San Francisco Documentary Festival 2023

Cisco Kid (+Q&A) & Sean Dorsey Dance: Dreaming Trans and Queer Futures

Expired June 12, 2023 6:59 AM
Already unlocked? for access
This virtual screening is eligible for audience awards! Unlock it to cast your vote.

This visually-exquisite short is a fusion of dance film and documentary -- and a powerful profile of trailblazing transgender choreographer and activist Sean Dorsey. Right now, transgender and queer communities (and rights) are under attack all across the USA -- and Dorsey's choreography and activism are antidotes to this widespread hatred and violence.


Dorsey uplifts the beauty, power, wisdom and grace of trans and queer bodies and voices, and works tirelessly to support other trans/LGBTQI+ artists.Dorsey has long been recognized as the USA's first acclaimed transgender modern dance choreographer, and is a longtime leading national trans activist.As a modern dance choreographer and as a trans person, Dorsey felt irresistibly drawn to San Francisco with its history of trans and queer resistance and culture.


But the city he moved to in the early 2000s was not the city he had envisioned: he discovered he was the only openly-trans modern dancer there, and that no one was putting trans artists on stage. Dorsey spent the next two decades creating, performing, touring and teaching his award-winning choreography (a fusion of full-throttle dance, storytelling and theater); and championing and presenting trans and queer performing arts in the city, hand in hand with his life partner, the musician, filmmaker and transgender activist Shawna Virago.


Sean Dorsey Dance has toured their innovative modern dance to more than 30 cities across the U.S. and abroad; and accolades have arrived in the form of prestigious national awards, commissions and grants. The annual FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL that Dorsey produces is in its 21st season of showcasing trans and queer performance.


Sean Dorsey Dance: Dreaming Trans and Queer Futures profiles Dorsey as he embarks on a powerful new project with his company:THE LOST ART OF DREAMING is an invitation to embrace expansive imagination, reconnect with longing, connect with joy and pleasure, and propel ourselves toward loving Futures.


The company will premiere this new show in 2022, and then tour the work internationally through 2024.At this terrifying moment when trans communities everywhere are under horrific and escalating attacks, this film uplifts the Truth: that trans, gender-nonconforming and queer people are strong, wise, powerful, beautiful, visionary artists and leaders.

  • Runtime
    10 minutes
  • Country
    USA
  • Director
    Lindsay Gauthier