By Jessica Herndon
Making a film can be unpredictable. Clearance issues may cause a beloved moment to be cut, or a kismet connection could lead to unexpected funding. But no matter what, filmmakers find ways to adapt and make magic.
On how filmmaking is similar to their trans identity journey:
“My trans identity, it’s a story that’s always changing,” says Drucker. “Everybody’s gender is different at every point in their lives, and aging is this other plane of experience, of existence.” Drucker went on to say that as a child, “Photography was especially exciting for me as a way of visualizing myself in the world. As a way of visualizing myself differently than I could in reality. The way that manifested was dressing up as a little girl and taking pictures of myself with Polaroids.” As Drucker got older, she fell in love with film, diving deep into the work of Fellini, Hitchcock, and “all the silver screen sirens,” she says. “Film was always a space of limitless imagination.”
Adds Gallo, who expounded on how their trans experience compliments their creative journey, “A large part of [Ponyboi] is accepting the uncertain parts of yourself and accepting the fact that I don’t know where I’m going, but I know it’s this direction and I’ll figure it out when I get there, which is so emblematic of the trans experience. Like what Zackary said, it’s a constantly shifting experience.”
On setting intentions in their work:
“When I’m entering a storyteller’s process, there’s an element of possession that I look for, which is that there is a person who is going to tell this story no matter what, and you can get on board and help them and be a messenger,” details Drucker. “[Kristen Lovell, the film’s co-director and narrator] was determined to tell the story of the Stroll for 20 years.” Adds Drucker, “The girls who worked the Stroll were ubiquitous. Everybody in New York City knew about the trans women in the Meatpacking District. And yet, it’s been completely erased. There’s no visual indicators anywhere that that existed. There’s no plaque. There’s no monument. But hopefully, one day, there will be.”
Ponyboi is a deeply personal story for Gallo, who is intersex like the film’s protagonist. “When I was 12, I found out that I was born without testes,” says the filmmaker, who adds that while writing the film, they were grappling with the medical trauma that they experienced that year. The specific time Gallo refers to is 2003, the year Ponyboi is set. Initially, grounding their film in the early 2000s was appealing to Gallo because it was during that period that they were learning about femininity. “It was seeing my sister get ready for school in the morning, getting all her MAC makeup up [on]. It left a lasting impression of what it meant to be a woman.”
But as Gallo ventured deeper into their creative process, the 2000s setting became more profound. There was something that my subconscious was doing when I was creating the movie that I couldn’t consciously give or voice to why I was doing it,” Gallo realized while filming. The filmmaker’s innermost voice helped them discover their creativity could flourish without a predetermined roadmap. “There’s something to be said about the creative process. You don’t have to have all the reasons for why you’re making a choice. The choice, the reason why, could come later.”
On the aspects of trans life they hope to see portrayed in film one day:
“There’s so many stories from the past that have yet to be unearthed. It’s the spark that I live for — all the things that we don’t know,” says Drucker.
Gallo would love to work on projects where “I don’t have to specifically talk about gender in the story, but the gender comes from the fact that I’m placing myself in this,” they say.
“I envision, and I wish for a world, an industry where we could just create whatever the fuck we want. I long for a world where we don’t have to explain ourselves.”
The Stroll is available to stream on Max. Check out the full discussion and Q&A for more with Drucker and Gallo, including tips on securing project funding. Sign up for Sundance Collab’s weekly newsletter here for updates on upcoming Collab events, courses, and discussions.
