Connection | Isolation

Witnessing trans lives in COVID-19
by
G. Chesler
2024
85 mins | 67 min | 7 part series

A documentary film and series witnessing trans lives in COVID-19. Amidst moments of connection and isolation, transgender participants reveal a deepening awareness of gender, disability, and community. Created by an all trans and queer crew, this documentary interweaves portraits with (re)enactments, inviting viewers to reflect as a path toward healing.

Each perspective is detailed and sensitive, allowing the viewer to understand the complexity of different realities, even if the experiences may not be familiar. ...Such respect for the interviewees comes through in Chesler’s honesty and generosity. The documentary is informative and informal at the same time. This balance allows those interviewed to be even more accessible while they consider such vital matters as art, activism, loneliness, disability, dysphoria, transphobia, and community.
Ellise Fuchs
Writer, PopMatters
Read more at: popmatters.com

Synopsis

In an airborne pandemic when separation, isolation, and self-sufficiency became the punishing norm, many trans people faced the COVID-19 era differently. Connection | Isolation presents eight portraits of trans and post-gender people who cultivate community in this pandemic. These trans participants foreground how trans people have been disproportionally impacted by Long COVID, how Asian Americans have faced violent racism during the pandemic, how Black Americans and allies rose in opposition to white supremacist police-state violence in 2020, and the exclusion disabled people feel from a society that—despite grave and massive loss—refuses basic protections. Connection | Isolation also highlights how the pandemic gave some trans people more space to explore and understand their identities, community, and bodies.

Between portraits, we depict elegiac (re)enactments performed by trans people revisiting their core COVID-era memories: washing masks, wiping down groceries with disinfectant, and traveling alone to work at the hospital in an empty city. Archival moments flow into these scenes - news reports, memes that made us laugh, and web seminars on community care. Trans and queer people - a community most impacted by pandemics like HIV/AIDS- have built a culture undergirded by mutual aid. This became a model for resilience and care in the pandemic for those who listened. This film follows in that legacy.

Reviews
The beauty of Connection | Isolation comes from not only the stunning videography, but the way in which the film continuously honors and uplifts the intersectionality of identity for every speaker …. The film’s focus on diversity and individual experience paves the way for the audience to find pieces of themselves in each story, to connect with the feelings of not only distress and anxiety, but also with the feelings of self-discovery and euphoria.
Parker Dean
Writer, The Evergreen Echo
Read more at: dropbox.com
The Grand Jury Prize is awarded to Connection | Isolation, for having told us about the transversality and intersectionality of these struggles, bringing to light emergencies that concern us closely (trans homophobia, racism, discrimination against neurodivergent people and non-conforming bodies) and for having been able to offer a universal view on the necessary organized or spontaneous connection, being there and knowing how to create "community". Not least, for having presented us with a reality that, in other countries in the world, is suffering because of wicked policies, and reminds us that even in our home not everything is fine and that we must continue to fight. That the gazes of African-American and Italian-African people help us understand the scarcity of our democracy, they help us because from the margins we can see better, as bell hooks teaches us.
Divine Queer Film Festival - Torino, Italy

Awards and Screenings
Grand Jury Prize, Divine Queer Film Festival
Seattle Queer Film Festival
DisOrient Asian American Film Festival
Feminist Border Arts Film Festival
Virginia Queer Film Festival
CIRCA Queer Histories Festival
Tampa Transgender Film Festival
Parkway Theater, Baltimore

Director Commentary

May this film and series be a conduit for an ongoing history that many have forgotten or don’t want to remember. May it offer space for trans and queer viewers to consider their own experiences and connect with each other.

I began producing this project in October 2020 when I recognized that trans people were experiencing a very different pandemic. I have been joined by many artists and collaborators around the US - all of whom are queer and many are trans. We made this film because the pandemic continues to change us.

Connection | Isolation approaches this ongoing historic period intersectionally: I’ve featured participants who share knowledge and resources in community. And as a cognitively disabled person, I made a film centering disability.

Our visual design reflects a “pandemic aesthetic” including Zoom-like framing and layers of home-grown archival from social media, Discord, personal photos and cell phone videos. Our interstitial (re)enactments incorporate archival elements and are common memories performed by trans folks who are not professional actors but who had the experiences they depict. In creating these enactments, I sought to also stimulate common COVID activities that most people - cis and trans - can relate to: wiping down groceries, caring for 100's of plants, washing cloth masks, doomscrolling, and connecting in webinars and on-line gaming.

Despite the injustices trans people face, I've remained conscious of the audience's experience of watching a 'COVID film' and we've allowed space for some joy to peek through for resiliency and laughter are indeed friends.

Features and Languages

Film Features

  • Closed Captioning
  • Subtitles

Film/Audio Languages

  • English

Subtitle/Caption Languages

  • English

Promotional Material

Promotional Stills

A B&W image of a Latina trans femme sitting, masked, on a park bench.
COI Horizontal Poster
The reflection of a white transmasculine person wearing scrubs and a surgical mask looks out the window at night on an empty metro train.
A white nonbinary person, wearing a cloth mask, rubber gloves, and brightly patterned shirt, looks in the bathroom mirror. They are surrounded by cloth masks pinned to string, drying around them.
A Black nonbinary trans femme wearing a bucket hat and jean jacket vogues against a blurry bright background. They smile, gently.
A young nonbinary Asian person lies sleeping on the floor of a darkened room, their computer illuminating their face ominously.
Connection Isolation Dani img Dani Taylor
Two trans people sit on a park bench looking at one another. They wear cloth masks.
Connection Isolation Úmi and JJ img Emilia Quinton and Aubree Bernier Clarke
A cloth mask in the trans flag crosses the screen. Behind, B&W images of trans participants. Some smile at the camera, others wear masks, one is in silhouette.
Connection | Isolation vertical poster (no billing block)
Opens in new window