IDentity
Los Angeles, California | Film Feature
Documentary, LGBTQ
Donating to “IDentity” is a simple way of supporting the transgender community as we advocate for our human right to have legal identification that reflects our true identity. Every dollar counts against the transphobic hate campaigns & rampant misinformation endangering trans lives every day.
IDentity
Los Angeles, California | Film Feature
Documentary, LGBTQ
1 Campaigns | California, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $8,015 for development. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
26 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
Donating to “IDentity” is a simple way of supporting the transgender community as we advocate for our human right to have legal identification that reflects our true identity. Every dollar counts against the transphobic hate campaigns & rampant misinformation endangering trans lives every day.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
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The first time I ever faced conflict over my ID not matching my gender expression was with a lunch lady who felt I was "tricking" her with my high school ID 7 years ago. The last time was a week ago before watching Despicable Me 4 at AMC when the guy at concessions boldly said my deadname after scanning my A-list pass.
Awkward. Aaaaand uncomfortable. That's how I would describe most of those experiences as a transgender person whose ID ('female' name and gender marker) contradicts what people perceive my gender to be ('male' presenting). While I've had my fair share of more dangerous scenarios, I've also used my outdated ID to my advantage before to get into college parties where guys have to be on the invite list (although my beard nowadays would come in the way of such tricks - but hey, I guess I embraced the trickster after all).
All of this to say, there are so many stories that need to be told under the umbrella of this specific trans experience - and certainly not just my own!
.jpg)
I'm embarking on a nationwide journey to collect these stories and paint a better, more honest picture of what our survival looks like in the face of rising bigotry and phenomenons like "ID anxiety."
As state legislators continue barring access to name/gender marker changes across the US and trans individuals keep experiencing life-threatening violence, it’s more important than ever to bring attention to the problem of legal identification as it pertains to the trans community.
Legal documents, dozens of random but life-changing papers, little pieces of plastic with our faces on them - all these inescapable annoyances essential to the fabric of our society - are also essential to ensuring the physical, emotional, & mental safety of trans people daily. Unfortunately, there’s a hate-fueled campaign raging across the US specifically targeting the trans community, which is being reflected in legislation that targets access to healthcare for both children & adults, LGBTQ+ education, and of course, legal recognition. If you visit this link you can track the 600+ anti-trans bills introduced in 2024 so far and whether they’ve passed or failed.
What exactly is their goal?
To slowly, but surely, push trans people out of society by turning people and institutions hostile toward them. They will not stop until our existence is made too difficult and dangerous to live or thrive.
What's OUR goal?
Our film strives to achieve the following 3 impacts:
I) Increase Access + Awareness
Expanding awareness of crucial resources helping trans people with name/gender marker changes in the US while drawing a fine line between reality & the false propaganda spread against the trans community.
II) Art = Therapy
The way we visually construct traumatic & anxiety-inducing narratives doesn’t have to be graphic & retraumatizing. The film’s production & the experience of watching it will be rooted in therapeutic practice & truth.
III) Radically Reimagine
Adopting a new perspective of what true freedom looks like for trans people & taking control of our narrative.
"IDentity" is a biographical documentary that centers the lives of 4 young trans individuals in the US - the film’s director (me!), Lau Rodriguez (23), photographer Anakin Bond (22), filmmaker Casey Fleming (21), and visual artist Che Caplan (27). While the end product is a story to be told to the masses, "IDentity" serves first as a space for trans people to reflect on our experiences growing up, transitioning, and navigating a complex society. It’s through these stories that the topic of the film is contextualized & understood: the phenomenon of legal identification in American society as it pertains to the transgender community. “IDentity” is framed by the question: what does it look like to be a trans person in the US surviving a society that?
The main subjects of the film will be accompanied by other minor interview subjects that represent the organizations & experts that are focused on answering this film’s second core question: what can be done to help & accommodate trans people in the US? That includes people like the ones working at California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) who perform outreach with local LGBTQ+ centers across rural CA and state legislators in Illinois who recently laid the groundwork for changing out-of-state birth certificates. Uplifting these kinds of subjects showcases the network of support trans people can tap into when needed - they’re essential to our story too.
All the core subjects are different kinds of artists who use their respective mediums to explore their identities, experiences, & emotions, so everyone’s art will undoubtedly be incorporated & adapted throughout the film to enhance the story & at times, tell it.
(image above from The Mission (2024), image below from Origin (2023))
1) Repurposed live-action recreations shot through a trans perspective
- Recreations will genre-bend, often utilizing an absurdist, magical realist style to simulate anxiety
- Locations/Scenarios: doctor’s office, the bank, a pharmacy, a bar, a grocery store, the airport, etc
2) No Trauma Rule!
- By keeping many of these circumstances whimsical yet grounded in their core truths, we avoid reliving traumatizing moments for the trans audience enjoying the film, and instead, present a more surreal version of those anxieties without compromising the important messages for cisgender audiences.
3) Mixed-media approach
- Animation for recreations and dream-building
- Regular interviews
- Archival footage from subjects
- Immersive sound without visuals
- Vlog-style footage paying homage to pioneering trans YouTubers
4) The incorporation of artistic mediums in the film’s storytelling
- Honoring Lau’s history in the poetry medium & the other mediums the subjects have adopted throughout the years, the film will bring their art to life through animation, recreations, live performance, & abstract imagery
Our production plans are ambitious, involving a good amount of travel, staged shoots, animation, & labor costs we'd like to properly compensate our crew for. We're planning on our best-case scenario: $150k! But we don't expect to make that right off the bat.
(from left to right: Thread (2019), Beau is Afraid (2023), The Mission (2023))
To ensure we're able to bring all our ideas to fruition in the long term, we've divided our production & fundraising plan into 3 phases, starting with the things we find most attainable. This Seed & Spark campaign is the first small-scale fundraiser we're launching that will allow us to shoot 30-40% of our planned footage. We're keeping our goal small because we're capable of achieving more with less! Below is a breakdown of our prospective timeline. Check out our campaign wishlist to see what specific items we're fundraising for this time around!
1) PHASE I:
May - October 2024
- FUNDRAISING:
- Seed & Spark fundraiser
- Hosting in-person fundraising events
- Applying to development & production grants
- Securing a fiscal sponsor
- PRODUCTION:
- Main Subject Interviews
- Start shooting live-action recreations
- Begin storyboards & early animation
- Start editing longer sample cut
2) PHASE II:
November - March 2025
- FINANCING:
- Applying to post-production grants & labs
- Mid-scale, fiscally sponsored fundraiser
- Reach out to other production companies + distributors
- PRODUCTION:
- Secondary subject interviews
- Finish shooting live-action recreations
- Rough sequences for animation
3) PHASE III:
April - September 2025
- FINANCING:
- Pride month, post-production fundraiser
- PRODUCTION/POST
- Final pick-ups
- Late April: Rough Cut!!!
- Start & finish sound design
- Early July: Picture Lock!!!
- Scoring, sound mix, & color
- End of August: Final Export!!!
Party of 7 Productions is a queer-led collective based out of Los Angeles specializing in short-form media production & event videography. Founded in 2023 after the group graduated from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, Party of 7 Productions is excited to expand from the music videos, short films, and wedding recaps they’ve been hired to produce so far. “IDentity” is the company’s first original feature film & documentary.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
August Roadtrip (FL-GA-NY)
Costs $2,500
Help us make our road trip dreams a reality by covering lodging, food, & gas as we make our way around the East Coast for interviews.
Labor
Costs $3,000
We'd love to pay our DP, editor, & producers for the hard work they've invested into the project this past summer & upcoming fall.
Storyboard Artist
Costs $300
A storyboard artist will build a guideline for our DP & animators in our initial round of recreations/animation sequences.
Live-Action Recreation
Costs $2,500
After our road trip, we'd love to have funds left over to produce our first live-action recreation scene (facing the bully lunch lady).
Key Animator
Costs $1,700
Hiring a key animator early on would elevate the quality of our project very early-on. This covers about 2-3 minutes of animation.
Share this update!
About This Team
Lau Rodriguez
Director, Producer, & Editor
Born & raised in sunny South Florida, Lau Rodriguez (he/they) is a Colombian-American filmmaker currently based in Los Angeles as an editor, director, colorist, & producer. His experience growing up as a low-income, Latine trans person inspires him to infuse all his work with honesty, vulnerability, & reality, never forgetting a healthy dose of existential humor & the 3-point mantra: “Emotion, Rhythm, & Story.” He has a special interest in stories about gender & power-based harm, personal autonomy, complicated socioeconomic conditions, & family/community. Although Lau’s not married to any particular genre, he’s passionate about utilizing darkly comedic, thrilling, & melodramatic tones to convey the bolder messages in his fictional work, while adopting a more sensitive, humble approach to non-fiction storytelling. His most recent short documentary, “Hombre Sin Razon,” is currently on the festival circuit, having premiered at San Diego Latino Film Festival in March 2024.
Cat Johnson
Producer
Cat Johnson (she/her) is a queer filmmaker originally from San Diego and currently residing in Los Angeles, California. In the Spring of 2023 after graduating from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts with a BFA in Film Production and a minor in Screenwriting, she and six of her peers founded Party of Seven Productions, an independent, queer-led film production company. Through this collective and beyond, Cat has written, directed, produced, sound mixed, and art directed a wide range of films, some of which have gone on to win numerous awards at festivals including LA Shorts International, OUTFEST LA, Cleveland International, and the 43rd College Television Awards. Cat loves to play with various genres and is particularly drawn to stories regarding family dynamics, the nuances of one’s social/familial role versus the individual, and physical and mental isolation. When she’s not writing, producing, or directing, (or even when she is) she’s working diligently as a sound editor/designer/mixer for independent films and a part-time sound mixer for USC thesis films.
Jess Garcia
Producer
Jess Grace Garcia (they/them) is a Los Angeles based biracial, Latiné cinematographer, director and producer and founder of their production company Springwood Productions founded in 2008. Most of their film career has been spent working in the music industry helping artists and businesses tell their stories and connect to their audiences. Working with names like Matt Greiner from August Burns Red, Christina Grimmie, Vic Firth, DW Drums, Miss Maryland 2018 and Reverbnation. Jess has a heart for healing, connection and growth and brings that into all that they do primarily in LGBTQ spaces. Jess has a unique perspective having also spent time in ministry as a pastor while being trans, poly and queer. Jess has most notably worked on the critically acclaimed documentary “1946” as the original cinematographer, DP for feature film “Viscera” in 2018 and done Full color work on Feature film “Barn Burner” Documentary.
Kay Ambrose
Associate Producer
With an unwavering commitment to authenticity and honesty, Kaylin Ambrose (they/them) has a profound passion for storytelling in all aspects. Through their lens, Kaylin embarks on a cinematic journey to illuminate the multifaceted experiences of Black and LGBTQ+ individuals in the hopes of resonating with audiences worldwide.
B
Cinematographer
B (he/they) is a Creative Director with the mission of uniting people by telling underrepresented stories through film, music videos, and digital media. B grew up in Russia, and even though the influence of Tarkovsky and Russian literature was beautiful and life-changing, he had very little support when they came out as trans. After feeling ostracized in his own community, B has dedicated his life and career to one mission: uplift the voices that are often muted.
Pat Shafer
Composer
Pat Shafer is a filmmaker & composer based in Los Angeles. He comes from a mixed-race family in Miami, and is a proud transgender man. He composes music that transcends genre, but particularly enjoys synth and soul. He has a background in marketing and holds an MFA in Film Production from Florida State University.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
The first time I ever faced conflict over my ID not matching my gender expression was with a lunch lady who felt I was "tricking" her with my high school ID 7 years ago. The last time was a week ago before watching Despicable Me 4 at AMC when the guy at concessions boldly said my deadname after scanning my A-list pass.
Awkward. Aaaaand uncomfortable. That's how I would describe most of those experiences as a transgender person whose ID ('female' name and gender marker) contradicts what people perceive my gender to be ('male' presenting). While I've had my fair share of more dangerous scenarios, I've also used my outdated ID to my advantage before to get into college parties where guys have to be on the invite list (although my beard nowadays would come in the way of such tricks - but hey, I guess I embraced the trickster after all).
All of this to say, there are so many stories that need to be told under the umbrella of this specific trans experience - and certainly not just my own!
I'm embarking on a nationwide journey to collect these stories and paint a better, more honest picture of what our survival looks like in the face of rising bigotry and phenomenons like "ID anxiety."
As state legislators continue barring access to name/gender marker changes across the US and trans individuals keep experiencing life-threatening violence, it’s more important than ever to bring attention to the problem of legal identification as it pertains to the trans community.
Legal documents, dozens of random but life-changing papers, little pieces of plastic with our faces on them - all these inescapable annoyances essential to the fabric of our society - are also essential to ensuring the physical, emotional, & mental safety of trans people daily. Unfortunately, there’s a hate-fueled campaign raging across the US specifically targeting the trans community, which is being reflected in legislation that targets access to healthcare for both children & adults, LGBTQ+ education, and of course, legal recognition. If you visit this link you can track the 600+ anti-trans bills introduced in 2024 so far and whether they’ve passed or failed.
What exactly is their goal?
To slowly, but surely, push trans people out of society by turning people and institutions hostile toward them. They will not stop until our existence is made too difficult and dangerous to live or thrive.
What's OUR goal?
Our film strives to achieve the following 3 impacts:
I) Increase Access + Awareness
Expanding awareness of crucial resources helping trans people with name/gender marker changes in the US while drawing a fine line between reality & the false propaganda spread against the trans community.
II) Art = Therapy
The way we visually construct traumatic & anxiety-inducing narratives doesn’t have to be graphic & retraumatizing. The film’s production & the experience of watching it will be rooted in therapeutic practice & truth.
III) Radically Reimagine
Adopting a new perspective of what true freedom looks like for trans people & taking control of our narrative.
"IDentity" is a biographical documentary that centers the lives of 4 young trans individuals in the US - the film’s director (me!), Lau Rodriguez (23), photographer Anakin Bond (22), filmmaker Casey Fleming (21), and visual artist Che Caplan (27). While the end product is a story to be told to the masses, "IDentity" serves first as a space for trans people to reflect on our experiences growing up, transitioning, and navigating a complex society. It’s through these stories that the topic of the film is contextualized & understood: the phenomenon of legal identification in American society as it pertains to the transgender community. “IDentity” is framed by the question: what does it look like to be a trans person in the US surviving a society that?
The main subjects of the film will be accompanied by other minor interview subjects that represent the organizations & experts that are focused on answering this film’s second core question: what can be done to help & accommodate trans people in the US? That includes people like the ones working at California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) who perform outreach with local LGBTQ+ centers across rural CA and state legislators in Illinois who recently laid the groundwork for changing out-of-state birth certificates. Uplifting these kinds of subjects showcases the network of support trans people can tap into when needed - they’re essential to our story too.
All the core subjects are different kinds of artists who use their respective mediums to explore their identities, experiences, & emotions, so everyone’s art will undoubtedly be incorporated & adapted throughout the film to enhance the story & at times, tell it.
(image above from The Mission (2024), image below from Origin (2023))
1) Repurposed live-action recreations shot through a trans perspective
- Recreations will genre-bend, often utilizing an absurdist, magical realist style to simulate anxiety
- Locations/Scenarios: doctor’s office, the bank, a pharmacy, a bar, a grocery store, the airport, etc
2) No Trauma Rule!
- By keeping many of these circumstances whimsical yet grounded in their core truths, we avoid reliving traumatizing moments for the trans audience enjoying the film, and instead, present a more surreal version of those anxieties without compromising the important messages for cisgender audiences.
3) Mixed-media approach
- Animation for recreations and dream-building
- Regular interviews
- Archival footage from subjects
- Immersive sound without visuals
- Vlog-style footage paying homage to pioneering trans YouTubers
4) The incorporation of artistic mediums in the film’s storytelling
- Honoring Lau’s history in the poetry medium & the other mediums the subjects have adopted throughout the years, the film will bring their art to life through animation, recreations, live performance, & abstract imagery
Our production plans are ambitious, involving a good amount of travel, staged shoots, animation, & labor costs we'd like to properly compensate our crew for. We're planning on our best-case scenario: $150k! But we don't expect to make that right off the bat.
(from left to right: Thread (2019), Beau is Afraid (2023), The Mission (2023))
To ensure we're able to bring all our ideas to fruition in the long term, we've divided our production & fundraising plan into 3 phases, starting with the things we find most attainable. This Seed & Spark campaign is the first small-scale fundraiser we're launching that will allow us to shoot 30-40% of our planned footage. We're keeping our goal small because we're capable of achieving more with less! Below is a breakdown of our prospective timeline. Check out our campaign wishlist to see what specific items we're fundraising for this time around!
1) PHASE I:
May - October 2024
- FUNDRAISING:
- Seed & Spark fundraiser
- Hosting in-person fundraising events
- Applying to development & production grants
- Securing a fiscal sponsor
- PRODUCTION:
- Main Subject Interviews
- Start shooting live-action recreations
- Begin storyboards & early animation
- Start editing longer sample cut
2) PHASE II:
November - March 2025
- FINANCING:
- Applying to post-production grants & labs
- Mid-scale, fiscally sponsored fundraiser
- Reach out to other production companies + distributors
- PRODUCTION:
- Secondary subject interviews
- Finish shooting live-action recreations
- Rough sequences for animation
3) PHASE III:
April - September 2025
- FINANCING:
- Pride month, post-production fundraiser
- PRODUCTION/POST
- Final pick-ups
- Late April: Rough Cut!!!
- Start & finish sound design
- Early July: Picture Lock!!!
- Scoring, sound mix, & color
- End of August: Final Export!!!
Party of 7 Productions is a queer-led collective based out of Los Angeles specializing in short-form media production & event videography. Founded in 2023 after the group graduated from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, Party of 7 Productions is excited to expand from the music videos, short films, and wedding recaps they’ve been hired to produce so far. “IDentity” is the company’s first original feature film & documentary.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
August Roadtrip (FL-GA-NY)
Costs $2,500
Help us make our road trip dreams a reality by covering lodging, food, & gas as we make our way around the East Coast for interviews.
Labor
Costs $3,000
We'd love to pay our DP, editor, & producers for the hard work they've invested into the project this past summer & upcoming fall.
Storyboard Artist
Costs $300
A storyboard artist will build a guideline for our DP & animators in our initial round of recreations/animation sequences.
Live-Action Recreation
Costs $2,500
After our road trip, we'd love to have funds left over to produce our first live-action recreation scene (facing the bully lunch lady).
Key Animator
Costs $1,700
Hiring a key animator early on would elevate the quality of our project very early-on. This covers about 2-3 minutes of animation.
Share this update!
About This Team
Lau Rodriguez
Director, Producer, & Editor
Born & raised in sunny South Florida, Lau Rodriguez (he/they) is a Colombian-American filmmaker currently based in Los Angeles as an editor, director, colorist, & producer. His experience growing up as a low-income, Latine trans person inspires him to infuse all his work with honesty, vulnerability, & reality, never forgetting a healthy dose of existential humor & the 3-point mantra: “Emotion, Rhythm, & Story.” He has a special interest in stories about gender & power-based harm, personal autonomy, complicated socioeconomic conditions, & family/community. Although Lau’s not married to any particular genre, he’s passionate about utilizing darkly comedic, thrilling, & melodramatic tones to convey the bolder messages in his fictional work, while adopting a more sensitive, humble approach to non-fiction storytelling. His most recent short documentary, “Hombre Sin Razon,” is currently on the festival circuit, having premiered at San Diego Latino Film Festival in March 2024.
Cat Johnson
Producer
Cat Johnson (she/her) is a queer filmmaker originally from San Diego and currently residing in Los Angeles, California. In the Spring of 2023 after graduating from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts with a BFA in Film Production and a minor in Screenwriting, she and six of her peers founded Party of Seven Productions, an independent, queer-led film production company. Through this collective and beyond, Cat has written, directed, produced, sound mixed, and art directed a wide range of films, some of which have gone on to win numerous awards at festivals including LA Shorts International, OUTFEST LA, Cleveland International, and the 43rd College Television Awards. Cat loves to play with various genres and is particularly drawn to stories regarding family dynamics, the nuances of one’s social/familial role versus the individual, and physical and mental isolation. When she’s not writing, producing, or directing, (or even when she is) she’s working diligently as a sound editor/designer/mixer for independent films and a part-time sound mixer for USC thesis films.
Jess Garcia
Producer
Jess Grace Garcia (they/them) is a Los Angeles based biracial, Latiné cinematographer, director and producer and founder of their production company Springwood Productions founded in 2008. Most of their film career has been spent working in the music industry helping artists and businesses tell their stories and connect to their audiences. Working with names like Matt Greiner from August Burns Red, Christina Grimmie, Vic Firth, DW Drums, Miss Maryland 2018 and Reverbnation. Jess has a heart for healing, connection and growth and brings that into all that they do primarily in LGBTQ spaces. Jess has a unique perspective having also spent time in ministry as a pastor while being trans, poly and queer. Jess has most notably worked on the critically acclaimed documentary “1946” as the original cinematographer, DP for feature film “Viscera” in 2018 and done Full color work on Feature film “Barn Burner” Documentary.
Kay Ambrose
Associate Producer
With an unwavering commitment to authenticity and honesty, Kaylin Ambrose (they/them) has a profound passion for storytelling in all aspects. Through their lens, Kaylin embarks on a cinematic journey to illuminate the multifaceted experiences of Black and LGBTQ+ individuals in the hopes of resonating with audiences worldwide.
B
Cinematographer
B (he/they) is a Creative Director with the mission of uniting people by telling underrepresented stories through film, music videos, and digital media. B grew up in Russia, and even though the influence of Tarkovsky and Russian literature was beautiful and life-changing, he had very little support when they came out as trans. After feeling ostracized in his own community, B has dedicated his life and career to one mission: uplift the voices that are often muted.
Pat Shafer
Composer
Pat Shafer is a filmmaker & composer based in Los Angeles. He comes from a mixed-race family in Miami, and is a proud transgender man. He composes music that transcends genre, but particularly enjoys synth and soul. He has a background in marketing and holds an MFA in Film Production from Florida State University.