Twenty years after the documentary Gendernauts, director Monika Treut tracks down the original subjects to reexamine their lives in new light. When the Gendernauts were first interviewed in San Fransisco in the 90s, it was a place on the forefront of queer expression, and revisiting the city now gives a grimmer picture of livability, what with big tech looming over every change. 

The interviewees are found in more subdued stages of their growth, yet of course, still considering questions of living. Sometimes the questions are on a level of practicality - how do you hack out a retirement, or maintain a community in a city nobody can afford to live in? And, just as they did twenty years ago, the Gendernauts have considerations of their identity and queerness, this time given with the casual air of people who have lived long enough to know there is nothing to prove. The cornerstone of the piece is this: that we get to witness queer and trans people being able to grow up and grow older, and do so on their own terms.

– Mara Lemesany, Damn These Heels programming committee member

Queer cinema legend Monika Truet’s follow up to Gendernauts, sister film Genderation premiered at the 2021 Berlinale, where it won the Teddy Award for Best Documentary.