“Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past,”Machiavelli observed, and while “Framing Agnes”Chase Joynt, director of Chase Joynt, digs into archives to examine the lives and experiences of transgender persons in post-WWII America. These case histories provide fascinating and provocative insights into how trans people live today.
As with “No Ordinary Man,” the portrait of trans jazz musician Billy Tipton that Joynt co-directed, this is a documentary that’s constantly breaking the fourth wall, with camera angles that show the boom mics and marks on the floor, where black-and-white footage of actors performing interview transcripts will cut to color footage of the performers and the director conferring with each other about syntax and motivation.
Rather than serving to distract or distance, however, Joynt’s filmmaking style accentuates Machiavelli’s observation that we can only know ourselves, as individuals or as a community, if we can understand our historical predecessors. This film gives life to anonymous, real-life figures from the past and also provides insight into their 21st century lives.st
century lives, examining the ways that trans people in the US have, and haven’t, moved forward.Like Freud’s Dora, the titular Agnes is a figure whose identity is lost to history but who nonetheless made a huge impact in medical and sociological circles. In the 1960s, Harold Garfinkel conducted a UCLA gender study. Some academic circles made a big deal of her lying to Garfinkel about her life in order for him and his colleagues to confirm her gender. Many contemporary trans activists see what earlier researchers called duplicity as an act of oppression for their own survival.
Actress and filmmaker Zackary Drucker (who recently executive-produced HBO’s “The Lady and the Dale”Joynt plays Garfinkel, while ) plays Agnes. These interviews are not conducted in a clinical setting but rather as a TV program. “The Mike Wallace Interview,”which aired between 1957 and 1960. Aubree Bernier Clarke shoots talk-show segments in early TV’s square monochrome. This allows us to know that the performers are authentic.
Speaking to each other as themselves, Joynt and Drucker discuss the importance of the talk show in the cultural history of trans people, from exploitive daytime shows of the 1990s (which nonetheless provided a level of visibility) to Laverne Cox’s legendary schooling of Katie Couric about trans issues in 2014.
Agnes wasn’t the only interviewee in Garfinkel’s archive, so we get Angelica Ross, Jen Richards, Silas Howard, Max Wolf Valerio and Stephen Ira re-enacting the transcripts from other trans women and men while also sharing their personal experiences with Joynt. (Academic Jules-Gill Peterson doesn’t portray one of the subjects of Garfinkel’s study but does provide valuable insight as a trans academic and archivist.)
Combining past and present creates “Framing Agnes”It’s far richer, more interesting and more thought-provoking than if it was only focused on one. The inclusion of Georgia, the one Black subject of the UCLA study, allows for conversations about how the factors of race and class are key components in any discussion of queerness, and Angelica Ross’ first-person contributions certainly underscore the understanding that the trans community is no monolith. Each participant draws on their academic and artistic backgrounds to offer an understanding and compassionate look at a community that fights for its rights to live and work.
Joynt, Peterson and Ira clearly speak fluent PhD-ese, and there are moments where their conversations threaten to dip too deeply into academic rhetoric, but the film never veers too far in that direction, always keeping the participants’ knowledge (of themselves and of Garfinkel’s subjects) front and center.
“Framing Agnes”It is done with skill and care to get the best out of every dollar. Costume designer Becca Blackwood curates vintage clothing that’s both period-specific and perfectly appropriate for the personalities of each interview subject. Ross also makes great choices in clothing. “the hunter and the lion” – referencing from whose perspective trans stories are told – the moment is underscored by her camouflage jacket, with a hint of a safety-orange lining peeking through her cuffed sleeves.)
Joynt and Morgan M. Page, his collaborator, make this a documentary about people talking. However, Joynt and Cecilio Escobar help keep the conversation brisk with editors Brooke Stern Sebold & Cecilio Escobar. They also provide insights. Similar to the UCLA interviews that inspired it. “Framing Agnes”This is an essential part of the historical records, which addresses trans life as we know and provides deeper understanding to current and future viewers.
“Framing Agnes”The 2022 Sundance Film Festival will host its world premiere.
