By Monique
(L-R) Alexandra Grey and Alex MacNicoll in The Comfort Zone.
Audiences have been asking for better queer representation, especially in a post-Pose world. The Comfort Zone, a short film written, directed, and produced by Ran Yatim with fellow producers Fresh Carreras and Vasilios Papapitsios, aims to help close the gap. The film is currently crowdfunding with a $15,000 goal to help complete post-production.
According to its Seed & Spark page, The Comfort Zone focuses on a cis-male tax attorney “who is reawakened from his static existence when an aspiring Black trans rockstar comes crashing into his world.” The film is described as 10 minutes of action, “like a neon rollercoaster ride, scored along a pyschedelic & hard rock highway.”
Check out the fundraising video and teaser trailer below:
The film’s team includes LGBT and women of color crew and cast, with Transparent and Empire‘s Alexandra Grey as the lead, a rocker named Star. As Star, Grey continues to create a path for trans women in entertainment, and acts “as a role model and activist to empower other Black Trans women and the LGBTQIA community.” Starring alongside Grey is Transparent and The Society star Alex McNicoll, who uses his career as an “outspoken ally to both the LGBTQIA and Black communities.”
“With trans women being attacked by cis males globally, across the world, it is important to empower and normalize them and their relationships,” wrote Yatim in his director’s statement. “The power in filmmaking is that we can design the human perception and reinvent a narrative to create new heroes to inspire us. I would love to see this film shown in festivals all over the world, for people to unite, and be inspired from the journey of Caleb and Star.”
“Visibility and representation on screen is more important now than ever,” said Papapitsios in an email. “For the trans community, especially for Black trans women and the cis men who love them, they deserve a platform for immediate change… Here we have the ability to tell an unconditional love story that normalizes relationships between people of different identities.”
You can help fund The Comfort Zone at Seed & Spark. You can also keep up with the film’s progress on Instagram.
Julian 