Interview with Claire Slingerland

Monika: Today I would like to present to you Claire Slingerland, a Dutch filmmaker from Almere, the Netherlands, the director of the documentary "De Oversteek'' (The Step) and owner of film production company Blits Motion, as well as a proud transgender woman. Hello Claire!

Claire: Hello Monika! Thank you for inviting me.

Monika: You seem to be a woman of many talents. Could you say a few words about yourself?

Claire: Yes, I can. I'm a sixty years old woman from the Netherlands. I'm married to my wonderful wife and together we have two grown-up kids. With my team at Blits Motion we make movies for companies. And I'm associated with a foundation wherefore I make documentaries about inclusive and diversity subjects.

I'm now preparing a documentary to pay attention to 1000 to 2000 homeless LGBT young people in my country. They became homeless because they were not accepted by their parents. I want to make people aware of this problem because most people have no idea this is happening in our country. And I want to explore whether there is room within the parents' beliefs to accept their child.

Interview with Alison Ashdown

Monika: Today I am going to talk to Alison Ashdown, an inspirational transgender woman from Toronto, Canada. Alison is a fashion model, actress, film writer/director, and transactivist. Her artistic short film “Forever Changed” was produced and released online in 2020. Hello Alison!

Alison: Hello Monika! Thank you for having me!

Monika: You are a woman of many talents. Could you say a few words about yourself?

Alison: Yeah certainly! Let’s see. Well, I love to try new things when I get that passionate interest peaking. It’s how I ended up in modeling, film, fashion studies, and ballet. One day, I asked my friend to do a photoshoot with me and that blossomed into a dream come true with modeling. I’ve been published four times and participated in several runway events.

In fact, at the end of my first year in 2019, I was chosen to walk the runway in Los Angeles for the Equality Fashion Week. Had the time of my life! And with the confidence I gained in front of the camera and on stage, I moved to try my hand at writing a film and subsequently acting and directing it as well. And since then, I moved to Toronto to study fashion management at George Brown College and recreationally train in the Royal Academy of Dance classical ballet program.

Interview with Cameron Laventure

Monika: Today I would like to invite you for a meeting with a talented woman who writes and directs her own movies. Cameron Laventure is an independent filmmaker and writer wi­th an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Hello Cameron!

Cameron: Hi, Monika! Thanks for speaking with me today.

Monika: How are you holding up in the pandemic times?

Cameron: Quarantine has been hard, but I’ve been luckier than most. My brother Brandon and I co-write and co-direct all our projects, and fortunately, we’ve been able to shelter at home, building a writing portfolio while we search for paid screenwriting work.

It breaks my heart that so many people in my country, including relatives and dear friends, aren’t so lucky. So many of us are exposed to senseless risk because our government won’t just pay us to stay home. I carry a lot of anger over that. I try to channel it into my art, and into activism when I can.

Interview with Victoria Divine

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Victoria Divine, a film director, producer, and performer from Argentina. Hello Victoria!

Victoria: Hello Monika, how are you doing?

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Victoria: I’d like to say that I am someone in constant urge for transforming myself and not just physically when I say ‘transforming’. I mean growing up, learning, discovering. I started to express my gender identity in Argentina, Buenos Aires during the 1970s.

I have been fascinated with trans women since an early age. At that time perhaps I didn’t know that I was one of them but over the years I realized that those spectacular women I used to see were a part of who I am.

Interview with Michelle Ann Farrell

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Michelle Ann Farrell, an American independent filmmaker, known for her work on Safehouse (2008), Bigfoot at Holler Creek Canyon (2006) and On Top (2012) and several other feature films. She has been DP on 17 feature films and has written, produced and sold scripts and has established herself as a professional filmmaker. Hello Michelle Ann!

Michelle Ann: Hello Monika, I’m honored to do this interview. Thank you.

Monika: Were you born with a video camera in your hand?
Michelle Ann: Although I’ve always enjoyed photography and personally owned a video camera once many years back I was not one of those people who made movies as a child. I’ve always enjoyed being creative writing story lines and poetry but not until I was 40 years old did I decide that I was to shoot a movie. That movie of course was “Franky’s Heaven”.
Monika: Before you worked in independent films, she had run a wedding business which involved video…
Michelle Ann: Yes, soon after Franky’s Heaven I had bought my business partners out and decided to use the movie gear and start my own business. In the beginning weddings were the day job but my goal was to one day leave that and do production full time. That’s what I do now, work production 7 days a week either in the office or out making money.

Interview with Living Smile Vidya

Monika: Today’s interview will be with Living Smile Vidya known as Smiley, an inspirational woman from India, actress, film director, the author of the biography titled "I am Saravanan Vidya" (2008), a transgender activist and blogger, recipient of the British Council-Charles Wallace India Trust fellowship to study theater in UK. Hello Smiley! 

Smiley: Hi, it’s my honour to be in your list.
Monika: So, You pursue your career in theatre and cinema. You worked as an assistant director in Kollywood and acted in Tamil theater. Could you say a few words about your movie and theater career?
Smiley: Well, Theatre is always my first love. When I was 19 years old, I decided to be an actress and while doing my post-graduation at university I spent most of the time in the Theater Department rather than my Linguistics Department. So I was able to do a couple of plays. But at that time I was known to my colleagues and classmates as a boy.
After my post-graduation, I went to Pune for my castration and I had to stay there. Once I came back I was challenged to find a mainstream job, and after a long struggle I found a job in a rural bank. And only then I realized that I was the first Transwoman in India who worked in a mainstream job rather than working for NGOs.
Beyond this I wanted to work in theater but I realized that all my friends in theater were not sure how to handle a transwoman as an actress. That was when my autobiography was released and I became quite famous, so some film directors heard about me.

Interview with Morgan M Page

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honour to interview Morgan M Page, a Canadian transfeminist activist, artist, film director, writer, founder and curator of Trans Women’s Arts Toronto, and recipient multiple awards, including two SF MOTHA awards and the LGBT Youthline’s Outstanding Contribution to Community Empowerment Award. Her performance and video art has shown in galleries and festivals around the world, including NEMAF New Media Arts Festival (Seoul, South Korea, 2013) and the Adelaide Street Gallery (Melbourne, Australia, 2014). Hello Morgan!

Morgan: Hey there.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Morgan: Sure, I’m a performance + video artist, activist, writer, and Santera in Toronto. I’ve been an activist for sex workers’ rights for about eight years now. I travel throughout Canada and the United States, lecturing and performing, and my video art has been screened in Canada, Hong Kong, and South Korea.

Monika: You describe yourself as a transfeminist. What does transfeminism espouse? 

Morgan: To me, transfeminism is a political movement around the equitable treatment of all people. And it means looking at things intersectionally – that people receive both privilege and oppression on multiple fronts, such as race, class, and gender, and that these issues need to be addressed.

I think for me transfeminism centres the experiences of trans people, particularly trans women. So, issues that affect us, such as access to health care, the criminalization of sex work and HIV non-disclosure, racism, treatment of prisoners, and immigration policy are at the forefront of all discussions.

Interview with Rose Venkatesan

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Rose Venkatesan, an Indian talk show host and celebrity, filmmaker, politician, and transgender activist. She was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Rose made her television debut in the talk show Ippadikku Rose (Yours truly, Rose) and continued her TV career in the show Idhu Rose Neram (This is Rose Time). In 2011, she became a Radio Jockey at BIG FM 92.7. Hello Rose!

Rose: Hello Monika!

Monika: Rose, having so many talents, which fields you are most interested in: talk show hosting, radio, film making, politics, transgender activism, or maybe something different?

Rose: I prefer filmmaking to everything else, as it gives me the opportunity and almost total freedom to say what I want to say, to bring out that women/transwomen’s perspective to the Indian movie, which is largely a patriarchal, male-centered, male-glorifying, gay-ridiculing, trans-ridiculing, female-abusive item of entertainment.

I have tried my hands at TV, radio, and politics, all of which force you to work under or for a male owner/controller, who himself has many of the same prejudices that I wish to fight/expose/expel. The entertainment industry/politics in India is highly sexploitative of women and any transwomen that might want to make it up the ladder.

Interview with Kerri Cecil

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honour to interview Kerri Cecil, a young American film director, student at Los Angeles City College in Hollywood, and transgender activist. Kerri was born in Southern California but raised in rural Minnesota in a conservative Christian household. She is known for her debut movie titled "The Journey" (2013). Hello Kerri!

Kerri: Hello Monika! Thank you for inviting me to do this interview. It is an honour to be included on your website with such inspirational transgender women.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Kerri: Well I am a transgender filmmaker making films that empower, educate, enlighten as well as entertain. I see the beauty and power in all transfolks and work with incredibly talented transgender people to not only shed light on the darkness many of us suffer in but to bring to the world a sense of who we are and where we are going in life.

Monika: Which film directors or movies are your inspirations?

Kerri: I am a huge fan of Lana Wachowski’s work. Would love to one day make a Transgender Super Hero film using her film techniques. I personally loved Harmony Santana in ‘Gun Hill Road’ and love Laverne Cox in ‘Orange Is The New Black.’

Interview with Rosalyne Blumenstein LCSW ACHP-SW

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Rosalyne Blumenstein LCSW ACHP-SW, a woman of many talents, film director, writer, social worker, activist, former director of the Gender Identity Project at the LGBT Center in Manhattan, the author of Branded T. Hello Rosalyne!

Rosalyne: Hello Monika! First I want to thank you for having this website and bringing a variety of voices together to share with others. And second, thank you for asking me to participate. Hopefully, even after my responses to your questions, you will feel the same way☺.

Monika: Having had so many talents and jobs, which profession do you enjoy most?

Rosalyne: The one that pays the rent of course!☺
There have been many phases in my life and within those stages of life and my varied professions. There was enjoyment and struggle within each and every phase. What I can say is that I have learned so much about myself and the world around me within each phase and each profession. I’ve been involved in professions that had a tremendous stigma attached to them at the time I was involved.

Interview with Andrea James

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Andrea James, a very prolific American artist, writer, film producer, director, businesswoman, and LGBT rights activist. Hello Andrea!

Andrea: Hi Monika—thanks for interviewing me!

Monika: Having so many talents, which profession do you enjoy most?
Andrea: I enjoy writing educational information because that fulfills my interest in teaching. Unfortunately, we live in a world where a large swath of people can’t be reached through the written word, so I also work in film and television.

Monika: In 2003, together with your business partner and entertainer Calpernia Addams, you co-founded Deep Stealth Productions to provide services to the transgender community. How successful is the company?

Andrea: I feel that our success is best measured by the nice letters and hugs we get from people who have been helped or moved by our work. We were never out to become rich selling specialty videos, and it’s not a big money-maker anyway. We often supplement the income from our work for the trans community through other kinds of production. Calpernia and I do not need a lot to live the lives we want, and that has freed us up to work on projects that are important to us.

Interview with Brina Healy

Monika: Today’s interview is with Brina Healy, a remarkable woman, talented film director, and photographer from Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She began her film career in 1978 as "Brian" filming a student short in Kansas while working as a Yearbook photographer on campus. After doing some TV background work in Boston, including children's shows: "Major Mudd" and "Boomtown", she was featured in Happy Madison's film "Grown Ups". Brina is known for producing the hilarious 50's spoof film "Transsexuals from Space" (2012). She holds a second-degree black belt in Shotokan karate. Hello Brina!

Brina: Monika: thank you for the honor and the respect to appear in your publications. Your interest in my career is appreciated.

Monika: How would you define yourself? Are you more of a film producer, paste-up artist, model, or photographer?

Brina: I'd classify myself as a “Creative” (want fries with that burger?) type, so I enjoy spending time in all of these areas. “Paste-up” work is relatively dead in the digital age. Film production is something that sways me greatly—although it's difficult to make a legitimate living at it as a career move.

Basically, many areas that involve the Creative process do not require state or federal licensing, so those markets naturally get flooded. I've been involved with Imagery my entire life and consider Photography/Large Format my first love. One of the most exciting job positions I held involved trafficking building “wraps” for Broadway, Madison Square Garden, and the World Trade Center Concourse.

Interview with Diana Salameh

Monika: Today’s interview is with Diana Salameh, also known as Yasmene Jabar, an American film director and stand-up comedienne from Noxubee County, Mississippi, a remarkable woman and one of the most inspirational transgender icons. She is the director and producer of Desiree: A Ghost Story (2012). Hello Diana!

Diana: Greetings Monika, and thank you for asking me to take part in this interview. I hope you and your readers will have a better understanding of just who I am.

Monika: How would you define yourself? Are you more of a filmmaker, comedy actress, or stand-up comedian?

Diana: I feel myself to be a Renaissance Woman, I’ve had many artistic outlets over the years, photography, painting, sculpting, acting, and now I think it has evolved into film-making, however that doesn’t mean you won't see me doing cameo roles as Hitchcock did in his films or reviving a long-dead comedy character if I feel the time is right.
Right now I love weaving together a collection of images to tell a story. It’s just possible that I am exactly where I need to be and everything I have done up to this point has been a stepping stone.