Trans Women’s Impact on Thai Fashion

Producer: Refinery29
Release Year: 2017

In 2017, Refinery29 released a compelling episode of States of Undress, titled Trans Women’s Impact on Thai Fashion. Hosted by Hailey Gates, the documentary explores the dynamic role of transgender women in Thailand’s fashion scene and examines whether visibility on the runway can translate into broader social change. Hailey begins her journey in Thailand during an unusual and solemn period: the country is in mourning following the death of King Rama IX, who reigned for 70 years. The government declared a year-long mourning period, with the first 30 days marked by the absence of color in public spaces and on media outlets. For Hailey, witnessing this nationwide expression of grief is a striking introduction to the cultural weight of Thailand’s monarchy and the importance of respect and tradition.

Skip E. Lowe: Jennifer Fox

Show: Skip E. Lowe Looks at Hollywood
Release Year:  1985

In the glittering yet often under-documented world of American burlesque and public-access television, few moments stand out as vividly as Jennifer Fox’s 1985 appearance on Skip E. Lowe Looks at Hollywood. The weekly talk show, hosted by the flamboyant and endlessly talkative Skip E. Lowe, aired on public-access cable television in Los Angeles and New York City. It was a unique platform, a mix of low-budget intimacy and star-studded curiosity, that welcomed both household names and underground legends.

We Exist

Director: Felicity Tillack
Release Year: 2024

For nearly two decades, Kyoto-based Australian writer, photographer, and filmmaker Felicity Tillack has been exploring Japanese culture and the nuanced layers of identity through her blog and YouTube channel, Where Next Japan. Her work often moves between the intimate and the expansive, from personal reflections to sweeping portraits of Japanese life. With her latest project, the bilingual docu-series We Exist, Tillack shifts her focus to a community whose voices are often muted or invisible in mainstream narratives: Japan’s LGBTQIA+ population.

Deconstructing Zoe

Director: Rosa Fong
Release Year: 2016

When Deconstructing Zoe had its world premiere at Translations: Seattle Transgender Film Festival in 2016, it offered something that felt both revolutionary and deeply personal: a rich, unfiltered portrait of gender and racial identity through the lens of a singularly magnetic subject. Chowee Lee, known on stage and screen as Zoe, is a London-based Malayan Chinese actor and producer who proudly identifies as a gender-illusionist. Directed by Rosa Fong, this intimate documentary explores the beautifully complex intersections of gender, race, and sexuality in Zoe's life, and challenges the audience to reflect on their own assumptions about identity. At first glance, interviews with Zoe and her close friends might feel disorienting, as pronouns shift between "he" and "she" with little consistency. But the inconsistency is intentional and illuminating. Zoe identifies as genderqueer and openly embraces both her male and trans female identities without shame or confusion. She exists somewhere in the middle, fluid and adaptable, equally at home in the skin of Chowee or Zoe.

Vera y Victoria

Director: Gema Sanz Calvo
Release Year: 2015

In the documentary Vera y Victoria, Spanish photographer and visual artist Mar Sáez offers a moving and deeply intimate portrayal of love, identity, and resilience. Through the lives of Vera and Victoria, two women who dared to live openly and defiantly against societal norms, Sáez builds more than just a photographic essay, she constructs a visual diary of affection, authenticity, and the subtle negotiations of shared life.