her web site. And whereas I used to be definitely amazed by the standard of artwork she was creating beneath the tough circumstances of incarceration, it was once I learn considered one of Jamie’s letters and skilled the intimacy and honesty of her voice, {that a} imaginative and prescient of a movie emerged. So Andrew and I reached out to Gabriel Joffe, Jamie’s buddy and advocate in Boston and proposed the concept of creating a brief documentary. Gabriel introduced the concept to Jamie, and upon getting the pair’s blessings, we headed as much as Massachusetts and began filming.
One of many first challenges for me is that I’m a heterosexual, cisgender lady who wished to inform a trans centered story. To do this, I enlisted individuals from the LGBTQ+ neighborhood to hitch our core artistic and advisory staff, to assist steer us away from the pitfalls, clichés and tropes that usually accompany tales about trans of us instructed by individuals exterior the neighborhood. I additionally felt it could be important that the filmmaking course of be absolutely clear and collaborative with Jamie and Gabriel, the principle individuals of the movie. We shared language used on the web site, fundraising appeals and cuts of the movie because it developed. We devised a option to ship Jamie a transcript and nonetheless frames from the movie to her in jail for her assessment and approval. Welcoming their suggestions, and brazenly discussing the filmmaking course of with them taught me to be extra communicative, collaborative, and weak. It was a fantastic and priceless expertise for me.
One other important consideration was to guard Jamie from any potential destructive penalties that would come up from the movie whereas she stays incarcerated. For that every one essential job, we labored with an knowledgeable in trans associated jail points and a protection investigator each based mostly in Texas and really accustomed to the state’s opaque corrections system.
I additionally felt a private connection to Jamie as a result of we each grew up in Houston. My performing arts highschool was within the metropolis’s historic homosexual neighborhood; the exact same neighborhood the place Jamie spent a lot of her personal youth. I stored imagining that we would have handed one another all these years in the past; two individuals from completely different worlds, by no means imagining that our lives would intersect once more on this unlikely and most intimate of the way.
Because the assault on trans individuals escalates daily, we wish to provide this movie as a celebration of life and resiliency and dignity. This can be a story about a fantastic friendship, creating one’s chosen household and the restorative energy of artwork. Jamie says it greatest, “I consider it is very important shed as a lot gentle as doable on inequality in addition to present the integrity, braveness, magnificence, and love of our individuals.”
It has been an honor to make this movie together with her.