Sundance Institute Sets Six For Inaugural Trans Possibilities Intensive

The Sundance Institute has set Ava Davis (The Waltz), StormMiguel Florez (Welcome to Roswell), River Gallo (Ponyboi), Carol Grant (Eurydice V), Mitchell (MiSha) Owens (The Boy from Across Town), and Savannah Ward (Meta) as the fellows for its inaugural Trans Possibilities Intensive, focused on advancing the careers of transgender storytellers of color.

These six creatives were nominated for the intensive by the Institute’s allied organizations, including some working explicitly with emerging transgender artists of color, and peers within the Sundance Artist Programs. During the three-day virtual program, they will continue to develop the projects they initially submitted for consideration, participating in group exercises and discipline-specific workshops, while working closely with creative artist advisors.

More from Deadline

• Neon Buys Sundance Pic ‘Pleasure’

• Laugh Out Loud & Sundance Institute Sets Scribes For Inaugural Women Write Now Fellowship; Finalists' Short Films Will Stream On Peacock

• Toronto Film Festival Co-Head Joana Vicente Exits To Become Sundance Institute CEO

The intensive kicks off today at 10 a.m. PT with Beyond the Tipping Point, an event hosted on the platform Sundance Collab, which will be open to the public and free to attend, centering on a conversation with filmmakers Tourmaline (Happy Birthday, Marsha!) and Sam Feder (Disclosure) about their creatives processes, the state of transgender representation, and the power of storytelling as an agent of cultural change.

The Trans Possibilities Intensive is designed and led by Sundance Institute Outreach & Inclusion and Indigenous Programs Coordinator, Moi Santos. Tourmaline and Feder will be joined on the roster of mentors by filmmakers Yance Ford (Strong Island) and Ro Haber (Braddock, PA).

“This Intensive is the result of ongoing and evolving priorities through Sundance’s Outreach and Inclusion work and a year of thoughtful and intentional planning, heartfelt commitment, and a belief in supporting transgender storytellers of color and their stories,” said Santos. “We are honored that the Fellows have chosen to share their artistic journeys with us and look forward to continuing our relationship and building community together for years to come.”

Prior to her work on the intensive, Santos partnered with GLAAD to create a transgender awareness training, designed to further knowledge, learning, and understanding about transgender and non-binary people, which would allow the Sundance Institute to continue advancing inclusion for transgender artists, employees, volunteers, and audiences in physical and online spaces, and through programming.

The Institute and GLAAD also recently teamed up with the filmmakers behind Disclosure to build a toolkit geared toward entertainment industry executives and creators, seeking to use the doc as a resource for trans-inclusive storytelling. The resource will be available at this link, starting in November.

More information on the 2021 Trans Possibilities Intensive Fellows and their projects can be found below:

Ava Davis

Ava Davis, also known as the Duchess of Grant Park, is a trans actress, producer/filmmaker, and writer living in Atlanta, Georgia. She is also an advocate for increasing trans and queer representation, especially that of black and other minorities.

The Waltz: Career-driven Claire has fully transitioned into a woman, and finds an unlikely partner who can help her realize her lifelong dream of learning to waltz, but both find themselves unsure of the others’ feelings.

StormMiguel Florez

StormMiguel Florez is a trans, queer Xicane filmmaker, actor, and lifelong musician, whose film work includes documentaries The Whistle (Producer/Director) and MAJOR! (Co-Producer/Editor). He’s originally from Albuquerque, NM and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for 25 years. He lives with his partner and their 3 chihuahuas.

Welcome To Roswell: A middle aged trans filmmaker returns to his father’s birthplace, Roswell, New Mexico to document coming out to his family. His partner’s obsession with the 1947 UFO crash takes him and his film crew in a very different direction.

River Gallo

River Gallo is a GLAAD award-winning Salvadoran-American filmmaker, actor, writer, model and intersex activist. They are the creator and star of the short film Ponyboi (Tribeca 2019) which was the first narrative film created by and starring an out intersex person in cinema history. River is currently developing Ponyboi into a feature film, produced by Ezra Miller. They are represented by CAA and Management 360.

Ponyboi: When a high-profile john expires coitus interruptus, intersex sex worker Ponyboi suddenly finds himself in a fever dream on the run from the New Jersey mob on Valentine’s Day.

Carol Grant

Carol Grant is a screenwriter and Nicholl Quarterfinalist from the San Fernando Valley. Between writing screenplays about queer identities and bodies, she writes for publications like Vice, Indiewire, and Little White Lies. Carol’s stories come from both a trans and a neurodivergent perspective, discovering the thin boundaries between flesh and mind.

Eurydice V: In a decaying Earth, a troubled mercenary must smuggle a young, illegal clone that’s escaped from her creator through a dystopian Mexico to a sanctuary on a colonized moon.

Mitchell (MiSha) Owens

Born and raised just outside of the Navajo Nation I’ve always wanted to tell stories that would resonate with audiences. Whether it be raw, and gritty, or light hearted and comical, I want my stories to remain authentically real by staying true to who I am as a TransFeminine individual.

The Boy from Across Town: After a late night hook up, a small town Drag Performer gets caught up in an old classmate’s involvement with the local drug cartel.

Savannah Ward

Savannah Ward is a Black trans/non-binary writer who’s currently an Executive Story Editor on Cruel Summer, the thriller drama series produced by Jessica Biel for Freeform. In their spare time, Savannah writes Horror features because, “what is more horrific than being a Black, queer, trans person in America?”

Meta: Insecure about his masculinity, Black transgender teen Jake, aims to be a star athlete and transfers schools to run on the Boys Cross Country team. But when he discovers that most of his teammates are a pack of bloodthirsty, toxically masculine Werewolves, Jake must define what it means to be a man for himself.

Best of Deadline

• The Most-Watched Netflix TV Shows & Movies - Update

• Halloween 2021 Programming: Frightening Films & TV Shows On Cable And Screaming - Er, Streaming - This October

• Emmy Predictions 2022: What Could Be Grabbing The Gold A Year From Now?

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.