Light on a Path, Follow, 2018, graphite on paper, 9 x 12”. Illustration commission for film.

LIGHT ON A PATH, FOLLOW (dir. Elliot Montague) is a short narrative that follows Joaquín, a Latinx transgender man who is pregnant and endures labor alone in rural New England (Pocumtuc Territory) in the mid-1990s, guided only by a mysterious midwife spirit. The film envisions queer and transgender bodies as conduits to other spiritual worlds.

“The story for LIGHT ON A PATH, FOLLOW originated with the director’s own desire for queer parenthood and to experience pregnancy as a transgender masculine person. For any gender-nonconforming person, the idea of pregnancy would require interfacing with a hyper-gendered medical industrial complex. Additionally, representations of transgender individuals in mainstream media either center white narratives and or depict graphic violence or death, particularly for those who are people of color. LIGHT centers collaborative storytelling via a team of storytellers, filmmakers, activists, artists and scholars in order to bring complex and intersecting trans narratives to the fore. For us, LIGHT has become a collective opportunity to suture and birth our own untold stories of ethereal pasts and implausible futures.”

Please support the film’s production HERE.

 

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