Framing Agnes

Last updated
Framing Agnes
Framing Agnes poster.jpg
Film poster
Directed by Chase Joynt
Written byChase Joynt
Morgan M. Page
Produced bySamantha Curley
Shant Joshi
Starring Angelica Ross
Zackary Drucker
Jen Richards
Max Wolf Valerio
Silas Howard
Stephen Ira
CinematographyAubree Bernier-Clarke
Edited byCecilio Escobar
Brooke Sebold
Production
companies
Fae Pictures
Level Ground
Release date
  • January 22, 2022 (2022-01-22)(Sundance)
Running time
75 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
Box office$48,147 [1] [2]

Framing Agnes is a 2022 Canadian documentary film, directed by Chase Joynt. [3] An examination of transgender histories, the film centres on Joynt and a cast of transgender actors reenacting various case studies from Harold Garfinkel's work with transgender clients at the University of California, Los Angeles. [4]

Contents

Synopsis

The film explores the concept of the trans icon. It uses a hybrid format, combining scholarly analysis with clips based on archived interviews, filmed with transgender actors.

Background

The film is an expansion of Joynt's short film of the same title, which premiered in 2019. [3] [4]

Cast

The cast includes Angelica Ross, Zackary Drucker, Jen Richards, Max Wolf Valerio, Silas Howard and Stephen Ira. [5]

Release and reception

The film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, [3] where Joynt won both the Audience Award and the Innovator Prize in the NEXT program. [6] In a critical review in Paste , Shayna Maci Warner wrote, "As a cinematic experience, the film feels pulled in several directions, formally incomplete and jagged." [4] IndieWire's review was similarly mixed, commenting negatively on the high proportion of academic content in the documentary, making it "feel more a history class than a story." [7]

The film was longlisted for the Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award, [8] and shortlisted for the DGC Allan King Award for Best Documentary Film at the 2022 Directors Guild of Canada awards. [9]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 80% of 40 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.4/10.The website's consensus reads: "Framing Agnes may be frustratingly uneven as a work of cinematic storytelling, but that's often outweighed by its thoughtful expansion of established historical narrative." [10] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 69 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [11]

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References

  1. ↑ "Framing Agnes (2022)". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  2. ↑ "Framing Agnes (2022)". The Numbers . Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 Sharp, Morgan (January 31, 2022). "Toronto filmmaker Chase Joynt on framing Agnes". Toronto Star .
  4. 1 2 3 Warner, Shayna Maci (January 30, 2022). "The Intriguing Ideas and Rich Source Material of Framing Agnes Are Obscured by Its Own Meta". Paste .
  5. ↑ Knegt, Peter (January 28, 2022). "The extraordinary new film Framing Agnes interrogates how trans stories are told — and by whom". CBC News .
  6. ↑ Townsend, Kelly (January 31, 2022). "Framing Agnes wins two prizes at Sundance". Playback .
  7. ↑ Dry, Jude (January 28, 2022). "'Framing Agnes' Review: High Concept Trans Documentary Is Too Meta for Its Own Good". IndieWire. Retrieved February 20, 2022.
  8. ↑ "Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award Long List Drops at Visionaries". Yahoo! Movies. September 11, 2022.
  9. ↑ Vlessing, Etan (September 23, 2022). "DGC Awards: 'Nightmare Alley,' 'Crimes of the Future,' 'Night Raiders' Lead Nominees". The Hollywood Reporter .
  10. ↑ "Framing Agnes". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved 17 June 2023.
  11. ↑ "Framing Agnes". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
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