a documentary (2023) (Patreon)

Took this one yesterday, as I went for a second round shooting in Bannack, MT so I could be filmed/interviewed by two recent college grads making an indie documentary about Western re-enactors and the history of the towns they can be found in. We met in Nevada City when I finished shooting Self-Portraits of My Past Lives Vol. 1 there, and they were extremely interested in my work (I think I'm the first person they'd talked to in a while that wasn't just like "yeah Manifest Destiny was lit", in so many words). They asked if I could meet up with them to do readings from my book and let them film me shooting, as well as grab more interview quotes. I said sure. They seem quite nice and they seem to very much enjoy the whole queering-of-the-West angle my book has, and Lord knows I love being in front of a camera. 

Anyway there was also an entire troop of Girl Scouts there as well as a literal-I-shit-you-not Masonic Temple meeting in the ghost town, as apparently they still use the abandoned schoolhouse/Masonic lodge as their HQ. This meant I was simultaneously explaining what I was doing to nine-year-old girls wearing merit badges, and sixty-year-old men wearing biker leathers referencing the Montana Vigilantes. During this, I am of course being interviewed about my book, in which I speak a decent amount about being transgender. I was slightly tense, although the film crew, I figured, cut down on the chances of anyone trying shit. And no one did, so I suppose that was an accurate read.

I only got about two actually decent pictures there, since the main focus was the interview; they just wanted to film my process, so I wasn't paying as close of attention to my shots as I normally would. I do really love how this came out in the morning light, though. 

And I still had an interesting day, that's for sure.