Frameline49: I’m Your Venus

Venus Xtravaganza is a legend of the New York City ballroom scene, forever immortalized onscreen in the landmark documentary Paris Is Burning. Her murder prior to the completion of that film left a void for both the LGBTQ+ world and in the hearts of her birth family.

In this new film from award-winning documentarian Kimberly Reed (whose film Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr won the juried award for Best Documentary Short at Frameline48), the legacy of Venus is explored through the process of both her birth and house families seeking answers regarding her death. What follows is an urgent distillation of the systemic obstacles trans and queer people face in both life and death paired with a passionate portrait of one of our most enduring trans icons. I’m Your Venus also movingly explores a family’s openness to examine their own missteps in accepting their sister’s identity, with their steadfast path to reconciliation providing a powerful example for straight, cis family members of trans people.

Expected Guests

Kimberly Reed
Director