Wachowski is — along with her sister, Lana — the most powerful and influential trans filmmaker around. The 58-year-old had gifted us “The Matrix” series, “Bound” and “Sensse8,” to name a few, and yet, after her critically acclaimed series “Work in Progress,” about a middle-aged lesbian who begins dating a much younger trans man, was canceled by Showtime after two seasons, she spent years pitching “cool and queer trans stories” to Hollywood but couldn’t find a single taker.
So, Wachowski took matters into her own hands, joining forces with Bay Area film programmer Sarah Marie Flores and producer Lawrence Mattis to form Anarchists United Foundation and Anarchists United Studio with the mission of championing stories from marginalized communities. Here’s how it works: The foundation provides grants and fellowships to aspiring filmmakers, mentorships via its Directors Prep & Pitch Lab and office space courtesy of United Spaces of Anarchy, while helping fund the studio. Anarchists United’s first project is “Cassie Workman Is Witchy AF,” a DIY docuseries that features the trans Aussie comic exploring the history of the occultism and magic with her trademark wit. It will debut Sept. 16 on YouTube.
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What compelled you to form Anarchists United Foundation and Anarchists United Studios?
The story is: I was talking to Sarah Marie Flores, who is our third in the triumvirate of the Anarchists — between me and Lawrence Mattis — and was coming out of this TV show that I’d worked on that I was really proud of, “Work in Progress,” which went for two seasons, got on all these top ten lists and didn’t get the viewing numbers that the studio wanted, so we were summarily canceled and a few months later pulled from streaming. This rankled me. There was something particularly special about working on “Work in Progress” to me: It was the first time I was able to cast as many trans and queer people as I did, and in all of that representation and seeing all these people onscreen who I’d never gotten to see before, I was like, This is something that makes sticking around in the business worthwhile. So, when Showtime turned around and canceled the show even though it was so critically acclaimed and really made for peanuts, it lit a fire under me. I saw all these windows closing and opportunities dwindling for marginalized voices, and I was like, “Somebody needs to do something about this. Somebody needs to make another attempt at the old United Artists model where it would be an artist-run studio.” And Sarah said, “That someone is us.”
Have you re-read those books as an adult?
Here’s the excerpt from the interview for context:
… she even says it, “all that money goes into funding anti-trans legislation.”
I bought the books two decades ago. Twenty years. She hasn’t seen a dime of mine since.
This is a problem particularly unique to the trans community I’ve discovered. There is no reason to split people like this, two things can be true.
I can like Harry Potter. AND boycott her. I can like Tesla cars (except the cybertruck), but I boycott purchasing from Tesla.
If you are boycotting her, then it sounds like you’re not what they were talking about.
Have you re-read those books as an adult? I’m honestly asking you this.
Yes. They are not good, I won’t argue that they are. I like them. I like the story, I like the world.
And she espoused quite a few bigoted things in them. If you ask me, it was an excellent opportunity to discuss with my son how those statements and views are harmful.
But more importantly, I like them because my elementary school child has read all 7 books over the past two years, comprehended them, and was able to discuss them with me.
None of that changes JK Rowling. None of that refunds the $24.99 the hardcover book I bought in 2007.
There are some cooler worlds. Terry Prachett and Discworld, as well as the Wings of Fire series come to mind.
My middle school son has an entire bookshelf he keeps a mess, full of books and none of them are harry potter. Your kid gets older, they may now seek out harry potter because you formed the nastoglia in them now too. My son saw a Wings of Fire shirt in a store and went bananas for it. What if your child asks for a hairy (hehe) potter theme party? you gonna do it?
It could go- “my mom/dad/parent says I cant watch the show because the author is bad, but I read all the books and loved them” well now you made it taboo too and the child might go behind your back to sneak content on it.
My sister is trans. She used to be the biggest hp fan. She used to make dope wooden magic wands and sell them. She fucking stopped and changed her income stream. She doesnt have the books in her house, and she certainly isnt introducing the series to youth so that it can live on.
This woman is fucking funny. Like basically shipping Dumbledore with a German archenemy (I forgot his fucking name) – so titillating her fanbase – he but in the end kills in a duel at the height of WWII. Then afterwards the books starts to spend so much time online, especially Xitter, supposedly interacting with her fanbase up to the point she got enough fascist Murdochian Fox News Limbaugh brainrot and convinced she must have the likes of Farage and neo-Mosley fuckheads go about scouring the Isles in a pogrom of the trans.
I like how she walked back the hard-line black and white division with this last part, when it pertains to something that almost everybody, including herself, use. Nonono, Lilly, you gotta say “ban all gas and non-electric cars” to truly alienate your audience!
The complete lack of nuance in any discussion like this is exactly the point peopleproblems was getting at. I get that she’s angry at J.K. Rowling for being a transphobic piece of shit. Hell, I don’t even disagree with her saying to stop giving money to her.
But, I can also separate the art from the artist, and do so in a manner that separates Rowling when she wrote the books, and when she decided that TERFdom is part of her identity. I’m not going to immediately boycott anything Daniel Radcliff has done or will do, because I’m sure he wasn’t aware of that side of Rowling. Like, how many levels of indirection is good enough?
And no, I’m not going to watch the new series, because it’s unnecessary, and yea, I don’t want to support a rich transphobic piece of shit.
That’s because it’s almost impossible to not buy gas, at least in the US. Harry Potter isn’t a necessity in that way.
Nuance. That’s exactly what im getting at. The lack of nuance is what’s frustrating.
There is absolutely no reason to give bigots more to separate people from supporting eachother.
I don’t go around saying that folks who enjoy HP are necessarily transphobes, but I do take issue with people spreading, popularizing, and financially supporting it. That money is being directly used to attack trans people and even fund lawsuits that silence accurate reporting from advocacy organizations. You’re not necessarily my enemy because you like HP, but you are funding someone who means me and people like me harm. There is room for nuance there, but nuance is part of a conversation, not just a word to throw around to shut it down.
Calling on people to make better choices isn’t an attempt to drive them away, but an invitation to work together.