Chase Joynt’s new doc ‘Framing Agnes’ is a treasure chest of lost queer history
Chase Joynt’s new documentary Framing Agnes is about to debut at the Sundance Film Festival. It chronicles a group of six trans people living in the 1950s and 1960s, as interviewed by UCLA professor Harold Garfinkel at the UCLA Gender Clinic.Though Garfinkel had little interest in gender theory or queer studies, his work offers a rare glimpse into a pre-Stonewall era of transgender life.
Joynt creates reconstructions of the actual interview subjects and their lives, utilizing a noteworthy cast that includes Angelica Ross, Jen Richards, Silas Howard, Zackary Drucker, and Max Valerio.We caught up with him to talk about the unexpected origins of his film and the fascinating revelations of the Garfinkel tapes.
Here’s what he had to say…How did you first hear about the UCLA tapes?I got a fellowship to work with my friend and collaborator Kristen Schilt to work at the University of Chicago.
The only requirement of the fellowship was that we co-teach a class together called “The Politics of Narrative Construction” using Agnes as a case study.Through a series of fortunate events, we got access to the archives of Harold Garfinkel, the UCLA professor that interviewed Agnes [the trans woman the film is named after] for years.
